The confrontation that drove senior officials crazy: the war against Mamdani escalates

Former senior Democrats Mark Penn and Rahm Emanuel sharply attacked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Penn accused him of presenting false data on a real estate tax, and Emanuel revealed a confrontation over Mamdani's extreme positions on Israel and the slogan "from the river to the sea."

Two prominent senior Democrats close to the Clinton and Obama administrations sharply attacked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week. Mark Penn, a veteran Democratic strategist and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, attacked Mamdani's real estate tax plan, claiming that the city's assessment system brings nearly a million property owners into the tax net instead of about 30,000 targeted luxury homeowners. Penn wrote that "the five million dollar figure was fake" and warned of damage to property values and investments. Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff and former Mayor of Chicago, recounted in the "Unholy" podcast a private 90-minute meeting with Mamdani, where he confronted him over the use of the phrase "from the river to the sea." Emanuel said: "I know where the red line is. You don't." In response, Anna Baer, Mamdani's communications director, denied the account. The article presents the attacks as part of an internal Democratic Party struggle between the center-left and the far-left wing, amid fears that extremism will hurt the party's electoral chances.