In an unexpected turn on conservative media, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene both lauded comments made by Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist frontrunner in New York’s upcoming mayoral primary, offering rare praise from the right for a left-wing candidate.
The exchange unfolded on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” where Mamdani participated in a virtual debate with fellow candidates. During the session, he was asked which foreign leader he would invite to visit New York City as mayor.
While most gravitated toward Israel—reflecting the city’s substantial Jewish population—Mamdani delivered a strikingly different response: he said he would stay local and focus instead on addressing the city’s mounting challenges.
Carlson, speaking to Greene via remote appearance, seized on the moment. He remarked that Mamdani “gave the right answer,” signaling approval across ideological lines.
Greene echoed the sentiment, characterizing the response as politically astute. “He’s talking to them on their level,” she said, adding that his plainspoken style resonated with voters struggling under cost-of-living pressures.
The praise came despite both conservatives distancing themselves from Mamdani’s broader political agenda, which includes proposals like freeing city buses, ending rent stabilization rollbacks, and overhauling policing.
Mamdani, who emigrated from Uganda as a child and now represents a Queens Assembly seat, has emerged as a disruptive voice in the city’s Democratic politics, promising structural reforms and a bold critique of establishment power.
Greene framed Mamdani’s rise as a rebuke of what she called stale political leadership.
She criticized his main opponent, former Mayor Andrew Cuomo, as a representative of the entrenched establishment that she said had long failed working-class New Yorkers. “They’re still poor. They can’t afford life,” she declared, arguing Mamdani understood those challenges.
The exchange illustrates the unpredictable nature of modern political media, where strategic messaging and viral moments can lead unlikely alliances—even if only fleetingly.
Carlson and Greene’s remarks came amid broader Republican efforts to spotlight fringe Democratic candidates, casting them as emblematic of what they see as radical leftward drift.
Mamdani’s campaign has garnered attention for its unabashed progressivism, drawing praise from figures like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but encountering alarm from conservatives.
President Donald Trump has already condemned his primary victory, calling Mamdani “a 100% Communist lunatic.”
Still, Mamdani’s appeal among young voters in New York suggests he may be tapping into real concerns about housing, transit, and economic displacement.
His message—to stay focused on local problems, not grand foreign adventures—seemed to momentarily transcend partisan divides.
Even if Carlson and Greene merely capitalized on a moment for dramatic effect, their unexpected applause underscores Mamdani’s ability to disrupt political expectations—unifying unlikely observers around a populist refrain against the old guard.
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