Anti-Israel mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani blasted the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites as an “unconstitutional military action” — as other top primary contenders called President Trump reckless for greenlighting the military action.
“Donald Trump ran for president promising to end wars, not start new ones,” the Democratic Socialist said in a statement released on X late Saturday, two days before the Big Apple’s Democratic Party primary.
“Today’s unconstitutional military action represents a dark, new chapter in his endless betrayals that now threaten to plunge the world deeper into chaos,” said Mamdani, who has been closing the gap with frontrunner candidate Andrew Cuomo in recent polls. “In a city as global as ours, the impacts of war are felt deeply here at home.”
Mamdani also blamed the “political establishment” for spending money on weaponry and “endless wars” rather than on fighting poverty and promoting peace.
“For Americans middle aged and younger, this is all we have known,” said Mamdani, who is running a strong second in polls to front-runner Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor.
“We cannot accept it any longer,” the candidate said.
Cuomo, the ex governor, also condemned Trump’s strike on Iran, calling the president “the big bad wolf knocking at the door,” while speaking to reporters outside a press conference for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Though he agreed the US shouldn’t have gone about bombing Iran in the way they did, “the world is a safer place,” he contended.
He also warned New Yorkers to be prepared for a “possible reprisal” from Iran and vowed to keep the Big Apple on “high alert,” if elected.
“You have to separate the actual bombing of Iran and ending their military and nuclear capacity versus the means and the process by which Trump did it,” he said.
“I don’t support the way he [Trump] did it. I do believe he should have consulted Congress. I believe this is Trump saying, ‘ I don’t have to follow the rules. I do what I want to do when I do it,” he said.
City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander also slammed the bombing.
Stay up to date on the latest developments in the US airstrike on Iran
“Trump’s reckless & unconstitutional strikes against Iran are a dangerous escalation of war — and threaten countless Iranian, Israeli & American lives,” Lander wrote on X on Saturday, after President Trump’s address to the nation outlining why the US launched the bombs at Iran.
“My thoughts are with families fearing for their safety, and the thousands of New Yorkers worrying tonight about loved ones in Iran,” Lander said.
Trump defended the bombing in his speech by saying, “Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”
The US strikes came before Tuesday’s final day of voting in the Big Apple’s Democratic primary for mayor after Sunday’s last day of early voting, overshadowing and potentially impacting the outcome.
Mayor Eric Adams, who is seeking re-election on an independent ballot line, said he ordered the NYPD to “increase its presence around religious, cultural, and diplomatic sites throughout the five boroughs” in the wake of the US attack.
“Thinking about our large Persian population here in NYC at this time,” he wrote on X on Saturday night. Mamdani’s close Democratic Socialist ally, New York City Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said Trump’s bombing of Iran is “grounds for impeachment.”
Mamdani has come under fire for his vicious bashing of Israel, which has also struck Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities in an effort to prevent Tehran from building nuke bombs.
He is a staunch supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state, and refused to condemn the “globalize the intifada” rallying cry — a slogan that has been denounced for allegedly stoking antisemitic violence.
The Democratic Party primary is set for in-person voting Tuesday after 10 days of early voting. The winner of the primary will have to run in November’s general election, but will very likely be the next mayor in the deeply blue Big Apple.
