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Zohran Mamdani: “Politics determines what people can afford.”

Featuring: Zohran Mamdani, Democratic | Mayor of New York City

Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview

Published July 18, 2026 | Video Starts at 11:36

And, you know, sometimes politics feels like it's a hobby only some can afford, and I don't want it to be that way. Politics determines what people can afford. and we need to see a recognition of that and an actual platform of how we will deliver that affordability. We, in fact, have to be able to say, what are you going to do about housing? (11:36–11:40)

CLAIM

Asserts that politics influences people's affordability.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Zohran Mamdani

“The Rent Guidelines Board decided to freeze the rent for the first time in New York City history for two years.”
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“It's a city that has delivered the lowest recorded number of shootings and shooting victims and murders in New York City's history.”
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“To afford childcare for a two-year-old as a family, you need to make $334,000.”
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“In 2025, we had more than 48,000 jobs in the New York City metro area of any metro area in the country, it's the fastest growing one.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 39:38-39:49
“Going to make child care free for 2,000 kids this fall, 12,000 kids next fall, every single two year old by the end of four years.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 00:39-00:47
“A city with a democratic socialist vision is one that paves more than 170,000 potholes, 50,000 more than the prior administration.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 03:24-03:34
“It's a city that is on a pathway to universal childcare, saving thousands of parents more than $20,000 a year.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 03:41-03:49
“Workers who we've secured more than $10 million for tenants more than $64 million.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 03:54-04:01
“I endorse[d] five state legislative candidates that won their races.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 08:47-13:50
“I am both [a Democrat and a Democratic Socialist].”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 09:28-09:31
“We've seen these kinds of victories in New Jersey, in Colorado, in California.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 11:01-11:06
“Cities have often been discussed as the laboratories of democracy.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 11:56-11:59
“I consider [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] to be a partnership, and I also consider her to be an inspiration.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 12:40-12:44
“You can't fulfill an affordability agenda for the most expensive city in the country without partners at every level of government.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 13:50-13:58
“AIPAC [was] spending a significant amount of money to try and stop Daria Lisa.”
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“Someone who had gone to Gaza on a relief mission to set up watch parties, was then killed by the Israeli military.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 18:27-18:34
“It is hard to find a more bankrupt policy approach than what our country has done to Gaza and to Palestine.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 19:24-19:34
“There are far more congresspeople who will privately tell you that something is a genocide than publicly announce it to be so.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 20:13-20:21
“Each one of these candidates spoke about how they would sign on to the block the bombs legislation.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 23:04-23:09
“We're talking about billions of dollars in material support.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 23:16-23:20
“Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague. He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 25:48-25:56
“I'll be following the laws of New York City.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 27:22-27:25
“ICE is an agency that has terrorized Americans across this country and others that live in this country.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 28:34-28:43
“A man wasn't even 30 years old, said goodbye to his wife and his child, and moments later was shot by ICE agents in Maine.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 28:45-28:55
“This was not even a month after a man was killed in Texas.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 28:54-29:02
“For so much of [ICE's] operations, it has little to do with legality.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 29:35-29:40
“It has to do with profiling, and it has to do with a vision of creating the largest deportation machine this country has ever seen.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 29:39-29:47
“I don't believe that secure and humane are at odds.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 30:48-30:52
“I don't believe that the only way to provide immigration enforcement is through ICE.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 30:52-30:58
“What we've found from the Republican administration has been a desire to make any and all immigration illegal.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 31:29-31:38
“I lead a city where of 8.5 million people, more than 3 million, are immigrants.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 31:45-31:50
“We are willing to work with the federal government on more than 170 serious crimes if someone has been convicted of them.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 32:09-32:19
“This year we secured 1.2 billion going to make childcare free for 2,000 kids this fall, 12,000 kids next fall, every single two year old by…”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 35:07-35:17
“I believe that we can raise taxes a little bit more on the wealthiest New Yorkers to ensure that everyone can afford life in the city.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 36:58-37:06
“It's the wealthiest city and it's also a city where one in four are living in poverty.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 38:37-38:42
“In the first five months of this year, we had an addition of more than 21,000 jobs.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 39:31-39:39
“We are in the final processes of interviews for [the head of the Economic Development Corporation] role.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 40:34-40:38
“The EDC continues to be one of our focuses and they continue to do the work, especially when it comes to our agenda, of delivering city run…”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 41:21-41:31
“The lowest number of murders and shootings and shooting victims in the recorded history of our city.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 43:06-43:14
“Inheriting a $12 billion fiscal deficit.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 44:10-44:13
“The Strategic Response Group is tasked with both responding to the exercising of the First Amendment at protests and responding to terror…”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 45:10-45:25
“Some of the arrest figures are actually not all that dissimilar from what we've seen in the prior year.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 46:22-46:29
“When it comes especially to our response to instances of mental health across the city, that that is work that still needs to be done to…”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 46:43-46:53
“I think there's only one majority in this country, it's the working class.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 50:15-50:19
“Yes, I do want to raise taxes on people who make more than a million a year.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 51:24-51:28
“Yes, Full stop. I'm not interested in expelling people from parties.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 55:30-55:38
“I found that there were a lot of people when I was running for mayor who would name a few things that they disagreed with me on, but they…”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 57:45-57:58
“What we sign up for, and also what I think, in many ways is also an antiquated understanding of what a politician's wife is supposed to be.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 1:01:55-1:02:05
“We are giving 2002 year olds free childcare this fall.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 1:03:38-1:03:43
“We would secure a thousand tickets for $50.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 1:03:56-1:03:59
“We would make fan fests which were previously going to charge money, we would make them free.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 1:03:58-1:04:03
“We would have 24, seven soccer fields.”
Zohran Mamdani Knows He Has Political Capital. He Intends to Spend It. | The Interview | Uploaded July 18, 2026 | 1:04:03-1:04:06
“We would extend the lighting hours at basketball courts.”
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