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Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries again declined to issue an endorsement of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and said the recent controversy over Mamdani living in a rent-stabilized apartment is a “legitimate issue.”
“Well listen, that’s an issue for the state legislators and the state government to work out,” Jeffries told CNBC on Thursday morning when asked about Mamdani living in a rent-stabilized apartment in Queens despite making close to $150,000 a year.
When pressed about New Yorkers who make far less and don’t have access to rent-controlled apartments, Jeffries said, “It’s a legitimate issue that has been raised, and the campaign is going to have to address it.”
Mamdani has faced intensifying criticism for living in the rent-controlled apartment while campaigning on the need for affordable housing, including from his opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has floated legislation that he has dubbed “Zohran’s Law” to prevent high-income individuals from occupying rent-stabilized apartments.
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Mamdani, who has previously acknowledged that he hails from a wealthy family, has said he rented the $2,300-per-month apartment before he became an assemblyman and did not know at the time he signed the lease that it was a rent-stabilized apartment.
This week, Mamdani was hit with an ethics complaint urging a probe into the situation and questioning whether the socialist candidate received improper assistance securing subsidized housing.
“Right-wing think tanks and MAGA billionaires’ pathetic attempts to distract from Zohran Mamdani’s mission to make NYC more affordable will fail, just as they did in the primary where New Yorkers resoundingly rejected Andrew Cuomo in a humiliating defeat,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec told the New York Post regarding the ethics complaint.
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Jeffries legitimizing the critique of Mamdani sparked some pushback online from users who suggested Jeffries was wrong to side against Mamdani.
“Starting to think this guy shouldn’t be leader,” former Democratic speechwriter Alex Bradley posted on X. “Weak where it matters, not a team player.”
“What a coward,” NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge Associate Director Michael Koncewicz posted on X. “It’s deeply embarrassing that Jeffries is a leader of the Democratic Party.”
A headline from Mediaite characterized Jeffries’s comment as having thrown Mamdani “under the bus.”
Cuomo and Mamdani have been going back and forth with jabs on the issue after Cuomo called Mamdani out in a social media post that has been seen over 30 million times, calling on Mamdani “to move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it.”
In the CNBC interview, Jeffries also declined to officially endorse Mamdani despite praising his primary performance where he “outworked” his opponents.
“But now, during the general election, of course, he’s going to have to demonstrate to a broader electorate, including in many of the neighborhoods that I represent in Brooklyn, that his ideas can actually be put into reality, and that’s the conversation that he’s having with me and having with people who are community leaders and residents in the 8th Congressional District I serve.”
Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report
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