Zohran Mamdani has an odd new Guardian Angel.
GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa defended his Democratic socialist foe Zohran Mamdani over his Columbia school admissions scandal — warning the relentless assaults by different rivals will backfire.
“Why are we making this an issue?” fumed the Guardian Angels founder in an unique interview with The Publish. “They are piling on, and now he is a martyr.”
The mayoral frontrunner has confronted a barrage of backlash from mayoral rivals Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after his school software was leaked — following a hack of the Ivy League college’s servers. The leaked doc revealed Mamdani had checked each “Asian” and “African American” on his software.
The Queens lawmaker, who was born in Uganda and is of Indian descent, copped to the error and mentioned he felt that only one didn’t seize his id. Mamdani was not accepted into the college the place his dad was a professor.
Adams known as Mamdani’s software “deeply offensive” because the incumbent is operating for reelection as an unbiased after dropping out of final month’s Democratic Celebration main.
“This is not just dishonest — it’s possibly fraudulent,” Hizzoner railed.
Cuomo — who misplaced to Mamdani in final month’s main however will nonetheless seem on November ballots on a minor-party line — piled on. The ex-governor mentioned known as the appliance controversy “just the tip of the iceberg” with potential “fraud.’’
However Sliwa, a political firebrand not usually recognized for measured responses, warned moderates from focusing an excessive amount of on such small-potato points.
“Yes, he shouldn’t have put down that he was African American, but it’s splitting hairs,” Sliwa mentioned. “You’ve got to hit him on the issues.”
As an alternative, the GOP candidate mentioned he’s attempting to faucet into the anger and hope from the socialist’s marketing campaign within the main, the place Mamdani caught hearth with the youthful generations and trounced Cuomo throughout his political comeback tour.
“Moderates are pushing Zohran supporters aside instead of winning them over,” Sliwa mentioned, including that he’s staffed his marketing campaign with various Gen-Z and Millennial advisers.
“Lots of people are solely on board due to these buzz phrases, they don’t agree with him — however all of them agree, and we must always too, that the price of dwelling is simply too excessive. We gotta work out a method to deal with that.
“Improve, don’t move.”
Sliwa additionally warned that the assaults are resonating adversely within the Muslim communities within the Large Apple, which account for almost 1 million residents.
“These are very conservative people, many of them voted for Trump, but because they are getting a sense of an attack on their religion with the attacks on Zohran — they are rallying around him,” Sliwa mentioned.
The purple beret-wearing candidate pointed to the way it already proved to be a shedding technique with Cuomo within the main.
“Cuomo couldn’t put a dent in him with $25 million, it just strengthened him.”
