After being sworn in as New York City’s mayor just after midnight of the New Year, a more public inaugural took place on Thursday where democratic socialist and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders administered the oath of office with Mamdani’s hand on a Quran.
Following the event, the 34-year-old Mamdani went straight to work, revoking multiple executive orders that were issued by former mayor Eric Adams after September 26, 2024, the day Adams was indicted on corruption charges.
In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, Mamdani ran on a focused platform that included promises of free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.
The reaction from MAGA/Putin shills was unsurprising.
The pearl-clutching was focused on Mamdani’s use of the word “collectivism,” as they use descriptors such as “chilling” and “horrific” in comparisons to Russian communism.
Even Russians got in on the act:
Friend of Trump negotiator Steve Witkoff and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev addressed Mamdani as “comrade” with a “friendly reminder that this has been tried before.”
Mamdani insists he is up for this challenge.
“They want to know if the left can govern. They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved. They want to know if it is right to hope again,” he said. “So, standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New Yorkers do better than anyone else: We will set an example for the world.”