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Chris Hayes Townhall Helps Mamdani Hide His Radicalism
MS NOW’s Chris Hayes welcomed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to a special town hall edition of All In on Friday to celebrate his first 100 days in office. According to Hayes, all of the worries about Mamdani have been shown to be hysterical, but it helped that he simply declined to mention some of Mamdani’s more radical moments.
Hayes began his introduction by gushing, “This was the front page of The New York Post the day Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City. ‘The Red Apple,’ they're good at that. The culmination of one of the most improbable political stories of the Trump age, a grassroots, progressive campaign like no one had ever seen before, with more opposition from Republicans, from a Democratic political dynasty, from the president, from the media that we'd ever seen.”
Chris Hayes did a townhall with Zohran Mamdani yesterday and suggested all the concerns about him are overblown, "The city has not fallen into communism just yet." His first question wasn't much better, "What's the biggest thing you've learned? The biggest realization you've had… pic.twitter.com/OjnMFkXBU5
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) April 25, 2026
It helped that the Democratic dynasty was running an alleged sexual harasser who previously put elderly COVID patients in nursing homes, but Hayes rolled right along, “And he won with a laser focus on a core message of making it more affordable for the people who live here. It's been a little over 100 days. The city has not fallen into communism just yet, but he does have a job to do.”
After Hayes previewed the evening’s format and introduced Mamdani, he began with a softball, “You know, you were an assembly member, just like the last time, maybe the last time I saw you, actually, and just a few months ago. It's a very different job than this job. What's the biggest thing you've learned? The biggest realization you've had actually being in that position?”
Mamdani professed that if he wants to be able to enact his agenda, “That trust starts when you fill in those potholes, because you can't tell someone to trust city government and its ability to deliver free childcare for two-year-olds for the first time in its history, if they can look out the window and see the same pothole unfilled as it was the day before, the week before, the month before, the year before. And so at the same time that we've been pursuing this agenda that would transform the lives of New Yorkers delivering a pathway to universal child care on day eight.”
Patting himself on the back, he added, “We've also filled in 102,000 potholes in that same 100-day period. We started to repave more than a thousand miles of roadway. And all of this comes back from a belief that there's no problem too big, no task too small. And we call this pothole politics.”
New York City’s surge in pothole repair is almost certainly due to an increase in potholes after the city’s nasty winter and not anything Mamdani’s done differently than his predecessors.
However, that question set the tone for the evening. One self-identifying Republican asked how he could trust that all the taxes he has to pay will be worth it, while a small grocery store owner asked why he put one of his government-run stores “right around the corner” if they were meant to deal with food deserts, but those were just two questions over the course of an hour.
Mamdani never had to answer for his insane death tax proposal, while Hayes’s earlier comment about not falling into communism “yet” is of little comfort considering that so many of his other tax schemes are still in the proposal stage. One of the biggest concerns about Mamdani was his record on anti-Semitism. Since being elected, Mamdani has condemned both sides after an anti-Semitic mob gathered in front of a synagogue that he alleged violated international law by having B’Nefesh promote immigration to Israel, which is both not true and not how the First Amendment works. He also dined with terrorist supporter Mahmoud Khalil. Neither Hayes nor anyone else cared to ask about that.
Here is a transcript for the April 24 show:
MS NOW All In With Chris Hayes: All In America: Mayor Mamdani
4/24/2026
8:02 PM ET
CHRIS HAYES: This was the front page of The New York Post the day Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City. “The Red Apple,” they're good at that. The culmination of one of the most improbable political stories of the Trump age, a grassroots, progressive campaign like no one had ever seen before, with more opposition from Republicans, from a Democratic political dynasty, from the president, from the media that we'd ever seen.
And he won with a laser focus on a core message of making it more affordable for the people who live here. It's been a little over 100 days. The city has not fallen into communism just yet, but he does have a job to do.
We've invited an audience of New Yorkers to join us here, some of whom voted for this mayor, some who didn't. Some are supportive of his policies and others are not. But this is New York, so no one is ever going to be shy about sharing an opinion.
And the mayor isn't shy about hearing that. Let's welcome now Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Good to see you, Mr. Mayor.
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Thank you for having me. I wore a suit, so I can match your energy. Thank you.
HAYES: You know, you were an assembly member, just like the last time, maybe the last time I saw you, actually, and just a few months ago. It's a very different job than this job. What's the biggest thing you've learned? The biggest realization you've had actually being in that position?
MAMDANI: You know, I think the biggest thing, first and foremost, is that New Yorkers trust, for all of the big ideas that we have about delivering universal child care, about making the most expensive city in America affordable for working class people who help keep it running. That trust starts when you fill in those potholes, because you can't tell someone to trust city government and its ability to deliver free childcare for two–year-olds for the first time in its history, if they can look out the window and see the same pothole unfilled as it was the day before, the week before, the month before, the year before. And so at the same time that we've been pursuing this agenda that would transform the lives of New Yorkers delivering a pathway to universal child care on day eight.
We've also filled in 102,000 potholes in that same 100-day period. We started to repave more than a thousand miles of roadway. And all of this comes back from a belief that there's no problem too big, no task too small. And we call this pothole politics.