{"id":210877,"date":"2026-04-27T07:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/210877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:18:21","slug":"mamdani-acted-like-godfather-mobster-in-dangerous-stunt-outside-ken-griffins-pad-ex-gov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/210877\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani acted like ‘Godfather’ mobster in ‘dangerous’ stunt outside Ken Griffin’s pad: ex-gov"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani acted like a bozo mobster from the \u201cGodfather\u201d by protesting outside billionaire Ken Griffin\u2019s luxury Manhattan pad <\/a>in a \u201cdangerous\u2019\u2019 stunt, according to ex-Gov. David Paterson.<\/p>\n

\u201cMamdani had a press conference talking about how we\u2019re taxing the rich. \u2026 [He] went to [Griffin\u2019s] home, as they would say in \u2018The Godfather\u2019 which is a very dangerous thing to be doing right now with all of the attempts on peoples\u2019 lives,\u201d Paterson said in an interview that aired Sunday \u2014 pre-taped before a madman opened fire Saturday on the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner<\/a>, which President Trump attended.<\/p>\n

Former New York Gov. David Paterson criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s video filmed outside of hedge fund manager Ken Griffin\u2019s Manhattan apartment building. @NYCMayor \/X<\/p>\n

Paterson said Mamdani \u2014 who posted a now-viral online video of his staged publicity event outside Griffin\u2019s apartment April 15<\/a> \u2014 needs to be more mature now that he\u2019s mayor, instead of acting like a lefty street activist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this was a student protest, I\u2019d understand it and see [Mamdani] as puerile and callow,\u2019\u2019 Paterson said of Hizzoner\u2019s attention grab, designed to support Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s proposed new pied-\u00e0-terre tax<\/a> on luxury second homes worth more than $5 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut apparently, even at his age, he\u2019s still that way,\u2019\u2019 Paterson told host John Catsimatidis on 77 WABC radio\u2019s \u201cCats Roundtable\u201d program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no reason to attack anyone in that respect,\u201d the former gov said of the mayor\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all the donors in the world, the one who\u2019s given the most to causes is Ken Griffin. I guess [Mamdani] left that out of his commentary,\u201d Paterson said.<\/p>\n

The former gov\u2019s comments were made fewer than two years after prep boy-turned-accused assassin Luigi Mangione allegedly killed healthcare CEO Brian Thompson<\/a> on a Midtown Manhattan street in broad daylight.<\/p>\n

Paterson\u2019s warning also followed two previous assassination attempts on Trump.<\/p>\n

Mamdani filmed the video to celebrate Gov. Kathy Hochul adopting his pied-\u00e0-terre tax proposal. @NYCMayor \/X<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is believed to have been the target of the gunman who tried to blast his way into the famed DC dinner <\/a>Saturday before being taken down by law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, told reporters Friday that he had no regrets when asked about targeting Griffin\u2019s residence while plugging the proposed massive new tax on largely unoccupied luxury homes.<\/p>\n

Citadel hedge fund founder Griffin bought the 24,000-square-foot property on Central Park South for $238 million in 2019.<\/p>\n

Paterson accused Mamdani of acting like a mobster out of \u201cThe Godfather\u201d with his video threatening to tax the rich. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cThat home, when it was purchased, was the most expensive home in the United States of America, publicly reported, and it was described as such,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in a political environment where there is always an attempt to describe any increase in taxes as if it would be one that would apply to all, we wanted to make very clear that this [proposal] applies to a very select group of properties,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

But Paterson, a fellow Dem, also said the plan will only encourage developers \u201cto start thinking about developing any place else but New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin and his Citadel team are fuming over Mamdani\u2019s stunt.<\/p>\n

A top executive at his fund blasted the mayor\u2019s comments in a searing, company-wide email last week \u2014 and signaled that the firm may pull a $6 billion development project in Midtown.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom his comments, it is apparent that the Mayor\u2019s view is that these individuals do not contribute enough to the greater good,\u201d Citadel COO Gerald Beeson seethed in the missive, which was obtained by The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shameful that he used Ken\u2019s name as the example of those who supposedly aren\u2019t carrying their fair share of the burdens associated with New York City\u2019s often costly and wasteful spending,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Beeson suggested that Citadel may potentially not move forward with its redevelopment project of 350 Park Ave., which he said would bring 6,000 construction jobs and more than 15,000 permanent gigs in Midtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project \u2014 if we move forward \u2014 will entail more than $6 billion dollars of spending,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

A budget watchdog has meanwhile questioned whether the pied-\u00e0-terre tax will raise the $500 million a year that backers anticipate \u2014 and if it\u2019s needed at all.<\/p>\n

Ken Griffin\u2019s Citadel firm may pull a development project from Midtown Manhattan after the Mamdani stunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, we haven\u2019t seen any analysis,\u2019\u2019 said Andrew Rein, executive director of the Citizens Budget Commission, on \u201cCats\u2019\u2019 in a separate interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, we have a goal of $500 million in revenue. But we don\u2019t know what it will do to the housing market,\u201d Rein said.<\/p>\n

He noted that the city of Vancouver didn\u2019t raise the revenues anticipated on its pied-\u00e0-terre tax on unoccupied luxury homes because many owners converted them to rentals, thus excluding the properties from the additional levy.<\/p>\n

Rein said New York City government has a spending problem that needs to be address to shore up its budget, rather than hiking taxes.<\/p>\n

The pied-\u00e0-terre taxes is \u201cnot needed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani acted like a bozo mobster from the \u201cGodfather\u201d by protesting outside billionaire Ken Griffin\u2019s luxury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13279,426,18649,57,9,24,55,54,56,7754,2780,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-210877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-david-paterson","9":"tag-kathy-hochul","10":"tag-ken-griffin","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-property-taxes","18":"tag-taxes","19":"tag-us-news","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}