{"id":274653,"date":"2026-06-23T00:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274653\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T00:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T00:17:11","slug":"mamdani-defends-aipac-monster-remarks-after-questions-over-language-at-brooklyn-campaign-rally-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/274653\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani defends AIPAC \u2018monster\u2019 remarks after questions over language at Brooklyn campaign rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended comments he made about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)<\/a> after he was asked whether language including \u201cmonsters\u201d and \u201cdark money\u201d\u00a0 was dangerous or invoked antisemitic tropes.<\/p>\n

AIPAC is a prominent pro-Israel advocacy group that supports candidates through endorsements and political spending. Mamdani\u2019s remarks about it came during a Brooklyn rally last week<\/a> for three progressive congressional candidates he has endorsed in Tuesday\u2019s Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n

Speaking at City Hall after a press conference on heat safety and worker protections<\/a>, Mamdani did not apologize. Instead, he said his remarks were aimed at AIPAC\u2019s support for what he called an immoral status quo in Gaza, as well as the broader role of super PACs and political spending in New York\u2019s congressional primaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be very clear: We\u2019re talking about a status quo where children are being killed on a daily basis,\u201d Mamdani said in response to a reporter\u2019s question about concerns from members of the Jewish community and New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s answer echoed recent warnings from UNICEF. In a June 19 UN News report<\/a>, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said 265 Palestinian children had been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was announced in October 2025, amounting to an average of one child killed per day for more than eight months. The report said the child deaths were among nearly 1,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began, according to health authorities in the enclave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor said that when he speaks about AIPAC, he is speaking about \u201can organization that has been supportive of the status quo,\u201d and accused the group of defending that status quo through direct contributions and what he called \u201cdark money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the way in which they defend the status quo, oftentimes they defend it through direct contributions, as we are seeing right now in New York 13,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cOftentimes they also support the status quo through dark money, by filtering money that would have previously been directly from AIPAC, now through other shell organizations whose identities of their contributors are only made clear after an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange came days after Mamdani appeared with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn for a get-out-the-vote rally backing Brad Lander, Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, the three progressive House candidates he has endorsed in Tuesday\u2019s Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n

At that rally, Mamdani invoked Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, telling supporters that \u201cthe old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNow is the time of monsters,\u201d Mamdani said.\n<\/p>\n

He then told the crowd that \u201cthese monsters take many forms,\u201d pointing to those funding television ads against Lander, Valdez and Avila Chevalier, those spending more on political contributions than they would pay in taxes, and AIPAC.<\/p>\n

He said AIPAC feared \u201cdemocracy being allowed to run its course\u201d and \u201can end to genocide and Netanyahu\u2019s wars,\u201d then accused the group of moving \u201cmillions in dark money\u201d to \u201cpreserve their power\u201d and \u201cturn us against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

City & State<\/a> reported Friday that United Democracy Project, AIPAC\u2019s super PAC, gave $650,000 to BOLD America, a super PAC supporting Espaillat and opposing Avila Chevalier. The outlet reported that BOLD America has spent at least $2.8 million in the race.<\/p>\n

In NY-10, Goldman\u2019s AIPAC ties have also become part of the campaign debate.<\/a> The New York Post reported Monday<\/a> that a Williamsburg coffee shop refunded Goldman\u2019s coffee purchase and told him in a social media post, \u201cDon\u2019t ever come to Poetica,\u201d while saying his money was \u201cprobably coming from AIPAC anyways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mayor Zohran Mamdani signs an executive order on worker heat safety beside New York Attorney General Letitia James and Deputy Mayor Julie Su in the City Hall rotunda, Monday, June 22, 2026Photo by Ed Reed\/Mayoral Photography Office.<\/p>\n

Asked Monday whether he regretted those remarks or would clarify or apologize, Mamdani said the line was a reference to Gramsci and argued that his use of \u201cmonsters\u201d was broader than AIPAC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quoting Gramsci, who said that the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cI used the term to describe all those who are preventing the birth of a new world, not solely AIPAC, but frankly super PACs at large, who are spending millions of dollars in deceptive and misleading ads that are blanketing airwaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that spending was not only targeting Avila Chevalier, who is challenging Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York\u2019s 13th Congressional District, but also Lander, who is challenging Rep. Dan Goldman in the 10th District, Valdez, who is running in the 7th District, and other candidates.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also said the phrase was aimed at \u201ca politics that, for far too long, has asked working people to lower their expectations,\u201d and \u201cto be satisfied with small victories as their wages grow even smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Monster\u2019 remark by Mamdani seen as antisemitic trope for \u2018incitement\u2019<\/p>\n

The remarks drew criticism from Jewish leaders and elected officials, who said the language crossed a line from criticism of AIPAC into rhetoric that echoed antisemitic tropes.<\/p>\n

ADL New York\/New Jersey<\/a> called on Mamdani to apologize, saying that referring to members of the Jewish community who advocate for causes they care about as \u201cmonsters\u201d wielding \u201cdark money\u201d was \u201cshockingly offensive and unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about political disagreement,\u201d ADL New York\/New Jersey said. \u201cIt is about crossing a dangerous line by invoking dehumanizing and conspiratorial rhetoric with a long and troubling history in antisemitic tropes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Union for Reform Judaism<\/a> previously issued a warning about the language increasingly being used to describe AIPAC in campaigns across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as one can oppose AIPAC in good faith, one can oppose and forcefully criticize specific Israeli policies and still support a democratic, pluralistic, Jewish state of Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. This is a position we have taken on numerous policies and actions of the Israeli government,\u201d the union said in an April statement. \u201cOne can also support all of those things and choose not to accept funds from AIPAC. But to single out and disproportionately demonize AIPAC as a distinctively harmful dark-money entity crosses the line into antisemitic tropes about sinister Jewish political influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaim Steinmetz, an AIPAC supporter and the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, said Mamdani\u2019s comments were aimed at people like him.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, Mamdani is accusing AIPAC of being a monster that subverts democracy, supports genocide and wants to divide Americans,\u201d Steinmetz wrote on Facebook. <\/a>\u201cThis is pure incitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Mamdani was \u201cdemonizing\u201d millions of New Yorkers who support the policies AIPAC advocates for and warned that the mayor was \u201cpouring fuel on the fire\u201d at a time when New York already has an antisemitism problem.<\/p>\n

Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, also condemned the remarks, writing on X <\/a>that \u201cmonsters,\u201d \u201cdark money\u201d and language about a hidden hand \u201cturning us against one another\u201d amounted to \u201cthe oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books\u201d if \u201cAIPAC\u201d were swapped for \u201cJews.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not criticizing a lobby,\u201d Gottheimer wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s laundering antisemitism from your podium as Mayor of a city with more than a million Jews.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani did not directly address ADL, Steinmetz or Gottheimer by name, but instead defended the substance of his attack on AIPAC and linked it to the war in Gaza and the role of political spending in the closing days of the congressional primaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The broader fight over AIPAC has become part of the final argument in Tuesday\u2019s primaries, where Mamdani is trying to help elect a slate of progressive and democratic socialist candidates to Congress and Albany. In addition to Lander, Valdez and Avila Chevalier, Mamdani has endorsed Aber Khawas in Queens\u2019 12th State Senate District, Illapa Sairitupac in Lower Manhattan\u2019s 65th Assembly District, Samantha Kattan in Queens\u2019 37th Assembly District, Eli Northrup in Manhattan\u2019s 69th Assembly District and Brian Romero in Queens\u2019 34th Assembly District.<\/p>\n

At the Brooklyn rally, Mamdani framed the slate as an answer to a Democratic Party he said has been too cautious, too beholden to political calculation and too focused on explaining what cannot be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party must change,\u201d he told supporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday defended comments he made about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[64701,98,100,99,1445,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-274653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-aipac","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274653","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=274653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}