New York City has elected Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, as its next mayor. But even liberals like CNN's Van Jones quickly realized that Mamdani's victory speech was much angrier than the "warm" and "calm" persona he had on the campaign trail. Glenn reviews this sudden shift in character and warns that Mamdani may have just admitted he wants to tear down capitalism...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I want to start with the analysis from Van Jones on the Mamdani speech last night. Listen to what he said.
VOICE: I think the Mamdani that we saw on the campaign trail who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing was not present in that speech. And I think that Mamdani is the one you hear from tonight. There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he going to include me?
Or is he going to be more of a class warrior even in office?
I think he missed a chance tonight, to open up and bring more people into the tent.
I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that's not the Mamdani that we see in TikTok. The great interviews. And stuff like that.
I felt like there was a little bit of a character shift here, where the warm, open embracing guy, close to working with people, was not on stage tonight. There was some other voice on stage.
STU: Huh. Huh.
GLENN: Hmm.
GLENN: It's almost like a mask has come off. What a surprise.
STU: Yeah. Just quick recommendation for anyone in New York. If Mamdani tries to get you on a train, don't go.
(laughter)
STU: It's a terrible idea. Stay away from the train.
GLENN: Very good point, Stu.
I might have even gotten on to that train without even realizing. Very good point. Very good point.
STU: I don't think it's --
GLENN: No. No trains. No trains.
Okay. So here's Mamdani. And this is how angry. Listen to how angry he is when he's talking about Donald Trump. Listen to this.
VOICE: So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you: Turn the volume up!
(applauding)
GLENN: Just turn it up on the TV? Because that's something he said.
VOICE: We will hold landlords to account. Because the Donald Trumps of our city have grown far too comfortable, taking advantage of their tenets.
(applauding)
STU: Screaming.
VOICE: We will put an end to the culture of corruption that has allowed billionaires like Trump to evade taxation and exploit tax breaks.
GLENN: Corruption. Change the tax laws.
VOICE: We will stand alongside unions and expand labor protections because we know, just as Donald Trump does, that when working people have ironclad rights, the bosses who seek to extort them, become very small indeed!
(applauding)
New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants --
(applauding)
VOICE: -- worked by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant!
(applauding)
GLENN: A very angry immigrant, whose own horror says, he doesn't identify as an American. I mean, I -- can I just spend a minute on this?
Because he's absolutely right.
New York was built by immigrants. America was built by immigrants. I mean, unless you're a Native American, you're an immigrant. Okay. And I made the case, that you might have come from Asia, even if you're an American, you know, native.
You know, go back far enough, you weren't on this continent.
So -- so I agree, all built by immigrants.
But we have a difference now, of immigrants. Listen to this from Teddy Roosevelt. There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I don't refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the best Americans I've ever known were naturalized Americans. Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of a man who puts native before the hyphen. As a man who puts German or Irish or English, or French before the hyphen.
Americanism is a matter of the spirit and the soul.
Our allegiance must be purely to the United States.
We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. Think about this. Think about this, and what's happening with the Somali communities.
Think about Minnesota. Think about Dearborn. Think about New York. Think about -- think about what's being said about -- and to immigrants, today!
If he is heartily and singly loyal to this republic, then no matter where he's born, he's just as good as an American as anyone else. The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans, Italian-Americans.
Notice, by the way, he's not attacking people of color. These are all people from Western Europe! So this isn't something new. And it's not about racism. Scandinavian. Yeah. Boy, you must hate white people. Those are the whitest white people on the planet, for the love of Pete.
The American who do not become Americans, and nothing else, are hyphenated Americans. And there ought to be no room for them in this country.
The man who calls himself an American citizen. And shows by his action, he's primarily the citizen in the life of our body politic. He has no place here. And the sooner he returns to the land in which he feels his real heart allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. This is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American, and nothing else.
I mean, you know, when he said that, in the early 1900s, he was talking about a whole different class of immigrants, race-wise. But it doesn't matter. Hyphenated American race.
If you are an American, you don't see race. People have in the past. And it's been wrong to do it. And you know who really saw that clearer than anyone else?
The progressives! Margaret Sanger, being one of them. The progressive movement!
They're the ones, who wanted to separate races.
For the love of Pete. So he's now angry, and he's -- he's jamming a wedge between Americans and immigrant Americans.
Listen to -- listen to the next cut here.
VOICE: As so often has occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour, that their enemies are those earning $20 an hour.
They want the people to fight --
GLENN: Okay. Stop for a second.
Stu, can you explain that?
Play that again. Explain this sentence to me.
Play it from the top.
VOICE: As has so often occurred, the billionaire class has sought to convince those making $30 an hour. That their enemies are those earning $20 an hour.
GLENN: Stop.
What does that mean? What does that mean?
STU: I mean, the case is that -- I mean, Republicans -- you know, the Republican Party, the evil, rich people.
GLENN: The billionaires.
STU: The billionaires. Are saying -- are trying to convince everybody. That the problem in our country are the poor people.
GLENN: So -- so exactly the opposite of what he's doing.
He's trying to convince the people who are 20-dollar an hour, that the 30 to billionaire class is their problem.
Is their enemy.
STU: Yeah. Very true. You might find --
GLENN: A little bit. A little bit. Go ahead. Play the rest, please.
VOICE: They want the people to fight amongst ourselves, so that we remain distracted from the work of remaking a long broken system!
We refuse to let them dictate the rules of the game anymore!
They can play by the same rules as the rest of us.
(applauding)
GLENN: Yeah. Amen. I'm all for that.
VOICE: Together, we will usher in a generation of change.
And if we embrace this brave new course, rather than fleeing from it, we can respond to oligarchy and authoritarianism with the strength it fears. Not the appeasement it craves.
(applauding)
GLENN: Now, he goes on, the very next sentence, which we didn't grab: After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it's the city that gave rise to him. If there's any way to terrify a despot, it's by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power. How did Donald Trump accumulate power? How did he do that?
Capitalism. Capitalism. He accumulated power by making money. By creating businesses. By building, you know, New York. A lot of New York was built by Donald Trump. So that's how he accumulated power.
So what he's saying here, you want to talk about the mask coming off -- what he's saying here is when we to now dismantle that system of capitalism, because that's what gave him power.
One last cut, 47, please.
VOICE: After all, if anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump, how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him!
(applauding)
GLENN: Listen to this.
VOICE: If there's any way to terrify a despot, it's by dismantling the very conditions that allowed him to accumulate power.
STU: They're so obsessed with this guy.
VOICE: This is not only how we stop Trump. It's how we stop the next one.
GLENN: It's amazing. It's going to be interesting to watch New York City over the next four years. Very, very interesting. Because he is -- he's going to be pushed by the left. They are going to demand that he does these things. And he wants to do them. So let's see what he gets done, and how many great changes are coming to that city.





