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The Briefing with Jen Psaki

'From lecturing to listening': Mamdani explains how he drew votes from Trump supporters in NYC race

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

NBC News

News, Politics

4.5664 Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In his first national interview since Tuesday's primary election New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani talks with Jen Psaki about the principles of his campaign and how he reached out to voters who had previously chosen Trump, and how he countered significant opposition spending.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In just a moment, I'm going to talk to Zoran Mammani for his first national interview since the 33-year-old,

0:05.9

33-year-old, self-described socialist set off what I would call a political earthquake last night.

0:13.1

Now, if you're a loyal viewer of this show, first off, thank you for being a loyal viewer of the show.

0:17.1

We really appreciate you.

0:18.4

And second, you probably recognize Zoran Mamdani. If you're a New Yorker, you probably recognize Zoranamani. If you're a New Yorker,

0:22.0

you probably recognize Zoranamadani. He's been my guest here twice since launching his campaign.

0:27.0

We've talked about a lot. But a lot has happened in even just the last 10 days or so since we spoke.

0:34.8

In a race where he was polling 10 points behind just four weeks ago,

0:40.0

last night he gave a victory speech. And here's part of what he said.

0:45.5

Tonight, we made history. In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done.

1:04.6

Now, Mamdani ran in a crowded primary field, very crowded, against 10 other candidates.

1:11.4

One of those candidates was the presumed frontrunner from the very beginning.

1:15.6

You can see him on the screen, you know who he is.

1:18.1

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace four years ago after 11 women accused

1:24.1

him of sexual harassment. And yet, somehow, despite that, this mayoral race,

1:32.7

this primary, was supposed to be Andrew Cuomo's comeback. And somehow, despite all of that,

1:40.3

he had all the traditional backers that you might expect for a normal Democratic frontrunner

1:45.2

who wasn't accused of sexual harassment about 11 women. He had all of them. Most of the major

1:50.7

unions endorsed him, with some notable exceptions I'll say, like Sean Fane's UAW. He also had

1:56.2

virtually all of the money on his side, including a record-breaking $25 million from a pro-Quomo

2:02.7

super PAC funded largely by Michael Bloomberg, Trump donor Bill Ackman, yes, that guy, and the

2:08.8

delivery company DoorDash. Kloom also had many of the old school big name political endorsements,

...

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