Few pundits have pivoted as violently from pseudo-conservative to radical anti-Trump extremist as quickly as The Weekly Standard founder Bill Kristol. After spending years denouncing President Trump and praising the leftists he formerly criticized, Kristol recently shared a take on the New York City mayoral race that proved just how deeply his ideology has changed.
Apparently ignoring the fact that there is even a Republican in the race at all, he indicated that he would be inclined to support socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani over the more moderate Democrat in the race. “The idea of going back to Cuomo is just, I think, ridiculous. I think if it had been the first round, I would’ve voted for someone else and maybe wouldn’t have even ranked Mamdani and would’ve had other people who were more centrist, liberal types,” Kristol said during an October interview with The Forum.
“And I also just think, practically speaking, New York is a huge city. He’s not going to destroy it, I don’t think. He’s gonna set up five silly government-run grocery stores, I guess. I don’t think he even will do that … And so they’ll be fine. So there’ll be some grocery store somewhere and it won’t be as good as the privately run ones, and it will go out of business in three years and it’ll be a little bit of a waste of taxpayer money, you know? Or it’ll be harmless, you know?”
Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), may not be able to accomplish his most ambitious plans. Namely, all those freebies Mamdani promises on his campaign website: “Fast, fare-free buses,” “No cost childcare,” “mak[ing] it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business.”
Kristol received ample pushback via social media for his embrace of Mamdani’s far-left platform. Meanwhile, left-wing outlets like The New Republic portray Kristol’s remarks as a knock on Andrew Cuomo’s electability: “All these big shot, you know, finance types in New York, they couldn’t get behind anyone except for Andrew Cuomo. It’s really pathetic, in my opinion. So now they’re rallying to Cuomo with some of them, but I don’t have that much sympathy for that,” Kristol continued.
An ex-Republican like Kristol is, in theory, the exact kind of support that Cuomo would be looking for. The fact that he can’t get it from even the center right is an indictment of Cuomo’s lack of juice, energy, and integrity more than anything else. Kristol doesn’t even seem to like Mamdani all that much, but his disdain for Cuomo overrules that.