NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Defends Calling AIPAC 'Monsters' Amid Accusations of Antisemitism

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday strongly defended his recent remarks sharply denouncing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, following intense pushback from prominent Jewish leaders and elected officials who accused him of trafficking in antisemitic tropes. Speaking at a City Hall press conference, Mamdani stood firm on his critique of the pro-Israel lobbying group, characterizing the organization as a defender of an immoral status quo that has actively undermined safety and human rights across Palestine and the broader Middle East region. The mayor emphasized that his condemnation specifically targets the immense influx of corporate political contributions and dark money utilized to influence local democratic elections.

The growing political firestorm stems from a campaign rally held on Thursday, where Mamdani joined Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn to boost a slate of progressive Democratic primary challengers. During his fiery address, Mamdani warned voters about systemic monsters working behind the scenes to control American democracy. He explicitly singled out AIPAC for spending millions of dollars to blanket the airwaves with bad-faith television advertisements targeting left-leaning candidates, alleging that the lobby moves massive sums of untraceable capital to preserve its institutional power and intentionally divide working-class communities.

Federal Election Commission disclosures show that AIPAC’s affiliated super PAC, the United Democracy Project, recently poured over 600,000 dollars into BOLD America. That political action committee has heavily financed television advertisements backing incumbent Representative Adriano Espaillat, who is currently facing a progressive primary challenge from former Columbia University encampment organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York’s 13th Congressional District. Mamdani's endorsed progressive slate also includes former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has similarly made opposition to AIPAC a centerpiece of his primary campaign against two-term incumbent Representative Dan Goldman, as well as progressive challenger Claire Valdez.

Mamdani’s choice of language quickly drew fierce condemnation from national civil rights organizations and Jewish advocacy groups. Leadership from both the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee issued statements warning that the mayor's rhetoric utilized dangerous, age-old antisemitic conspiracy theories under the guise of policy criticism, a particularly volatile approach given that New York City holds the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. American Jewish Committee Chief Executive Officer Ted Deutch described the mayor's decision to label fellow New Yorkers as monsters as outrageous and dangerous, while New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer publicly stated that substituting the word AIPAC for Jews mirrors classic historic prejudices, accusing Mamdani of laundering antisemitism from his official mayoral podium.

When pressed by reporters at City Hall regarding the severe backlash, Mamdani clarified that his use of the word monsters was actually a philosophical reference quoting Antonio Gramsci, the prominent mid-century founder of the Italian Communist Party. The mayor explained that the term was intended to broadly describe the entrenched political systems and massive corporate super PACs that distort public narratives and prevent the emergence of a more equitable society. He argued that naming the entities that facilitate destruction overseas and suppress the expectations of working people domestically remains a necessary moral duty. The domestic debate unfolds amid heightened local political tensions and a fragile, United States-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, where local health officials report that continued military strikes have killed more than 1,000 people since the peace agreement went into effect in mid-October.

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