Zohran Mamdani ‘laundering' defund-the-police past by toying with keeping NYPD Commish Tisch if elected mayor: critics
The simultaneous behind-the-scenes and public pushes to keep Tisch comes as many Big Apple elites hope Mamdani — who trounced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary and leads general election polls — can sand off his far-left rough edges.
And Mamdani seemingly has been only too happy to keep the door open for Tisch, despite her diametrically opposed stances on bail reform, discovery laws and other public safety issues – all matters for which the socialist firebrand has left a long trail of incendiary tweets.
'He's laundering his radical stances, that's what he's doing,' said political operative Ken Frydman.
'But he needs his defund-the-police voters to turn out again and cop-hating Tiffany Cabán is lurking,' Frydman continued, referring to a firebrand fellow Democratic socialist on the City Council being floated as Mamdani's police commissioner.
3 Zohran Mamdani is considering keeping Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner if elected.
Paul Martinka for NY Post
3 Tisch's tough-on-crime positions are at odds with Mamdani's past criticism of police and support for bail reform.
Andrew Schwartz / SplashNews.com
Tisch, a well-regarded public servant and billionaire heiress, has tried to stay above the partisan fray, despite a number of politicians trying to use her as a pawn.
Mayor Eric Adams picked Tisch in November to rebuild the NYPD's standing — and his own — after his first three police commissioners respectively flamed out amid infighting, scandal and more infighting.
The appointment worked so well that lefty mayoral candidate and city Comptroller Brad Lander — who, like Mamdani, had pushed to defund the police — vowed to keep Tisch as commissioner if he was elected.
Indeed, Lander's move arguably laid the groundwork for his cross-endorsement ally Mamdani's one-sided political flirtation with Tisch, whose leadership he has praised.
3 Brad Lander paved the way for a lefty to embrace Tisch as a way to burnish their public safety bona fides.
AP
Likewise, Kathy Wylde, who heads the powerful business group Partnership for New York City, confirmed she has recommended to Mamdani that he keep Tisch.
'I believe that it's premature to make any personnel commitments at this time, but it's a consideration that is real — and it's in keeping with the city that we're fighting for,' Mamdani recently said of keeping Tisch.
But Mamdani and Tisch would make strange bedfellows, even beyond their respective socialist and billionaire backgrounds.
Before running for mayor, Mamdani riddled his social media accounts with lashing criticism of police brutality and cops' lack of accountability to the public they serve.
'There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt,' he tweeted about the NYPD in 2020.
'Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.'
As a mayoral candidate, Mamdani walked back his call to defund the police and acknowledged their role in public safety.
But Mamdani, a Queens state assemblyman, has also been an enthusiastic backer of bail reform, changes to discovery laws and the 'Raise the Age' law — all of which Tisch has respectively blamed for rising recidivism, waves of criminals going free on technicalities and skyrocketing youth violence.
'I will not vote for any budget that rolls back bail reform, discovery reform, or Raise the Age,' Mamdani tweeted in 2022.
While Tisch arguably could be a bulwark against Mamdani's radical impulses, Democratic political operative Hank Sheinkopf said ultimately she'd be hamstrung by the fact she ultimately serves at the pleasure of the mayor.
Her role, for now, might actually be providing reassurance for rank-and-file cops, Sheinkopf said.
'Here you have the opponent of [Adams] saying he wouldn't change the department, but his rhetoric says otherwise,' Sheinkopf said. 'Police officers are in panic and they will leave in droves — Tisch is the only way to stop that.'
Other insiders argued that Mamdani actually risks more by keeping Tisch around.
'Mamdani will get clobbered by his cop-hating groupies if he retains Tisch as police commissioner,' said political operative Ken Frydman. 'If he doesn't retain her, Mamdani risks serious crime increasing and getting blamed for the spike.
'Checkmate.'
Adams, for his part, has also tried to capitalize on Tisch's sterling reputation.
He recently ran a campaign ad that leaned heavily on Tisch's comments praising him during an event last week highlighting drops in major crimes across the city.
'Not only did we ignore the noise from the Mamdanis of the world who recklessly called to defund the police, but we doubled down on our support,' Adams tweeted.
When The Post tried to reach Tisch for comment, an NYPD spokesperson responded with the same words from the commissioner that Adams' campaign ad used.
'When the critics called to cut funding — he chose to cut crime,' Tisch said about Adams last week. 'When the pressure came to back down — he chose to double down. And when others tried to make headlines — he chose to make a difference.'
Additional reporting by Carl Campanile and Amanda Woods
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