We had to laugh when everyone present tried to spin this week’s Brooklyn stop on Zohran Mamdani’s “Five Boroughs Against Trump” tour as a dramatic show of Democratic Party unity, when it was plainly nothing more than an alliance of convenience with the Kings County’s most prominent Dems conspicuously absent.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams insisted that the media needed to “understand what’s going on right now, because I don’t think this group of people agree about nothing” — yet they still don’t.
Williams and other radicals (including supposed reformers) were basking in the glow of fellow-traveler Mamdani’s primary triumph, but the machine politicians like Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermalyne, the county Democratic boss, were just trying to make sure their bread will still be buttered.
Bichotte Hermalyne and her allies had endorsed ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, obviously because he seemed the sure winner, but Andrew’s political corpse wasn’t even cold when she announced in a NY1 News interview her support for Mamdani in the general election.
Beyond other patronage, she and her “regular” Democrats are likely also hoping to cut some deal that nabs their faction the City Council speakership next year as a reward for jumping so quickly behind Mamdani.
Not all pols are that squalid: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other notable Brooklyn Dems very much did not turn out for the “unity” farce.
Then again, Jeffries and Schumer are actually working ceaselessly to counter Trump, not just posturing about it so they can avoid addressing other issues.
The point is that these politicians (like others across town) are “uniting” behind Mamdani because it serves their factional interests, not because they think he’ll be good for the city.
The Democrats who truly care about New York are conspicuous by their silence.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
