Zohran Mamdani’s 2020 Twitter meltdowns shows he’s no leader —socialist threatens to bring NYC back to bad old days

In moments of crisis, leaders should be calm and dignified. They should inspire confidence and foster unity.

How did mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani react to the crisis that was 2020? Apparently by having an all out meltdown on social media. 

Unearthed tweets show the mayoral candidate — who has never worked for a city or run anything in his life — justifying the burning of Minneapolis, flipping off Columbus statues and calling for defunding the NYPD when chaotic protests were rocking the city.

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2020 was a moment of mass psychosis — when white Americans were washing the feet of black Americans, and everyone was frantically posting a black square to their Instagram account to prove they aren’t racist.

Mamdani may be smiling wide in his campaign ads, but his past reveals his propensity to twist the knife in moments of tension.

On May 29th, Mamdani responded to a post about businesses burning in Minneapolis riots after the murder of George Floyd — by suggesting that the destruction and devastation “has to happen.”

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“While politicians & pundits condemn the uprising in Minneapolis from TV studios thousands of miles away, those at the center of it — even those who are hurting — understand why it’s happening,” he wrote on his X account. “And why it has to happen. Black + brown solidarity will overcome white supremacy.”

On June 17th, Mamdani, apparently walking around the city in plastic gloves in an attempt to ward off Covid-19, photographed himself flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus in Astoria. He added the caption, “Take it down.”

And, as violent protests rocked New York City following George Floyd’s murder, Mamdani took to Twitter — not to condemn the violence, but to condemn the police officers attempting to restore order.

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On June 8, Mamdani argued on X that “the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.”

In November of that year, he also asserted that “queer liberation means defund the police.” Whatever that means.

And on June 23, Mamdani, who was then running for state assembly, tweeted that “another world really is possible. Together, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police & build a socialist New York. Solidarity forever.”

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And for good measure, in late May of 2020, he threw out the classic Marxist slogan: “Each according to their need, each according to their ability.”

Mamdani’s 2020 freakout shows that he’s no leader — he’s a follower who is liable to get sucked into whatever performative moral panic is fashionable. What sort of normal sane adult walks around giving the gloved middle finger to inanimate statues?

Indulging in the trendy calls to tear down monuments that represent our country’s history — warts and all — shows just how much respect he has for our nation. 

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And calling to defund the police in a moment when their services were needed perhaps more than ever to maintain order as protests devolved into mass looting and violence, shows that Mamdani’s allegiance is to the abstraction of “racial justice,” not the peace and safety of his city.

All the while, he cheered on the burning and plundering of immigrant-owned businesses in Minneapolis. Would he say the same as mayor if BLM activists set his city aflame in the name of “justice”?

If he’s elected, we risk having a leader who succumbs to the hysteria of crowds. And we also risk bringing back the politics of grievance that defined the pandemic era and divided the city along political, ethnic and religious lines.

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We don’t want New York to go back to anything like it was in 2020 — when our differences set us apart.

For all his flaws, Eric Adams has at least made an effort to appeal to New Yorkers of differing backgrounds and political persuasions as mayor.

And, until the nursing home death count scandal, Andrew Cuomo emerged as a national voice of reason and authority when the pandemic hit New York early and hard.

Mamdani’s 2020 performance demonstrates his utter inability to inspire confidence, to heal divides, and to put people before politics. And it might just be a taste of what is to come.