What is the Iranian perspective at this stage? It's complicated

(NewsNation) — Two panelists — Iranian American journalist Negar Mortazavi and Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East peace negotiator — join 'CUOMO' to try to assess the future of Iran, a country with more than 90 million people, now that it's in conflict with Israel. They say the dynamics are too complicated to make predictions, but Miller offers this grim assessment: 'I don't think this is going to have a happy ending. Iran's going to play the long game.'
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New York Post

38 minutes ago

• New York Post

Michael Goodwin: Hochul's snubbing of Mamdani will only help boost Cuomo's campaign

The observation that politics often makes for strange bedfellows is now offering an extra-strange New York example. It features an unlikely gift from Gov. Hochul to her predecessor and perpetual tormentor, Andrew Cuomo. Although she was his running mate and Lt. Governor for two terms, they were barely speaking by the time Cuomo was forced out of Albany nearly four years ago. Advertisement To this day, their mutual loathing is palpable. So how then to explain that Hochul threw Cuomo a huge last-minute lifeline in his race for mayor? To be sure, an obvious reason is to help herself in her re-election quest next year. But the immediate impact is a boost for Cuomo in his bid for City Hall. Advertisement You would assume the last thing she wants is to see him sitting in City Hall next year, badgering her and settling scores when she's running for re-election. Yet that could be the result of her move. Here's the scenario: Cuomo is in a tightening race to be the Democrats' nominee, with Election Day this Tuesday. 'Affordability crisis' He leads in the polls but his chief rival, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, has been gaining and the early-voting turnout has surged among young people, the core of Mamdani's hard-left base. Moreover, with the city using the ranked-choice voting system, Mamdani has an extra advantage and could ultimately get the votes of four additional lefty candidates in the race through a series of cross endorsements. Advertisement Hochul's shocking help to Cuomo came in response to a question about Mamdani's radical economic platform, which consists of a bunch of free giveaways —buses, child care, etc. All of it would be funded by imposing even higher income taxes on the top 1 percent of New York City residents and hiking the corporate tax. It's part of the progressive playbook he's been selling for months, and his climb in the polls has encouraged other candidates to promote their own expensive wish lists and tax proposals. Advertisement Hochul has been silent all along, but suddenly, and very late in the game, she decided to throw cold water on the proposals that are the heart of Mamdani's eat-the-rich campaign. Asked in a TV interview if she backed his tax plans, the Democratic governor flatly replied, 'No.' 'I'm not raising taxes at a time where affordability is the big issue,' she said. 'I don't want to lose any more people to Palm Beach. We've lost enough . . . so let's be smart about this.' Whoa, Nellie. Hochul's answer was clearly prepared in advance, with her adopting Mamdani's theme of an 'affordability crisis' and turning it on its head to use it as a reason not to implement his agenda. In doing so, she effectively kills his proposals because he would need her and the Democratic-controlled Legislature's approval to put his taxes into law. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters And given the timing, her answer could be intended to blunt his late surge by signaling to his supporters his ideas are dead on arrival in Albany. Advertisement Her answer also reveals the outline of Hochul's 2026 campaign. She's effectively taken tax hikes off the table, and if she were to flip-flop next year, she'd be toast. So her answer on Mamdani is as much about her own campaign as his. Dems 'alarmed' Besides, as troubling as Cuomo would be in City Hall, even worse would be the charismatic 33-year-old Mamdani, pushing her and the Legislature even further left. There's also the added baggage of his long trail of antisemitism at a time when Israel is fighting for its survival on several fronts and Dems already are home to Jew-hating Reps Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Having Mamdani, a Muslim, as the mayor of the city with the world's largest Jewish population has some top Dems worried that his election would further damage the party's troubled brand. Advertisement Politico reports that Third Way, a center-left Dem think tank, is 'alarmed' by how Mamdani's positions on Israel and other issues, past and present, would be a feast for Republicans in New York and nationally. The outlet cites a Third Way memo that describes 'defunding the police, closing jails, banning private healthcare and operating city-owned grocery stores as positions American voters would find beyond the pale.' They got that right. Advertisement At the same time, it's worth noting that Hochul's rejection of new taxes also amounts to a reversal of her tenure so far. Although she's lately been prattling about 'putting money in people's pockets,' the happy talk follows years of hikes in fees and taxes on New Yorkers to feed the budget beast she's created. As the cost of living in New York continues to soar, she's responsible for policies that have been driving a record number of New Yorkers out of the city and state, including to Palm Beach, Fla. Recall that during her tight race against GOP nominee Lee Zeldin in 2022, Hochul at one point demanded that he and other Republicans 'Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK?,' before adding: 'You are not New Yorkers.' Advertisement The fact that the GOP is toothless in both Albany and City Hall has allowed her party to continually jack up the outrageously high costs of government and be tougher on cops than on criminals. Hochul's role in the disaster are certain to be the centerpiece of the GOP campaign against her next year, especially with New York moving rightward. In the 2024 election, the Empire State had the biggest swing of any blue state toward President Trump, who carried 43 percent of the vote, against just 37 percent in 2020. Vulnerable Hochul has made herself vulnerable with her implementation of congestion pricing, along with other taxes that are examples of her own drunken-sailor budgeting. The fact that several tax measures were designed to fund the always-broke MTA is no excuse because she controls the agency and has done zero to reform its wasteful ways. Her only answer has been to throw more money at it. Still, her response to Mamdani suggests she belatedly realizes there is validity and votes in the argument that the city and state have reached a tax-and-spend breaking point. As I noted recently, just 6,000 wealthy families in a city of 8.5 million people pay 48 percent of Gotham's personal income tax, which raises about $16 billion a year. These families are the geese who lay the golden eggs for both City Hall and Albany, and with the quality of life declining as the cost of living soars, the last thing the politicians should be doing is giving people new reasons to leave. In Hochul's case, it's relatively easy for her to say no to Mamdani, whose plans definitely would make the problems worse. The real test is whether she has any ideas that could stop the exodus already happening on her watch.

Politico

43 minutes ago

• Politico

Rival calls Cuomo a ‘sociopath;' ex-gov attacks Mamdani's ‘defund' rhetoric in final weekend of NYC mayor's race

NEW YORK — New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander urged Democrats not to elect 'sociopathic' Andrew Cuomo. Hours later, the ex-governor slammed leading rival Zohran Mamdani for his past calls to defund the police. And Mamdani, on the defense from relentless attack ads, campaigned by walking the length of Manhattan on Friday night. While nearly 350,000 New Yorkers have already cast ballots, attacks flew on the final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday's Democratic primary. Cuomo leads nearly every poll, but Mamdani has been keeping the race competitive and is closing out the campaign with high energy among his supporters. Lander, feeling upbeat after a headline-grabbing week despite his third-place status, aimed his fire at Cuomo on Saturday. Lander stood beside Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennett, whom the former governor sued for defamation, as he recounted how Cuomo apologized to the women who accused him of sexual harassment in 2021, before resigning, but now denies any wrongdoing. 'I don't have a license to practice psychology, but I believe that utter inability to take accountability or responsibility for one's actions is a sign of sociopathy,' Lander said. 'The Democratic Party should not elect sociopaths. It's a bad idea,' he added. Cuomo brushed off Lander's comment. 'Does anyone really care what he says?' he said at his own press conference Saturday. 'I said to the extent I offended anyone it was unintentional, and I didn't mean it, and I apologize. But that was (a) generic (apology) — to the extent I offended anyone.' Cuomo may dismiss Lander — 'goodbye and good riddance to the saddest, rudderless, least effective money burning operation we have ever seen,' Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi responded — but his supporters' lower-ranked picks could prove decisive in a primary determined through ranked-choice voting. Polling has shown that Cuomo receives a portion of Lander's redistributed votes when he is removed from the running, even as he's relentlessly attacked the former governor for months. Lander, the city comptroller, brought together Bennett and other former Cuomo employees who accused him of sexual harassment, a man whose father died in a nursing home during Covid, and state legislators and union leaders who battled with him in Albany. Former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who resigned amid his own sexual abuse scandal, even showed up and chatted briefly with Lander before the press conference on the vote-rich Upper West Side of Manhattan. Lander's aides said he had not been invited. 'I love this city and I want to help solve its problems,' Lander said. 'So far as I can tell, Andrew Cuomo despises this city and wants to try to redeem himself by pounding his fist.' Hours later, Cuomo appeared in the South Bronx alongside Leandra Feliz, the mother of Lesandro 'Junior' Guzman-Feliz who was murdered by gang members in 2018, to receive her endorsement. But a press conference to tout his plan to add 5,000 cops to the NYPD turned into an attack on Mamdani's calls to 'defund the police,' with his 2020 tweets plastered on posters behind the speakers. Cuomo read Mamdani's words from a 2020 X post, amid the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd: 'We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.' 'How are you going to get a police force to work for you?' Cuomo asked. 'To say those things is reckless and irresponsible, especially at a time when public safety is a major issue in this city.' Polls show New Yorkers generally rank affordability as a top concern, followed by public safety. Asked for his closing argument, Cuomo contrasted his years in office with the 33-year-old Mamdani's record. 'Experience matters. Knowledge matters. Accomplishments matter,' he said. '(Mamdani) said the job is to be a messenger. That's why you have a press secretary. The mayor is not a messenger.' Cuomo also campaigned Saturday at a street fair in the South Bronx, taking a photo with former state Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr., a prominent Trump supporter who opposes same sex marriage. He received cheers and a warm reception in a neighborhood that's supported him before, according to video shared by his campaign. Later, he rode on the back of a flatbed truck through southern Brooklyn with endorsers including City Council Member Susan Zhuang. Mamdani started his day Saturday at Al Sharpton's National Action Network in Harlem, with fellow mayoral candidates Lander, Adrienne Adams, Zellnor Myrie and Michael Blake. Mamdani charmed the influential civil rights leader by quoting Sharpton during his 2004 presidential run saying that some forces in the Democratic Party want progressives and people of color 'to voluntarily turn into invisible people' in the name of electability. 'To quote Sharpton in front of Sharpton,' Sharpton joked. 'That was a chess move there.' 'Zohran, you quoted him, but I marched with him,' Adams shot back, emphasizing her long history with Sharpton. Despite the positive reception he gets on the trail — including people asking for selfies Saturday in his home borough of Queens — Mamdani has been the target of $7 million worth of reported spending on attack ads from a pro-Cuomo super PAC. The TV spots and mailers, dub him 'too radical' and 'dangerous' for his inexperience, his criticism of Israel and his socialist politics. Friday evening, after riding Citi Bikes with Lander, Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan, a more than 13-mile journey he finished after 2 a.m. Passing through Times Square, Mamdani threw up his hands while dozens of supporters following along booed when a digital billboard from political betting site Kalshi showed he had a 23 percent chance of winning the race, to Cuomo's 77 percent. 'Gambling is haram,' he joked — forbidden by Islamic law. 'There were many who doubted whether we could even get 46,000 votes,' he said, reflecting on the surprising strength of his campaign. 'We now have 46,000 volunteers.' Emily Ngo contributed reporting.

Yahoo

3 hours ago

• Yahoo

Chris Cuomo Calls Out Trump's Over-Use of the ‘Two Weeks' Timeline: ‘He Wants You to Stop Asking'

Donald Trump says we'll have a decision on whether to join Israel's attack on Iran within two weeks. Chris Cuomo has heard this before. The NewsNation anchor devoted his Friday monologue to extremism – online, in politics and elsewhere – but seemed extremely tuned in to the president's now over-use of the 'two weeks' timeline device. 'We're looking at Iran right now and whether or not we should bomb,' the former CNN commentator said. 'OK, I've given you my stance on it. I don't see that the case has been made that this is something that has to happen, that there's an imminency.' That's where he briefly turned his attention to our collective lack of attention. 'Yes, Trump says 'two weeks' a lot when he wants you to stop asking him about something,' Cuomo said. 'You've seen the clips online: 'In about two weeks with Russia,' 'two weeks with tariffs,' 'two weeks with this, with that 2 weeks.'' Cuomo's pattern recognition was not steeped in outrage, however – he actually thinks waiting on an Iran decision is the right thing to do, adding: 'I'm OK with it here.' But as a stalling tactic, Cuomo sees through it: 'Yes, I think it's a device that the president uses because he knows there's no way we're still talking about this in two weeks,' he said. 'No way. We do not have the focus. We do not have the national attention span. We will be on to something else. I know it's crazy.' Watch the entire clip in the video above. The post Chris Cuomo Calls Out Trump's Over-Use of the 'Two Weeks' Timeline: 'He Wants You to Stop Asking' | Video appeared first on TheWrap.