Lawmakers blast Mamdani for keeping staffer who used anti-Israel slurs

New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is dealing with warmth from two New York lawmakers who spoke to Fox Information Digital following a report that discovered a member of his transition crew harbored vitriolic anti-Israel sentiments in opposition to the backdrop of Mamdani’s guarantees to fight anti-Semitism as mayor.

Hassaan Chaudhary, in keeping with a New York Post report on Sunday, has a social media presence plagued by anti-Israel messages, together with calling the nation “barbaric,” utilizing the time period “Jew” as a slur, and praising Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Chaudhary, who has listed himself as political director of Mamdani’s transition crew, apologized for the feedback, saying the decade-old posts don’t characterize his present views and that he seems to be again on them with “remorse.”

Nonetheless, two lawmakers who spoke to Fox Information Digital condemned Mamdani’s affiliation with Chaudhary, warning that it reveals the socialist mayor-elect does not imply enterprise when he guarantees to battle anti-Semitism in New York Metropolis.

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Newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks with members of the media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park within the Queens borough of New York on Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (Adam Grey/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)

“Let’s be clear: This isn’t an harmless personnel error,” Jake Blumencranz, a Republican lawmaker from New York, advised Fox Information Digital. “That is who Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is and what his transition crew/incoming authorities stands for.”

“If the brand new mayor surrounds himself with somebody who makes use of language about Jews paying homage to the Thirties, praises Ahmadinejad and has different abhorrent views, that is not a purple flag – that is a waving siren. Extremism is just not a fringe factor of Zohran Mamdani’s crew; it’s the basis on which he’s constructing/destroying Metropolis Corridor.”

A spokesperson for Mamdani advised the New York Put up that Chaudhary is a Muslim outreach director and never a political director, however didn’t say whether or not he could be fired.

“These feedback from over a decade in the past are reprehensible and by no means mirror the views of the mayor-elect or this transition,” a spokesperson for Mamdani advised Fox Information Digital. “The mayor-elect has made this clear internally and persistently all through the marketing campaign and transition.”

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After democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani received the New York Metropolis mayoral race, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte’s marketing campaign despatched a van via Manhattan to induce companies to maneuver north for “no communism, much less purple tape and decrease taxes.” (Angela Weiss/AFP through Getty Photos)

Inna Vernikov, a Republican New York Metropolis councilwoman, advised Fox Information Digital that the scenario reveals that “helpful idiots on the far left have but to comprehend that they’re simply small pawns in a giant and harmful recreation.”

Vernikov added: “The identical agitators who shout in protection of Hamas could be thrown from the roof due to their completely different gender identities. Zohran should make one factor clear: he’s now not a protester. He now has a metropolis of 8 million to rule.”

Mamdani confronted heated criticism through the marketing campaign for him lengthy monitor document of criticizing Israel, relationship again to his time in faculty, the place he began the College students for Justice in Palestine chapter at his college. As well as, a whole lot of rabbis signed on a letter within the weeks earlier than the elections through which he denounced his marketing campaign.

Regardless of the outrage, Mamdani is on her method to an election victory and has repeatedly pledged to characterize all New Yorkers, together with town’s huge Jewish group.

“We are going to construct a Metropolis Corridor that stands steadfastly with Jewish New Yorkers and doesn’t waver within the battle in opposition to the scourge of anti-Semitism,” Mamdani mentioned on election night time, including the following day that he takes the difficulty of anti-Semitism “extremely severely.”

Nonetheless, Blumencranz advised Fox Information Digital that “personnel is coverage” and that New Yorkers “had higher buckle up” if these are the kinds of individuals being recruited within the transition.

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NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (proper). (Erik McGregor/LightRocket through Getty Photos)

“You do not ‘unintentionally’ rent somebody who has spent years selling this type of hate,” Blumencranz advised Fox Information Digital. “The truth that Mamdani didn’t instantly take away him tells each New Yorker precisely what sort of authorities we’re going to have – one the place bigotry is tolerated, the place anti-Semitism is normalized, and the place probably the most hateful voices are welcomed into the Gracie Mansion and Metropolis Corridor.”

The Mamdani crew didn’t touch upon Chaudhary’s present employment standing.

“Each resident of this metropolis, Jewish or not, must be involved,” Blumencranz mentioned. “That is harmful, it’s divisive and it’s shameful.”