Comedian Michael Rapaport mocks NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani as 'Zohran the moron'
Rapaport called Mamdani "Zohran the Moron," pronouncing his first name so it rhymes with moron, and vowing that he would not leave his home city even if the democratic socialist candidate became mayor.
"I've heard a lot of people say that if Zohran the Moron wins the election, you're going to leave New York. New Yorkers, if Zohran the Moron wins the election, don't go anywhere," he said, telling them not to let him run them out of their city.
Mamdani's primary win has caused alarm among Jewish New Yorkers because of the candidate's rhetoric and stances surrounding Israel. During an interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, Mamdani refused to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada."
After receiving blowback for refusing to denounce the slogan, Mamdani reportedly told city business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would discourage others from doing so.
Business leaders are also concerned about the candidate's democratic socialist policies, like his proposed rent freeze policy.
Rapaport, a Jew who became an outspoken advocate for Israel following the Oct. 7 terror attack, urged fellow New Yorkers to "not let this terrorist supporter, socialist bulls--- artist run you out of your city."
"He's not even from here," he continued. "Do not even think you're going to leave New York City if Zohran the Moron wins the election. I'm going nowhere."
Mamdani, a Ugandan-born Muslim New York State Assemblyman from Queens, beat former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to become the Democratic Party's nominee for mayor.
Rapaport noted that even though he'll take a financial hit if Mamdani wins and enacts his far-left policies, he will still stay in the city.
"I'm never leaving New York for a Three-Card Monty playing bulls--- artist like you, Zohran the Moron," he said. "If this guy wins, we need to blame ourselves. We need to dust ourselves off and make New York great again."
Rapaport has spoken out against the mayoral candidate since he won the Democratic primary race last month.
In an interview with NewsNation earlier this month, the comedian lamented, "We are this close to having a person like that become mayor of what should be considered the greatest city in the world."
"But the fact that this guy is even in contention is a slap in the face," he added. "Whether he wins or loses, it is a slap in the face."
Mamdani didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
a minute ago
- New York Times
Lina Khan: What Democrats Can Learn From Zohran Mamdani
One of the most underappreciated aspects of Zohran Mamdani's successful primary campaign for New York City mayor was its connection to small business. He stopped by halal carts and bodegas and asked what challenges they faced. It is the kind of outreach that teaches policymakers about real problems in our economy and can help build trust and lasting relationships. It is also too rare. Fighting for an economy where small businesses can thrive was once core to the Democratic Party. Democrats built a lasting coalition by shifting economic power to ordinary Americans, checking the power of big business, and expanding the middle class. But for decades, the party has largely ceded issues important to small businesses to Republicans. During the New Deal, small businesses were a key part of Democrats' coalition, with President Franklin Roosevelt championing 'economic freedom for the wage earner and the farmer and the small-business man.' The government gave workers greater rights and protections and checked the power of big business in banking, retailing and agriculture. Placing checks on big business while ensuring fair opportunity for labor and small business was recognized as a path for ensuring dignified work and growing the middle class. Since President Bill Clinton, however, the mainstream of the Democratic Party has too often treated small business as little more than a talking point. Mr. Clinton may have heaped praise on 'the entrepreneurial spirit' of small-business leaders, but his embrace of President Ronald Reagan's 'big is better' antitrust policy fueled industry consolidation and allowed monopolists to squeeze out smaller rivals. Clinton-era deregulation also spurred a soaring number of bank mergers, reducing the number of places where an entrepreneur could get a loan. From 1980 to 2020, as the share of the economy accounted for by small businesses fell, big business interests began spending heavily in elections, bending the ears of many Democrats and sometimes skewing how they saw the economy. Even when Democratic policies were better for small businesses than Republican policies, Democrats didn't make a sustained effort to court small-business owners and turn them into a reliable base of support. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
a minute ago
- New York Times
Trump Is Discovering the Downside of a Justice Department With No Credibility
Readers will surely have varying views about whether the Jeffrey Epstein matter should be dominating political discourse. But the Trump administration's attempt to tamp down the controversy by reviewing its files, interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell and otherwise attempting to show it has nothing to hide brings into sharp relief the damage it has done to the Justice Department and its credibility. From the start, President Trump appears to have put personal loyalty above all in the leaders he chose for the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And he seems to have succeeded in that regard. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel — all have shown a North Korean level of fealty to their leader. Ignoring norms of Justice Department independence from the White House, they have jumped to follow his orders. They've announced investigations he demanded, seemingly regardless of whether there was support for doing so. They have moved to dismiss the cases that suited his political or personal purposes, regardless of the public interest. What is truly extraordinary, at least in recent times, has been their readiness to fire or otherwise push out agents and prosecutors, apparently for sins as minor as associating with Mr. Trump's critics and taking assignments to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants. Numerous federal judges have raised concerns, to put it mildly, about the Trump administration's readiness to put political expediency and presidential will above professionalism and adherence to the rule of law. Justice Department lawyers in every administration often find themselves fighting uphill battles in court to advance the president's political agenda. But even when they don't have the law squarely on their side, they generally start with a personal and institutional credibility without which their work would be much harder. If a Trump Justice Department lawyer appears before a court and either doesn't know an answer because the political bosses have withheld it, or, worse, is not fully candid or even lies, she becomes just another lawyer, and a sleazy one at that. The government's case suffers accordingly, as it should. The credibility crisis is not just inside the courtroom. Having supposedly scoured its files on Jeffrey Epstein, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department have told the public that 'no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted' for good and sufficient reasons. No one is fooled by the lack of any official's name on the written statement. It comes from Ms. Bondi's Justice Department and Mr. Patel's F.B.I. — organizations whose lawyers and agents have seen colleagues pushed out for the mere suspicion of insufficient loyalty. How can these institutions show that they are not simply protecting the president? Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democrats got a top Senate recruit in North Carolina. Now they're trying to find more
Democrats landed the biggest recruiting win of the 2026 midterm elections to date when former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper launched his Senate run Monday, boosting party hopes of winning the seat opened by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. They are looking for several more wins just like it to have a chance of flipping four Republican-held seats and going after a goal that seemed far out of reach earlier this cycle: taking the Senate majority next fall. The Senate recruiting landscape has been a mixed bag for both parties with uncertainty over President Donald Trump's popularity, the role he'll play in Republican primaries, and questions about the political futures of several high-profile figures — both incumbents and potential candidates — hanging over the early stages of the election cycle. Democrats hope they can run strong candidates in Maine and GOP-friendly states like Iowa and Texas. They also have to defend seats in four potentially competitive states: Georgia, where Sen. Jon Ossoff is up for reelection, and Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire, where the party's incumbents are all retiring. In New Hampshire, Rep. Chris Pappas, another top Democratic recruit, is running for Senate, while on the Republican side, former Gov. Chris Sununu passed on the race. In Georgia, popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp passed on a Senate race in a break for Ossoff. And in Maine, Democrats are hoping Gov. Janet Mills will challenge longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. But Democrats are trying to resolve conflicts in other races on the board and prevent drawn-out primaries that could hurt their chances next November. 'Governor Cooper is a formidable candidate who will flip North Carolina's Senate seat, and his announcement is the latest indication that the Republicans' Senate majority is at risk in 2026,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Senate campaign chief, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, said in a statement to CNN. Discord in Michigan Michigan's open Senate race is the one that most worries national Democrats, according to half a dozen lawmakers, senior aides and strategists. Republicans are largely uniting behind former Rep. Mike Rogers, the party's losing nominee in the 2024 Senate race. Rogers got a boost in recent days when Rep. Bill Huizenga passed on a Senate run, a decision that followed a push from Trump and other Republicans to defend a potentially competitive House seat in western Michigan, a source familiar with the matter said. Rogers' supporters argue that he now has advantages that he didn't when he lost last year to then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin, including a primary field free of other major contenders and stronger early fundraising. Democrats are facing a competitive primary that includes three well-known contenders: Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive former gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Several of the Democratic sources CNN spoke to said Schumer and his team have privately signaled they believe Stevens is the strongest general election candidate. In another nod to Stevens' Democratic establishment support, she earned an endorsement from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this summer. And two people involved in Michigan politics said Gillibrand has privately encouraged donors to support Stevens. A spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee declined to comment on Gillibrand's behalf, but offered an upbeat statement that Democrats would hold the seat next November. 'Republicans have not won a Senate race in Michigan in 30 years — and 2026 will be no different with failed candidate Mike Rogers on the ballot,' spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement. Democrats there have also been surprised by the strong fundraising power of El-Sayed — backed by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who has been urging his party to take a more aggressive stance on Trump. Democrats in the state are still hoping they can unite behind a candidate before next August's primary. But there have been some hurdles, including interpersonal disputes between Slotkin and other major players in the state, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. They also fear that the state's race for governor won't help either: Mike Duggan, the popular Detroit mayor, has decided to run as an independent, potentially splintering the Democratic base and raising questions about what that could mean for Michigan's Senate and House races. 'I don't think people understand how dysfunctional the Senate race is,' one Michigan Democrat told CNN of the bruising three-way primary. 'If we don't pull people together, we are screwed.' Trying to push Democrats into other races in Texas Texas is a red state, but Republicans face an increasingly bitter primary battle between Sen. John Cornyn and his conservative challenger, MAGA-aligned state Attorney General Ken Paxton — one that intensified with the news that Paxton's wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, had filed for divorce. National Republicans believe that Cornyn is in trouble, and pro-Cornyn groups are already spending heavily this summer in a bid to demonstrate he can keep pace with Paxton in polls. A third potential candidate, Rep. Wesley Hunt, has not ruled out a bid and has been spending small sums on advertising, with more expected in the coming weeks. Another Republican often mentioned as a possible contender, Rep. Ronny Jackson, is one of Trump's closest allies in Texas. But two people familiar with discussions about Jackson's future said he is expected to remain in the House and one said he is interested in a Trump administration role in the future. Democrats believe Paxton would be a weaker general election candidate if he wins the Republican primary. But they could face a messy primary of their own. Former Rep. Colin Allred, the party's losing nominee in the 2024 Senate race, has already launched his campaign, with his supporters pointing to how he outran Kamala Harris in key parts of the state last November. Beto O'Rourke, who lost the 2018 Senate race and the 2022 governor's race, is also considering a run and is hitting the road like a candidate. He held 16 town halls across the state in May, June and July, including 12 in Republican-held congressional districts. And other Democrats are also considering Senate runs. Some officials and donors have sought to steer potential Senate candidates into other races, urging state Rep. James Talarico to run for governor and US Rep. Joaquin Castro to run for attorney general, three people familiar with the matter said. However, it's not clear that Talarico or Castro are moving toward those races themselves. Talarico told CNN last week he is 'certainly thinking about' running for higher office, and will make decisions about his political future after Texas' special legislative session, which began last week and can last no more than 30 days. 'Once that's over, I am going to look at how I can best serve, and that includes the US Senate,' Talarico said. 'I'm not taking anything off the table right now.' Castro and his office did not respond to CNN's request for comment. He testified in a Texas legislative hearing last week, opposing a GOP push during the special session to redraw the state's congressional lines. Castro told state lawmakers they are 'being used by the White House and Donald Trump.' O'Rourke's political action committee has hosted events with many of the Texas Democrats weighing statewide runs. Talarico, Castro, Rep. Jasmine Crockett and others spoke at a rally Friday in Austin. In late June, O'Rourke, Talarico and Castro all participated in a similar town hall in San Antonio hosted by O'Rourke's group. Other Democratic hopes in Ohio and Iowa Uncertainty looms over two other states Democrats hope to target: Ohio and Iowa. The party's hopes of defeating Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted — who was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in January to fill the seat formerly held by Vice President JD Vance — largely depend on whether former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his reelection bid in 2024, attempts a comeback. Iowa is also a question mark, with operatives buzzing for months over rumors that Republican Sen. Joni Ernst — who faced backlash after dismissing concerns about Medicaid funding cuts by telling a crowd that 'we are all going to die' — could retire. 'There's always all kinds of chitter-chatter everywhere, but I have a lot left to do in the United States Senate, so I am not slowing down any time soon. We'll have an announcement this fall,' Ernst told Radio Iowa this month. However, Republicans have a deep bench in the red state. Many within the party believe Rep. Ashley Hinson would be the favorite in a primary to replace Ernst. The still-growing Democratic field in Iowa already includes state Rep. J.D. Scholten, state Sen. Zach Wahls and Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nathan Sage. Another likely long shot for Democrats is Alaska, where Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is up for reelection. Democrats are waiting for a decision from former Rep. Mary Peltola, who lost her House seat to GOP Rep. Nick Begich last year but is viewed as perhaps the only Democrat who could turn that Senate race into a competitive one. CNN's Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.
