MSNBC’s Hayes Demands Concerned Democrats Fall In Line Behind Mamdani

HAYES: “And it hasn’t just been that. Even some establishment Democrats have refused to back their party’s choice or said really vile things about him, despite the overwhelming enthusiasm for his candidacy here in New York. But if there’s one thing Mamdani has demonstrated over the course of this campaign so far is he’s pretty good at just kind of sticking to his principles and message discipline. He doesn’t bow down in the face of pressure, but then he keeps pivoting back to the center of what he campaigned on, which is affordability. And that is exactly what a lot of Democrats, again, across the ideological spectrum, have been both talking about and are looking for right now. Lydia Polgreen had a good piece in The New York Times this week, writing, ‘Mamdani’s win is a rebuke of the strategy, such as it is, that many leading Democrats have advocated in the face of Trump’s shock-and-awe attempt to remake the presidency and the country in his dark image. Haplessly veering between not getting distracted by Trump’s lawless actions and signaling their moderation in the face of Trumpian antics as their base marches in the streets. Democrats are missing the core political reality of our time.’ Emma Vigeland, co-host of ‘The Majority Report’ with my buddy Sam Seder. Faiz Shakir is a senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders and the executive director of More Perfect Union. And they join me now. Emma, I want to start with the response to Mamdani and what you make of it. In some ways, he’s sort of created in a lab to make Republican and conservative politicians absolutely lose their mind, and they have not disappointed. But there’s also been, broadly, a lot of pretty insane reactions.”
VIGELAND: “I think you’re absolutely right. I mean, just think about this for a second. The fact that so many people see Zohran Mamdani, a man who is born in Uganda and of Indian heritage, and they immediately go to anti-Semitism or Hamas, what else can you call that? And as you just said, Chris, this is not just Republicans. Republicans, of course, we expect that. So many of the arguments that I’m hearing against Mamdani now, I feel like I could have heard them against Obama in 2008 when he won the nomination, where it’s just this constant stream of racist attacks. And unfortunately, though, we saw, from politicians like Kirsten Gillibrand and others, some really unfortunate Islamophobic racism directed at Mamdani. And it’s just incredible to me to see how, despite the fact that Democratic voters — now, CNN showed this the other day, that they sympathize with Palestinians by more than 43 points at this point — that you still see this reflexive reaction because of his faith from members of this — of the party here trying to shut him down and trying to negate his message.”