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Hochul Backs Mamdani Childcare Expansion Plan With Two Years of State Funding
"New York just got a lot more livable for thousands of families."
Jan 08, 2026
Thousands of parents in New York City will have access to free childcare after Gov. Kathy Hochul joined forces with Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Thursday to roll out the first steps of his campaign promise to make childcare universal throughout the city.
The governor announced $1.7 billion in this year's budget that will seek to create childcare access for 100,000 more children, part of a plan to spend $4.5 billion on childcare across the state during this fiscal year.
She said she is committed to “fully fund the first two years of the city’s implementation" of Mamdani's program, which he hopes will one day provide free childcare to kids between 6 weeks and 5 years old.
According to the childcare marketplace website TrustedCare, the average cost of daycare for children in New York City ranges from $2,000 to $4,200 per month, depending on the child's age and schedule.
"This is something every family can agree on," Hochul said at a press conference Thursday at a YMCA in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. "The cost of childcare is too damn high."
The governor and mayor will begin by increasing funding for the city's existing 3K program, created under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, which extended free pre-K, which was already available to all 4-year-olds, to 3-year-olds when spots are available. Hochul said she and Mamdani will seek to "fix" the program and make it truly universal.
After initially promising to make it available to all 3-year-olds, Mamdani's predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, instead slashed funding for it and other early childhood education programs, which children's advocates said drove kids out of the public school system and left many unable to find seats in nearby areas.
"We stand here today because of the young New Yorkers who were no longer willing to accept that the joy of beginning a family had to be paired with the heartbreak of moving away from a city that they have always loved," Mamdani said.
In addition to making that program universal, Hochul and Mamdani are rolling out a program offering childcare for 2-year-olds, known as "2 Care," which will first be available in "high-need areas" before being rolled out to all parents by 2029.
Mamdani has estimated that the plan to make pre-K fully universal will cost about $6 billion per year, with funding made more challenging by the fact that President Donald Trump recently cut off federal childcare subsidies to states, including $3 billion to New York, amid a manufactured panic about rampant fraud. Hochul has said the state is mulling its legal options to fight the funding freeze.
In the meantime, she plans to spend $73 million in the first year to cover the cost and creation of 2 Care, and $425 million in the second year as more children enroll.
While the source of the funds was not immediately clear, Hochul has said that money for the initial phase of the rollout will come from revenue already allocated by the legislature and not from any tax hikes in the coming year.
"We’re barely six months away from people dismissing Zohran Mamdani for running on universal childcare," said Rebecca Katz, an adviser to the new mayor's campaign. "And now here we are. Incredible. New York just got a lot more livable for thousands of families."
Some New Yorkers who supported Mamdani's campaign expressed excitement on social media about having one of their highest costs lifted.
"Universal 3K is the major reason we could afford to stay in our apartment in NYC," said Jordan Zakarin, a producer at the labor-focused media company More Perfect Union. "Making care free for 2-year-olds will be a game-changer for so many families and keep so many of them in NYC."
Andrei Berman, a father of three children, said that "this will save me 40 grand and eliminate my biggest expense a year early."
The high cost of childcare is an issue that has brought Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, together with the centrist Hochul. The endorsement of New York's "first mom governor," a leading Democratic power-broker in the state and the country, proved a critical stepping stone for Mamdani on his unlikely ascent to the city's highest office last year.
"To the cynics who insist that politics is too broken to deliver meaningful change, to those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer," Mamdani said. "This is a day that so many believed would never come, but it is a day that working people across our city have delivered through the sheer power of their hard work and their unwavering belief that a better future was within their grasp."
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'Welcome to a New Era for NYC': Zohran Mamdani Sworn In as New York City Mayor
“This is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime," the new mayor said.
Jan 01, 2026
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City's mayor early Thursday inside an abandoned subway station, capping off the rise to power of a former state assembly member whose laser focus on affordability, willingness to challenge establishment corruption, and adept use of social media inspired the electorate—including many previous nonvoters.
Mamdani's choice of location for the swearing-in ceremony, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, symbolized his commitment to restoring a city "that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working people’s lives," the mayor said in a statement.
During his campaign, Mamdani pledged to pursue a number of ambitious changes that he and his team will now begin the work of trying to implement, from fast and free buses to a $30 minimum wage to universal childcare—an agenda that would be funded by higher taxes on large corporations and the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.
“Happy New Year to New Yorkers both inside this tunnel and above,” Mamdani said in brief remarks at the ceremony. “This is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime.”
This is now the official account of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Welcome to a new era for NYC. pic.twitter.com/sDyiGWUVeb
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) January 1, 2026
Much of Mamdani's agenda would require action from the city legislature. But in the weeks leading up to his swearing-in, members of Mamdani's team scoured city statutes looking for ways Mamdani could use his mayoral authority to lower prices quickly.
In an interview with Vox earlier this week, Mamdani said that enacting his agenda is "not just critically important because you’re fulfilling what animated so many to engage with the campaign, to support the campaign, but also because of the impact it can have on New Yorkers’ lives."
"There’s a lot of politics where it feels like it’s a contest around narrative, that when you win something, it’s just for the story that you can tell of what you won, but so many working people can’t feel that victory in their lives," he said. "The point of a rent freeze is you feel it every first of the month. The point of a fast and free bus is you feel it every day when you’re waiting for a bus that sometimes never comes. The point of universal child care is so that you don’t have to pay $22,500 a year for a single toddler."
Prior to Thursday's ceremony, former Democratic Mayor Eric Adams spent his final hours on a veto spree, blocking 19 bills including worker-protection legislation.
City & State reported that "among the 19 pieces of legislation that received a last-minute veto was a bill that would expand a cap on street vending licenses, a bill that aims to protect ride-hailing drivers from unjust deactivations from their apps, a bill that would prohibit federal immigration authorities from keeping an office at Rikers Island, and a bill that would grant the Civilian Complaint Review Board direct access to police body-cam footage."
Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said in a statement that "Mayor Adams' last stand to steal protections from workers can’t dampen our hope for a better New York City under the leadership of Zohran Mamdani... and his pro-worker appointees, including Julie Su."
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Eric Adams Drops Out of NYC Mayor Race in Face of Trump Pressure to Stop Mamdani
"Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo's actions but they will not dictate the results of this election," Mamdani said in response to the news.
Sep 28, 2025
Following pressure to drop out of the mayoral race from the Trump administration and business leaders, current New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Sunday that he would end his bid to seek reelection.
Adams was running as an Independent against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also running as an Independent; Republican Curtis Sliwa; and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist whose victory in the Democratic primary has spooked moneyed interests and right-wing politicians including US President Donald Trump.
" Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo's actions but they will not dictate the results of this election," Mandani said in response to the news. "New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another. On November 4, we are going to turn the page on the politics of big money and small ideas and deliver a government every New Yorker can be proud of."
Adams' term as mayor was marked by scandal. He was charged with bribery, wire fraud, and soliciting illegal campaign donations from foreign parties by the federal government in 2024 only to have the charges dropped by Trump's Department of Justice in 2025 so that Adams could focus on facilitating Trump's anti-immigrant crackdown. The incident raised concerns among New Yorkers that Adams was beholden to the president.
"Despite all we've achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign," Adams said in a video posted on social media Sunday. "The constant media speculation about my future and the Campaign Finance Board's decision to withhold millions of dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed for a serious campaign."
Adams had faced pressure to bow out of the race so that Cuomo would be the only centrist candidate, in a bid to hinder Mamdani's pathway to victory. His announcement comes weeks after the news broke that Trump administration officials were weighing offering jobs to Adams and Sliwa in order to boost Cuomo.
In his video, Adams did not endorse any other candidate by name, but appeared to warn against Mamdani.
“Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer [is] to destroy the very system we built over generations,” he said. “That is not change, that is chaos. Instead, I urge leaders to choose leaders not by what they promise, but by what they have delivered."
Cuomo praised Adams for his decision, saying, "I believe he is sincere in putting the well-being of New York City ahead of personal ambition. We face destructive extremist forces that would devastate our city through incompetence or ignorance, but it is not too late to stop them."
However, it is unclear how much Adams' departure will actually help Cuomo, as he was polling at less than 10% and, as the Associated Press noted, there is no guarantee that enough of his supporters would switch their allegiance to Cuomo to make a difference.
Mandani has run a popular campaign focused on lowering the cost of living in New York City, including proposals such as free busses, city-run grocery stores, and universal childcare.
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Mamdani Holds Huge Lead in NYC Mayor's Race, But Top Dems Still Won't Back Him
Voters trust Mamdani more on issues from affordability to crime to Israel-Palestine, but one strategist says party leadership is likely still refusing to back him due to "donor pressure."
Sep 09, 2025
Progressive state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani holds a "commanding" lead in New York's upcoming mayoral election, according to the latest polling. But his continued momentum is still not enough for some top Democrats to get behind him, even as President Donald Trump openly colludes with his rivals.
A New York Times/Siena poll published Monday has Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman, 22 points north of his nearest challenger, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom he soundly defeated in the Democratic primary earlier this year.
Last week, several outlets reported that the Trump administration has been working behind the scenes to clear the field for Cuomo by offering administration posts to other mayoral candidates, including Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, and Republican contender Curtis Sliwa in exchange for them dropping out of the race.
Cuomo's identity as Trump's horse has ratcheted up the pressure for top Democratic leaders—namely the Empire state duo of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer—to throw their weight behind Mamdani. But with the election now less than two months away, they have still refused to budge, to the increasing frustration of the party's base and its progressive leaders.
Last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called out these leaders directly, asking on the steps of the Capitol: "Are we a party who rallies behind our nominee or not?"
"I am very concerned about the example that is being set by anybody in our party," she continued. "If an individual doesn't want to support the party's nominee now, it complicates their ability to ask voters to support any nominee later."
During a stop on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Brooklyn native, said New York Democrats should be "jumping up and down" to support a candidate who has galvanized young voters like Mamdani.
Speaking of party leadership, Sanders said: "It's no great secret that they're way out of touch with grassroots America, with the working families of this country, not only in New York City, but all over this country."
That sentiment was shared by the liberal tastemakers on the popular podcast Pod Save America. Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau called out leadership by name, saying their hesitancy to endorse Mamdani was "pathetic."
"Donald Trump's going to try to get Eric Adams out of the race so he can help Andrew Cuomo," Favreau said. "Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer have not yet endorsed the candidate who won the Democratic primary in New York City, the choice of the Democratic voters. Because why, because they don't want to get involved in a primary in a city, in the state they represent?"
Favreau questioned what happened to the "rule that when a Democrat wins the primary, we've all got to unite behind the nominee... because we are facing an authoritarian threat."
Cuomo, he said, "is basically participating" in that threat by being "on Donald Trump's side."
According to CNN, this reluctance is widespread across New York Democrats:
Reps. Yvette Clarke, Dan Goldman and Ritchie Torres have not said they plan to support Mamdani. Rep. Gregory Meeks, who endorsed Cuomo in the primary, has also remained silent along with Rep. Grace Meng, who represents parts of Queens.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mamdani have had "a number of conversations," Hochul said recently, and the two have met in person. Speaking separately to a Politico reporter, Hochul dismissed the talks between Adams and Trump aides with a profanity. Still, she has not made an endorsement.
Sources told CNN that the reticence stems in some part from the "public threat by Mamdani's democratic socialist allies to primary Jeffries and other congressmen" as well as Mamdani's "ties to democratic socialists and his criticism of Israel."
Sanders countered that Mamdani's were "not radical ideas."
"We're the richest country in the history of the world," he said. "There's no excuse for people not having affordable housing, good quality, affordable, decent transportation, free transportation."
Not only did the Times/Siena poll find Mamdani leading in the coming election, but voters also said they trusted him most on issues across the board, including ones that party grandees fear will be liabilities.
He holds leads over all comers, not only on his bread and butter issues of affordability and housing, but also on crime, taxation, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In an interview on CNN, former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod suggested that the refusal to back Mamdani was probably the result of "donor pressure."
Though Mamdani has surged in recent months with small-dollar donors, big money in the city has been behind Cuomo and other centrist candidates.
The biggest of these is the billionaire-funded Fix the City PAC, which received an $8.3 million donation from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and as of late August had dropped more than $15 million to keep Cuomo afloat.
Another fund, called New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor '25 has yet to declare a favorite, but has both barrels locked on Mamdani. Under a similar name, this PAC marshalled support for more than a dozen corporate-friendly city council candidates early this year, with support from the pro-Israel hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and several major players in New York's real estate industry. It has announced a goal of raising $25 million to defeat Mamdani in November.
Axelrod said that the party leadership's fealty to these donors over the groundswell of support for Mamdani was "a mistake."
"He ran on the issue of affordability and on a kind of positive politics that got—as Bernie said—many, many young people in that city to involve themselves in the process," he said.
Axelrod also added that, despite Jeffries' claim that Mamdani has yet to win over voters in the House leader's district, the insurgent candidate, in fact, "carried Hakeem Jeffries' district" by a 12-point margin.
Former Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss said that Axelrod's diagnosis of "donor pressure" was "correct."
"But," he said, "we should also be completely clear that 'donor pressure' is just a polite way of saying 'political corruption.'"
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Blue No Matter Who?: Jeffries Slammed for 'Gutless' Refusal to Endorse Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani won the House minority leader's district by double digits in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, prompting one critic to ask, "Do those voters not matter?"
Aug 15, 2025
Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, but Democratic U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—whose district Mamdani won by double digits—is still refusing to endorse him, "blue-no-matter-who" mantra be damned.
Criticism of Jeffries (D-N.Y.) mounted Friday after he sidestepped questions about whether he agreed with the democratic socialist Mamdani's proposed policies—including a rent freeze, universal public transportation, and free supermarkets—during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" earlier this week.
"He's going to have to demonstrate to a broader electorate—including in many of the neighborhoods that I represent in Brooklyn—that his ideas can actually be put into reality," Jeffries said in comments that drew praise from scandal-ridden incumbent Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who opted to run independently. Another Democrat, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is also running on his own.
"Shit like this does more to undermine faith in the institution of the Democratic Party than anything Mamdani might ever say or do," Amanda Litman, co-founder and executive director of Run For Something—a political action group that recruits young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot offices—said on social media in response to Jeffries' refusal to endorse Mamdani.
"He won the primary! Handily!!" Litman added. "Does that electorate not count? Do those voters not matter?"
Writer and professor Roxane Gay noted on Bluesky that "Jeffries is an establishment Democrat. He will always work for the establishment. He is not a disruptor or innovator or individual thinker. Within that framework, his gutless behavior toward Mamdani or any progressive candidate makes a lot of sense."
City College of New York professor Angus Johnston said on the social network Bluesky that "even if Jeffries does eventually endorse Mamdani, the only response available to Mamdani next year if someone asks him whether he's endorsing Jeffries is three seconds of incredulous laughter."
Jeffries has repeatedly refused to endorse Mamdani, a staunch supporter of Palestinian liberation and vocal opponent of Israel's genocidal annihilation of Gaza. The minority leader's all-time top campaign donor is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to AIPAC Tracker.
Mamdani's stance doesn't seem to have harmed his support among New York's Jewish voters, who according to recent polling prefer him over any other mayoral candidate by a double-digit margin.
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New Yorkers Repulsed After Eric Adams Campaign Submitted Dead People's Signatures on Election Petition
The campaign is also accused of submitting fraudulent signatures. One New Yorker said: "I don't write like that at all... That sucks, whoever did that."
Aug 01, 2025
A major investigation from Gothamist published Friday found that firms working on behalf of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' reelection campaign "faked and fraudulently obtained" petition signatures needed for his run as an independent candidate.
Gothamist reporters spent weeks tracking down people whose names appeared on Adams petitions and found several of them who said their names were forged, as well as others who said they were deceived into signing the petition. What's more, the campaign submitted signatures of at least three dead people.
In one case, a petitioner working on behalf of the campaign apparently forged the signature of a man named Adam Lieberman, who died by suicide nearly 30 years ago. His stepmother, 93-year-old Leila Lieberman, expressed indignation that her late stepson's name was used in this manner.
"I'm sure that they [politicians] do things to get on the ballot, to get elected, but that is something they shouldn't have done," she said.
A woman named Liana Santiago was indignant after learning that her name appeared on the Adams petition, and she showed Gothamist reporters examples of her actual signature to back up her claims.
"I don't write like that at all," she said. "That sucks, whoever did that."
Gothamist traced some of the issues with the petitions to Public Appeal, a Wyoming-based company that was hired by the Adams campaign to collect signatures. A man named Phillip Harris, who worked for Public Appeal on both the Adams campaign and the 2024 presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., admitted to Gothamist that some of the people he sent out to collect signatures would not tell people that they were working on behalf of Adams, who has become toxically unpopular according to multiple surveys.
"A lot of people won't say [Adams'] name and just say it's to get an 'independent candidate' on the ballot," he told the publication.
People whose signatures were fraudulently added to the petition weren't the only New Yorkers to express disgust over the scandal.
Retired New York Police Department (NYPD) Lt. John Macari Jr. wrote on X that the scandal shows that "laws are a mere suggestion at this point" for Adams, who was criminally charged last year with counts of bribery and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions. The United States Department of Justice under U.S. President Donald Trump dropped the charges against Adams earlier this year.
New York attorney Sarena Townsend said that the signature scandal was a direct reflection of Adams' character, even though the mayor isn't personally implicated in the Gothamist story.
"Whatever you're thinking when reading the headline… it's 100 times worse," she wrote of the Gothamist report. "This article was shocking, even for me. Adams simply has never been able to get through life or win any accomplishments without cheating his way there."
Sal Greco, a former NYPD officer and open supporter of Trump, took the opportunity to tell the president to reconsider the DOJ's decision to drop charges against Adams.
"You need to reindict him and make up for your quid pro quo mistake," he urged Trump on X.
Adams legally cannot be reindicted after a judge earlier this year dismissed his case with prejudice.
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Mamdani Holds 'Commanding' Lead in NYC Mayor Race—and Cuomo Has 'Extremely Tough' Climb: Poll
"Eric Adams is a complete non-factor in this race," remarked a founding partner of pollster Zenith Research.
Jul 29, 2025
A new poll of the New York City mayoral race found that Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is very well positioned to win later this year and that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is only competitive in the race if every other Mamdani opponent drops out.
The survey, which was conducted by polling firm Zenith Research, showed Mamdani holding what Zenith founding partner Adam Carlson described on X as a "commanding" lead of 28 points among likely voters in a five-way race featuring Cuomo, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and independent candidate Jim Walden. Even in other scenarios where other candidates drop out of the race, Mamdani would still garner more than 50% of likely votes in each instance.
However, Mamdani's lead becomes much smaller when the poll is expanded to all registered voters, among whom he only holds a three-point advantage over Cuomo in a head-to-head matchup. This suggests that Cuomo has room to grow as long as he can convince Adams, Sliwa, and Walden to exit the race.
Even so, commented Carlson, Cuomo faces significant headwinds that could block his path to victory even if he succeeds somehow in making it a one-on-one race.
"Another thing that’s extremely tough for Cuomo is that 60% of likely voters (as well as 52% of registered voters) would not even consider voting for him," he explained. "Only 32% say they wouldn't consider voting for Mamdani. Cuomo will need to go scorched earth to bring that number up."
New Yorkers who oppose Mamdani will have to place their hopes in the disgraced former governor, given the dismal standing held by incumbent Adams.
"Eric Adams is a complete non-factor in this race," remarked Carlson. "He polls at 7% in the five-way race, 14% if Cuomo drops out, and 32% if Cuomo and Sliwa drop out. More than half of [likely voters] strongly disapprove of his performance and have a very unfavorable view of him. 68% won't consider voting for him."
The poll also found Mamdani with an overall lead among Jewish voters despite efforts by opponents to paint him as antisemitic given his opposition to Israel's war in Gaza and his past reluctance to criticize the slogan "globalize the intifada," which he told The Bulwark he viewed as "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive Jewish ally of Mamdani's who has endorsed his mayoral bid, acknowledged before the election that some Jewish people view the phrase as a threat of violence.
Among likely Jewish voters, Mamdani leads Cuomo by 17 points in a five-way race. Although Cuomo holds a double-digit lead over Mamdani among likely Jewish voters over the age of 45, Mamdani dominates among young Jewish voters by pulling in more than two-thirds of likely Jewish voters between the ages of 18 and 44.
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Third DOJ Whistleblower Unveils New Allegations That Bove Misled Senate About Adams Case
"What will come out next about Bove?" said one senator as a confirmation vote loomed. "That's precisely the problem with this disaster of a nominee. And why Senate Republicans are rushing through his nomination."
Jul 29, 2025
With the U.S. Senate poised to vote as early as Tuesday on Trump administration official Emil Bove's nomination for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge, a third whistleblower came forward with information about Bove's conduct at the Department of Justice and Democratic senators made their latest push to stop his confirmation.
As The Washington Post reported, a whistleblower shared evidence with lawmakers that Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general and a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, misled the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his role in the DOJ's dismissal of corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
During his confirmation hearing in June, Bove told senators that U.S. District Judge Dale Ho granted the DOJ's motion to dismiss the Adams case because it "reflected a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion."
He denied the existence of the DOJ deal with Adams to drop the charges in exchange for the mayor's cooperation with Trump's mass deportation agenda, saying that "the suggestion that there was some kind of quid pro quo was just plain false."
The decision to drop the charges led several prosecutors to resign from the DOJ in protest.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and condemned Republicans' decision to advance Bove's nomination earlier this month, first received evidence from the third whistleblower, according to the Post. Several other Democrats have also reviewed the evidence, which Booker told the outlet was "significant."
"We have substantial information relevant to the truthfulness of the nominee," Booker said on the Senate floor, calling on Republicans on the committee to review the new evidence.
"Another whistleblower has come forward with evidence that raises serious concerns with Emil Bove's misconduct. Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove's nomination."
Lawyers for the anonymous whistleblower told the Post on Tuesday that they had turned over the new information provided by the person to the DOJ inspector general.
Booker was joined by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday in calling on the DOJ's inspector general to promptly open an investigation into Bove in light of the latest whistleblower complaint.
"In the event these whistleblower complaints and other reports have not already prompted investigations by your office, we urge you to undertake a thorough review of these disclosures and allegations," said the lawmakers.
Two other whistleblowers have come forward in recent weeks, alleging Bove told DOJ lawyers to ignore court orders that would impede Trump's mass deportation agenda. Former DOJ attorneys and federal and state judges have urged the Senate to oppose his nomination.
Schiff condemned Republicans on the committee for attempting to dismiss the whistleblowers' complaints.
"What will come out next about Bove?" said Schiff. "That's precisely the problem with this disaster of a nominee. And why Senate Republicans are rushing through his nomination. Before more disqualifying information can come out."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) emphasized that the fight to stop Bove's confirmation "isn't over, even when subservient Senate Republicans ignore another whistleblower and shove this character through their new-low, hide-the-ball Senate confirmation process and onto the bench."
Republicans can afford to lose only three votes for Bove and still confirm him with a tie-breaker vote from Vice President JD Vance. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are expected to oppose him.
Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Judiciary Committee's ranking member, said the latest complaint is "another damning indictment of a man who should never be a federal judge."
"Another whistleblower has come forward with evidence that raises serious concerns with Emil Bove's misconduct," said Sorbe. "Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove's nomination."
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Mamdani for NYC Mayor: The Fight We’ve Been Waiting for
Should Mamdani’s campaign prevail over establishment candidates and billionaire cash, the victory will realign the nation’s politics more profoundly than anything since the first Bernie presidential campaign.
Jul 27, 2025
I have no doubt that Zohran Mamdani, upset winner over the heavily favored former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, would have greatly preferred that his much better financed opponent would graciously accept the will of his party’s voters, thereby allowing the Democratic nominee (Mamdani) to sail on through the final election in November as is generally the case. And so would we, his supporters, all.
Instead, he finds himself actively opposed by elements of just about every significant anti-democratic, anti-working class faction in American politics. As the Talking Heads song put it, this race “ain’t no disco; this ain’t no fooling around.” Should Mamdani’s campaign prevail over all of them, the victory will realign the nation’s politics more profoundly than anything since the first Bernie Sanders presidential campaign—a shift the nation is obviously in desperate need of.
On the one side we have a candidate arguing the need to pull out all the stops, to try all avenues—increased rent control and housing construction, reduced transit fares, city-owned supermarkets, higher taxes on great wealth, and so on down the line—in an effort to allow the city’s working class to remain the city’s working class, rather than become a stream of economic refugees who can no longer afford to live there. On the other side we’ve got a magpie’s cast of characters, united only by their dread of the prospect of a mayor siding with the struggling many, while openly acknowledging that the overprivileged few—the billionaires who think that the city owes it all to them—are not the saviors they think themselves to be, but are actually part and parcel of the problem.
First up in the cast, of course, is the Republican Party, nominally in the person of its candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the unarmed crime prevention group the Guardian Angels. Sliwa, however, is not expected to be a factor in the final outcome. Naturally, the party’s interest in the race is primarily represented—as it is in all things—by our intermittently coherent president, who has fulminated about arresting Mamdani, revoking his citizenship, cutting off federal funding to the city, and even taking direct control of it—a threat he was bound to make sooner or later to some local government not to his taste.
The upshot of all this? This is our race.
Then we have the Democrats more interested in corporate cash than in the working class—unfortunately a rather large sector of the party—along with those troubled by the fact that Mamdani opposes Israel’s ongoing obliteration of Gaza, two groups with significant overlap. This dominant wing of the party is actually directly involved in this race to an unusual degree by dint of the fact that the minority leaders of both branches of Congress—Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer—are Brooklyn voters. So are they going to pull the lever for their party’s nominee in November? We don’t know. Neither has actually opposed Mamdani, but the failure of the party’s leaders to endorse him thus far is without recent precedent. Since Schumer was recently pleased to be seen smiling in a group photo with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, you can see the problem. Others have been outright hostile. Democrat Laura Gillen, representative of a New York city-adjacent district. for instance, has characterized Mamdani as “a threat to my constituents.”
Next we have the independent candidates themselves, who have now come to seem more like anti-Mamdani place holders, even though one of them is actually the current mayor of New York. That would be Eric Adams, elected to the position as a Democrat, who declined to enter his party’s primary after running into a few bumps in the road during his term of office. The problems were indictment on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, and soliciting and accepting a bribe; and a subsequent pardon by the ubiquitous Donald Trump. The other major one is Andrew Cuomo, one-time Democratic governor of New York, forced to resign in the face of numerous charges of sexual harassment, and loser of the Democratic primary, despite the backing of independent expenditure committees spending more than $25 million—the heaviest spending in the history of New York City politics. Cuomo has decided that the voters deserve a second chance to make up for their error in not choosing him the first time and declared that this time “It’s all or nothing. We either win or even I will move to Florida.” His campaign has subsequently declared this was a joke—the Florida part, not the second shot. But there is precedent: Trump decamped there after the state’s voters rejected him and certainly he could fix the ex-governor up with something at Mar-a-Lago. It’d only be fair after everything he’s done for Eric Adams.
And last, but certainly not least, we have the billionaires, starting with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg, never one to shy from putting his money where his mouth is—he spent over $1 billion on his own four-month presidential campaign in 2020 (he won American Samoa)—dropped $8.3 million on the Cuomo effort. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and William Lauder, executive chairman of The Estée Lauder Companies, were in for $500,000. Expedia chairman Barry Diller, Netflix chairman Reed Hastings, and hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb were down for $250,000. Alice Walton, of the Walmart family, contributed $100,000. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin was in for $50,000. Ackman, Loeb, and Griffin were 2024 Trump supporters, by the way.
And reinforcements are on the way, with Hamptons polo patrons Kenneth and Maria Fishel of Renaissance Properties lining up new billionaires—in this case for Eric Adams—including grocery (Gristedes and D’Agostino) and real estate mogul John Catsimatidis, himself a former (Republican) candidate for New York City mayor. As Kenneth Fishel told Fortune, “This is about keeping New York vibrant, keeping it free from socialism, and keeping it safe.” At this point, this story might sound like something out of that recent Francis Ford Coppola movie that no one went to see, but it’s what’s actually happening.
(Personal disclosure: As one who was once slightly famous long ago, when elected to the Massachusetts Legislature at 32 as a self-described socialist—said to be the first since the Sacco and Vanzetti era—I am wildly jealous. Reading the news on election night, I was literally moved to tears of joy. And I don’t imagine I’m the only one feeling envious.)
The upshot of all this? This is our race.
Who’s the we in “our”? Anyone who feels that we the people have to find a way to wrest control of the economic future of this country from the likes of Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, all of the above-named billionaires, and the ones we don’t know. Whether it be knocking, calling, texting, posting, giving a buck—even if just that—all of us should give this race at least a bit of our attention. Just think of how sweet it will be to beat that whole crew.
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Mamdani’s Victory With Jewish Support Was A Triumph for Solidarity
Animated by a common vision and uncommon integrity, Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani’s principled progressive partnership is an invitation to imagine something better for New York—and the country.
Jul 12, 2025
Brad Lander called me in the middle of NYC’s Democratic primary Election Day, during one of his breaks from the heat. I asked how he was feeling. “To be honest, I didn’t expect this, but I probably feel better than any other third place candidate in history.”
He had good reason to feel this way. As a Jewish candidate for mayor who aligned with and stood by his ostensible rival Zohran Mamdani, Lander had just done something extraordinary—he had modelled a kind of genuine solidarity that is all but unheard of in mainstream politics. What he was celebrating is the joy that comes with rejecting the politics of fear and division and allowing yourself to instead dream beyond the permissible.
As the executive director of a progressive Jewish organization fighting to make New York City a safe, affordable, caring home for all, dreaming beyond the permissible is our mission. Cynical politicians like former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and U.S. President Donald Trump have made careers out of playing to people’s fears and telling us, again and again, what we can’t do—what is impermissible to dream.
From lying, scare-tactic mailers to TV ads that prompted death threats against his loved ones, the attacks on Zohran Mamdani reflect the worst impulses of a MAGA-friendly Democratic establishment willing to use anti-Muslim bigotry and distorted claims of antisemitism to derail a threat to their power. The viciousness of the backlash in the days following Mamdani’s win has been breathtaking, even to those of us familiar with the extent to which racism and Islamophobia are acceptable in American politics. To politicians who want to weaponize the machinery of fear, New York’s Jewish community might look like a soft target.
In a culture starved for political imagination, Mamdani and Lander represented a thrilling embrace of something new—permission for New Yorkers to reach for so much more than the table scraps we’ve been offered by the political establishment.
Too often that strategy is successful. But what we saw during the primary is that this time they hit a wall built of hope. Despite millions of dollars in attack ads from billionaire donors, it proved impossible to convince most Jewish New Yorkers that Zohran Mamdani was a rabid antisemite. It is telling that the attacks on Zohran come from high-priced political consultants and pundits who experience New York City the same way Andrew Cuomo does—from the back seat of hired black SUVs. For most of us, Mr. Mamdani is a deeply recognizable and loveable New York character. It’s the machine politicians who are the weirdos.
That’s why Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) was able to mobilize thousands of Jewish voters to canvass, knock doors, phone bank, and become an integral part of the people-powered revolution that changed the direction of New York City politics last month. In a culture starved for political imagination, Mamdani and Lander represented a thrilling embrace of something new—permission for New Yorkers to reach for so much more than the table scraps we’ve been offered by the political establishment.
I saw this firsthand canvassing in Kensington, Brooklyn when I knocked on the door of an Orthodox Jewish woman who welcomed me onto her porch and spoke to me for a good 10 minutes. At a moment when so many members of the political class were debating the meaning of the word “intifada,” she wanted to talk about Section 8 vouchers. As her adorable children vied for attention she pointed to the semidetached homes to the right and left of her own. Both were sitting empty, she said, because her neighbors had been priced out. She was excited about Lander and Mamdani’s affordability proposals. The subject of Israel didn’t come up once.
Her story should not and does not minimize the concerns of some Jewish New Yorkers who are focused on safety and antisemitism. JFREJ has been fighting antisemitism for years, and we believe not enough attention and resources are directed to effectively addressing the dangers that American Jews face. But we also understand that most of what allows Jews to thrive are the same things that make all New Yorkers safe—a healthy city that works for all New York’s residents. Cuomo lost because he had nothing of substance to offer any of us. He spent millions stoking fears of antisemitism. Zohran showed up with a bold plan to fight it.
Twenty years after 9-11, when New York’s Muslim community was terrorized by hate violence and illegal New York Police Department surveillance, and several years into the ongoing surge of antisemitism, Lander and Mamdani campaigning arm-in-arm embodied the very best of New York City. For many Americans this was an inspiring lesson in the practice of radical solidarity—something we sorely need in the age of Donald Trump.
Solidarity like this isn’t easy. Lander wanted to be mayor, and would have been great in the role. When he let go of that dream to prioritize solidarity and support for Mamdani, he demonstrated the liberating power of believing that if we dream big enough, everyone wins.
As we head into a hotly contested general election we are already seeing the awful anti-Muslim rhetoric, baseless accusations of antisemitism, and cheap fearmongering we’ve come to expect from the Eric Adams-Donald Trump wing of our political class. New Yorkers deserve more.
Animated by a common vision and uncommon integrity, Brad Lander and Zohran Mamdani’s principled progressive partnership is an invitation to imagine something better for New York. The entire country is watching our city to see if we succeed in November. When we do, our impermissible dreams will transform what elections, politics, and democracy look and feel like in New York City for decades to come.
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