New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday to promote a rent freeze for rent-stabilized tenants and to publicly pledge a tougher fight against antisemitism, placing two of the most politically charged issues in the city into a national daytime-TV spotlight.
Mamdani focused much of the discussion on the city’s rent-stabilized population, which ABC7 described as more than 2 million tenants.
He argued that New Yorkers had watched rents climb for years and said a rent freeze could be delivered through the Rent Guidelines Board, whose members are appointed by the mayor.
“For the last four years, all they have seen is that their rent has gone up, and up, and up more than 12%,” Mamdani said, adding that tenants “deserve a rent freeze.”
He also addressed concerns that have followed him since the campaign over antisemitism, saying on the show he would “vigorously fight antisemitism” and push back on threats by President Donald Trump to cut federal funding to the city, ABC7 reported. A clip posted by “The View” on X quoted Mamdani saying he would “root out antisemitism across the five boroughs.”
Jewish community leaders scrutinize Mamdani
The remarks came amid sustained scrutiny from Jewish community leaders over how the new mayor would handle antisemitism, protests, and Israel-related disputes in the city.
Earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported that Mamdani sought input from local Jewish leaders while crafting a statement condemning pro-Hamas chants at a January 8 protest outside a Nefesh B’Nefesh event, after critics accused him of waiting too long to respond.
Mamdani’s “The View” appearance also landed in a broader affordability debate that has stretched beyond housing. In a separate report on Tuesday, ABC7 highlighted a clash between Mamdani’s “fast and free” bus pledge and the city’s fare-evasion problem, which the outlet said was costing close to $1 billion a year.
MTA CEO Janno Lieber told ABC7 the agency planned a new approach to bus fare enforcement, including hiring personnel and using handheld devices to check proof of payment on board buses.
“We’ll have people with handheld devices that can ask folks to show how they paid,” Lieber said, according to the report. The same story quoted Mamdani saying, “We are just as committed as we were before to fulfilling our promise to make buses fast and free in the nation’s most expensive city.
The national-TV push is part of a broader effort by City Hall to define the opening weeks of the new administration around affordability and civil rights, while trying to contain flashpoints tied to antisemitism and Israel.
Mamdani has been under pressure to show he can keep Jewish New Yorkers safe while also defending protest rights, a balancing act that often turns into a political test case for other US cities.