'Big tent party': DNC chair shrugs off Mamdani's refusal to condemn 'globalize the intifada' slogan
Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), dismissed concerns over NYC Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's unwillingness to explicitly condemn the slogan "globalize the intifada," adding in an interview with PBS that the key to developing a winning coalition is through welcoming people with whom you disagree.
After Mamdani's monumental upset in the Democratic primary election for New York City mayor over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, he garnered backlash for refusing to condemn a phrase used to describe violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel. The slogan, "globalize the intifada," has become a rallying cry for anti-Israel protesters in the United States ever since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against hundreds of innocent Israelis.
"There's no candidate in this party that I agree 100% of the time with, to be honest with you. There are things that I don't agree with Mamdani that he said, but at the end of the day, I always believe, as a Democratic Party chair in Minnesota for the last 14 years and now the chair of the DNC, that you win through addition," Martin said during a Wednesday interview with PBS NewsHour.
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"You win by bringing people into your coalition. We have conservative-Democrats, we have centrist-Democrats, we have labor-progressives like me, and we have this new brand of Democrat which is the leftists," Martin continued. "We win by bringing people into that coalition and at the end of the day, for me, that's the type of party we're going to lead. We are a big tent party."
Martin conceded that sometimes this type of coalition building "leads to dissent and debate," but, he noted, such "differences of opinion" should be celebrated and recognized as a way to move the party forward.
During a podcast last month, Mamdani referred to the controversial slogan as "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." When given another chance to explicitly condemn the phrase on NBC's "Meet The Press," the NYC mayoral candidate once again refused to do so.
"That’s not language that I use," Mamdani told NBC’s Kristen Welker. "The language that I use and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights."
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When Welker doubled-down on whether Mamdami would "actually condemn" the slogan, which Welker pointed out a lot of people perceive as a call to violence against Jews, Mamdani responded that he has spoken with numerous Jewish New Yorkers about their fears of anti-Semitism and said he would be committing to increasing "anti-hate crime programming" in the city by 800%.
"Ultimately, what I think I need to show is the ability to not only talk about something but to tackle it and to make clear that there's no room for antisemitism in this city," Mamdani responded. "And we have to root out that bigotry, and ultimately we do that through the actions, and that is the mayor I will be, one that protects Jewish New Yorkers and lives up to that commitment through the work that I do."
Before turning to a different topic, Welker, for a third time, sought to get Mamdani on the record over whether he condemned the controversial slogan. "Why not just condemn it?" Welker asked.
"My concern is to start to walk down the line of language and making clear what language I believe is permissible or impermissible. Takes me into a place similar to that of the president who is looking to do those very kinds of things, putting people in jail for writing an Op-Ed, putting them in jail for protesting," Mamdani responded. "Ultimately, it's not language that I use, it's language I understand there are concerns about, and what I will do is showcase my vision for this city through my words and my actions."