New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani tactfully, and a few would say cordially, shut down a heckler who interrupted the announcement of his “Neighborhood Builders Fast Track” program, a brand new inexpensive housing initiative in Brooklyn on Wednesday.
Mamdani refused to take the heckler’s bait and even went as far as to defend the person, saying it wouldn’t be New York City if his constituents weren’t shouting at him.
“We love that in New York City you’re gonna hear it from everybody,” Mamdani stated. “It wouldn’t be our city if there wasn’t somebody on the block.”
Instead of reacting to the heckler, Mamdani used the chance to remain on message and say that the day a person isn’t yelling at him is the day he was priced out of the town.
“I don’t want that, I don’t want that for him, I don’t want that for anybody in this city,” Mamdani stated, eliciting laughter from the group. “We need to make this a city where it’s affordable enough to yell at your politicians. If it’s not that city, it’s not the city I want to live in.”
Watch Mamdani’s full remarks right here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/zohran-mamdani-shuts-down-heckler_n_69c4a7b6e4b0e447525c2642