‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’: Socialist Mamdani Won’t Recant Anti-NYPD Remarks

Refusing to recant his previous statement from 2020 that called for defunding the police, New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gave an evasive answer when asked if he wished he hadn’t made such a comment.

Mamdani has been elusive about his “defunding the police” statements after a mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan left four people dead, including an NYPD officer. Earlier this week, he stated, “I am not running to defund the police.”

Yet when he was asked on Wednesday by a reporter at the leftist 32BJ Service Employees International Union headquarters, “Do you wish you hadn’t said some of those things a few years back?”, Mamdani replied, “My statements in 2020 were ones made amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers held at the murder of George Floyd and the inability to deliver on what Eric Adams, of all people, described as the right for all of us to be able to enjoy safety and justice, that we need not choose between the two.”

Mamdani is asked point-blank if he wishes he hadn’t called to defund the police.

He doesn’t say “yes.”

That’s utterly disqualifying. pic.twitter.com/Ylep2q2caI

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 30, 2025

As recently as last December, Mamdani tweeted, “Today the NYPD deployed the Strategic Response Group (SRG) to harass + arrest striking @teamsters. As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment (sic) rights.”

Today the NYPD deployed the Strategic Response Group (SRG) to harass + arrest striking @teamsters.

As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights.

— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) December 19, 2024

“The SRG is one of the NYPD’s special operations units, which, according to the force’s official website, specializes in disorder response, crime suppression and crowd control and ‘responds to citywide mobilizations, civil disorders, and major events with highly trained personnel and specialized equipment,’” Fox News noted.

In 2020, Mamdani posted tweets calling for the defunding of police with these statements:

Our police: threatening the physical safety of politicians who oppose their agenda. Our prosecutors: turning their own offices into super-spreader event because of all their COVID truthers. The entire carceral system is an unreformable public health hazard. Defund and dismantle.

Together, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police & build a socialist New York. Solidarity forever.

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. But your deal with @NYCMayor uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts – defund the police.

@NYCSpeakerCoJo: “The Mayor promised to spend the same amount on cops in schools, but pay for it with different money.”@NYCMayor spokesperson: “Actually we never even promised that!” None of these people are fit to lead. We need a socialist city council to defund the police.

One police source commented, “People are fools to believe he will help the city. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”