Both NYC Tabloids Fought Mamdani, But Each Did It Their Way
Saurav Sarkar
Scary people of color featured prominently in the New York Post's anti-Mamdani tirades (10/19/25).
If there’s one thing that the institutional opinion-makers of New York’s major local tabloids, the New York Post and the Daily News, agreed on during the recent mayoral campaign, it’s that Zohran Mamdani should not be the next mayor of New York. But the way their editorial boards approached the election over the past few months vastly differed, reflecting their contrasting methods of opposing progress in New York City.
The New York Post ran an intense, almost daily, increasingly negative stream of editorials against Mamdani, with headlines like “Get Out and Vote, New Yorkers—It’s the Only Way to Prevent the Zohran Mamdani Nightmare” (10/27/25), “NY ‘Justice’ Is Now a Revolving Door for Serial Violent Perps—and Mamdani Will Make It WORSE” (10/19/25) and “How a Mayor Mamdani's Israel Hate Would Twist the Entire City” (10/16/25).
The Post’s editorials spanned the gamut of issues, from education ("Mamdani’s Pathetic Plans for NYC Schools"—10/18/25) and housing (his rent freeze will "make the housing crisis worse…as people in rent-controlled units…will refuse to move"—11/2/25) to Mamdani’s “socialist agenda” (9/18/25), the socio-economics of his inner circle (9/7/25) and NYC controller and Mamdani ally Brad Lander ("the very definition of an unprincipled political weasel"—6/25/25).
Mamdani was attacked for insufficient praise for Trump regarding the ceasefire in Palestine (10/9/25), for being in Uganda during the shooting of a police officer in New York (8/2/25), for Qatari funding of his mom’s filmmaking work (9/1/25), for his level of privilege in Uganda (8/1/25), for not talking to the Post (10/31/25), and for pretty much anything happening on an average day in New York (10/8/25).
Pro-police sentiment accompanied by anti-Black racism (9/22/25, 10/19/25) featured prominently in the unsigned editorials in the Post. For example, in the Post’s piece “20 Reasons to Vote Against NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani” (11/2/25), reasons 1, 2, and 3 to not vote for him were “He hates the police,” “He really hates the police” and “He hates the police—with a splash of antisemitism.”
'Hates Israel and the West'
For the New York Post (10/24/25), Islamophobia is "a nonsensical category that was invented to quash legitimate concerns about the growth of jihadism."
Mamdani more generally came under intense fire for “antisemitism” (11/2/25) and being “anti-Israel”—which mean the same thing at the Post. “Mamdani’s Perverse Need to Destroy the Jewish State Is Driving His Campaign,” the Post (9/30/25) opined in a typical headline over an editorial that asserted, “Mamdani’s focus on erasing Israel is the very definition of antisemitism.”
“It’s Not Islamophobic to Notice Mamdani Hates Israel and the West,” argued another Post headline (10/24/25). The Post did run one editorial (7/3/25—not available online) that cautioned against employing anti-Muslim hatred in criticism of Mamdani. Then it attacked Mamdani (10/26/25) for not denying that Islamophobia exists, saying, “No wave of anti-Muslim hate crimes followed 9/11, not in New York nor anywhere else.” ("The FBI reported that the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes rose from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001, a 17-fold increase"—Human Rights Watch, 11/02.)
It also excoriated him for associating with noted Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour (11/2/25), and for “palling around with a ‘terror co-conspirator,’” Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj (10/19/25). As Mamdani himself (Brooklyn Eagle, 10/20/25) said:
The same imam met with Mayor Bloomberg, met with Mayor De Blasio, campaigned alongside Eric Adams, and the only time it became an issue of national attention was when I met with him because of the fact of my faith and because I’m on the precipice of winning this election.
'Cartoonish positions on the Mideast'
Daily News (10/7/25): Mamdani's "stance that Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state...smacks of antisemitism in its rejection of an article of faith held so dearly by so many."
In contrast to the unhinged Post, the Daily News editorial board was less verbose and less, well, crazy. For example, it published one editorial (6/29/25) that defended Mamdani against national Republican efforts to strip him of citizenship, saying those were “un-American,” “contemptible” and “dangerous.”
However, in terms of the mayor’s race itself, its views were only marginally less critical of Mamdani; it penned 11 unsigned editorials between the primary election on June 24 and the day before the general election, November 5, that focused at least in part on criticizing Mamdani.
For example, the Daily News (7/2/25) acknowledged that Mamdani has repeatedly verbally denounced antisemitism, though it dismissed those statements because of the candidate's criticism of Israel:
Mamdani can’t just say he’s not antisemitic and that he wants to protect all New Yorkers. Those are hollow words that he continues to undermine by his actions, by using and supporting language and positions that fuel the fires of hate. His candidacy and naïve, even cartoonish, positions on the Mideast have rightly sparked fear among Jewish New Yorkers.
This distinction was lost in headlines like “Mamdani’s Stance on Israel Isn’t an Attack on Netanyahu, It’s an Antisemitic Affront to Jews” (10/7/25). In that editorial, the Daily News used a crystal ball to predict that Mamdani would be supporting anti-Israel protests on October 7, the second anniversary of the Hamas breakout from Gaza, and went off from there. (For the record, he attended a vigil that day organized by Israelis for Peace that called for a ceasefire and a return of prisoners held by both Israel and Hamas.)
'Trying to redefine himself'
The Daily News (7/24/25) also attacked Mamdani for his lack of support from NYCHA residents in three projects in his district in the primary elections. While this is an interesting angle and an important issue, it seems like cherry-picking data to look at these housing projects alone in the entire city.
And there was no robust debate in the opinion pages of the Daily News on the issue of NYCHA housing. It was opportunistic, at a minimum, to hold up the votes of people from three specific housing projects for the sole purpose of saying a particular group of poor and working-class Black and Latino people don’t support Mamdani. This was particularly the case given that Mamdani was polling significantly better among people of color than among white people.
In August, the Daily News (8/10/25) criticized Mamdani for coming to agree with them more. "‘Changed’ Views on Cops and Israel Are Hollow,” it proclaimed:
At least the old anti-cop Mamdani was consistent, if wrong…. We’re not buying it. Mamdani is trying to redefine himself to appeal to a wider audience in the general election, and spinning it as if he all of a sudden learned something new from these conversations.
Can’t win with these people.
A couple of editorials (9/28/25, 10/20/25) then called for Republican Curtis Sliwa to withdraw from the race to clear a path for Andrew Cuomo to win. It’s not clear in what other race in the country a major party candidate would be urged to withdraw from candidacy simply to stop an ideological opponent of the paper.
'Naïve and maddening'
The Daily News (10/29/25) assured us that "Andrew Cuomo has solutions." The two it mentioned: He would "prioritize building more housing" and "boost the [NYPD's] ranks by 5,000 new cops."
In the closing days of the contest, the Daily News (10/26/25) made formal its endorsement of Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani was described as “dithering,” with a campaign that was “a house of cards built on soundbites and laced with antisemitism”:
He stumbles and dodges when asked to venture beyond his surface-level focus on affordability and his four, and only four, narrow planks: childcare, buses, rent and grocery stores. It is not only naïve and maddening, but dangerous for a future mayor, and points up how unfit he is for the office.
The News went point by point, attacking “the real Mamdani” on how he will secure funding for his ambitious plans, on education, housing and development, decriminalization, antisemitism and Israel.
But what the Daily News didn’t get—what New York’s voters did—was that no matter how much establishment institutions like the Post and the Daily News tried to grind away at Mamdani’s genuine charisma and likeability and laser-like focus on the issues that New Yorkers do care about the most, they weren’t going to win.
In the end, the Daily News (10/29/25) focused on experience : “Lined up, there is no comparison between the seasoned Cuomo and the inexperienced Mamdani," the ed board said. "Frankly, Mamdani just isn’t ready for the second-toughest job in America.”
But after all its talk of NYCHA and Israel and antisemitism, the Daily News finally stated the obvious ideological differences between Mamdani and the plurality of New York voters on the one hand and Cuomo and the Daily News on the other:
A larger number of centrists will be participating, as opposed to the more ideological types who dominate primaries. And that has always been Cuomo’s strength, the center, when he was governor and how he would be as mayor.
Mamdani comes from the left extreme and appeals to those voters, not the middle.
Tuesday's election results show that what the Daily News calls the "left extreme" is in fact much larger than the so-called "center."
Disclosure: The author was one of the 100,000 volunteers in the Zohran Mamdani campaign.
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