Under legal attack from President Donald Trump, New York State Attorney General Letitia James has endorsed 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as the next mayor of New York City.
In a stormy speech at a mayoral rally in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood on Monday evening, James struck a defiant tone as she praised Mamdani as a “courageous” leader who would rally New Yorkers to resist Trump and “fight for a better future.”
“He, like me, knows what it’s like to be attacked – to be yelled at, to be threatened, to be harassed,” James said. “Every day he wakes up with this fire in his belly because he wants to build a better New York.”
Federal prosecutors have charged James with bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution, apparently as part of an extensive campaign of retaliation against Democratic politicians and others who have opposed the president.
James, the first woman and first African American ever elected attorney general of New York, led the successful civil case against Trump for financial fraud.
She has denied any wrongdoing and calls the charges against her ‘unfounded’.
“You see, I know what it feels like to be attacked for just doing your job. But I also know what it feels like to overcome adversity,” James told the cheering crowd on Monday.
“And so I stand on a firm rock, and I will not bow. I will not break. I will not bow. I will not capitulate. I will not yield. I will not give up.
“You come for me, you have to come for all of us! Every one of us!” she concluded, to loud cheers.
“You see, I’ve learned to stand on the shoulders of my ancestors who came before me and weathered the storm… and that’s why I fear no one.”
She described Trump as attempting to “deploy justice for political gain” while “destroying our democracy” and “ero”[ding] our system of government.”
“Let us stand together to defend our rights, to protect every guarantee, every institution, every immigrant, every norm and every rule of law,” she told the crowd.
She concluded her speech by urging Mamdani’s supporters to “make some noise,” repeatedly shouting, “Let them hear you!”
Zohran Mamdani has taken a decisive lead in the New York mayoral race since winning the Democratic primary in June, with recent polls showing him clearly ahead of independent-turned Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
In his own speech Monday night, Mamdani depicted the Trump administration as a totalitarian force that is “snatching our immigrant neighbors from our city in broad daylight” and waging a “scorched earth campaign” against transgender people, political opponents like James, and non-conforming judges.
He positioned himself as a champion of vulnerable New Yorkers against these predations, but also as the antidote to establishment Democrats beholden to corporations.
‘For too long we have been told to be content with abstractions and strongly worded letters; that we must be content with a politics built on the weak foundation of only what we are against, without ever declaring what we are actually for; to accept leaders who want to sell us out to the highest bidder,” he said.
“That is not what this movement is, and it never will be. A movement by the people and for the people, which only answers the people.”
What Mamdani is for, according to his campaign platform, includes universal free childcare, free travel on city buses, a widespread freeze on rents, city-owned supermarkets and a new public security agency to address the low-level problems currently handled by armed police officers – all paid for by raising taxes on businesses and high income earners, increasing tax audits and reducing government waste.
Trump has responded by calling Mamdani a “100 percent communist lunatic” supported by “dummies,” while some Republicans have called for his deportation and MAGA influencers have hurled Islamophobic abuse.
Democrats are divided over whether to embrace his campaign, with some accusing him of anti-Semitism over his past criticism of Israel (which Mamdani strongly denies).
‘There are those who are against it [my] vision,” Mamdani said on Monday. “Billionaires love Bill Ackman and Ronald Lauder have poured millions of dollars into this race because they say we pose an existential threat.
“And I’m here to admit something: They’re right.
“We are an existential threat to billionaires who think their money can buy our democracy. We are an existential threat to a broken status quo that buries the voices of working people under corporations…
“And we absolutely pose an existential threat to disgraced politicians like Andrew Cuomo, who diminish public trust, harass women and are unapologetic in their desperation to work with Donald Trump and his donors.”
Cuomo, who resigned as governor of New York after an attorney general report found he sexually harassed at least 11 women, has denied any wrongdoing.
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