Mamdani: ‘I Will Make Buses Fast and Free ... I Won’t Require Everyone to Eat Halal Food’

STEWART: “Because we live in a culture now, you’re either a savior or the death of us all. So what is it like reaching out to that other group?”
MAMDANI: “You know, I don’t begrudge New Yorkers who are skeptical because they have also lived through tens of millions of dollars of commercials telling them to fear me. You know, they have lived through waking up every morning and seeing a photo of me and just being like, ‘Oh, my God,’ because the language that is written around me is as if I am a threat to the city that they love. So when I meet with them, just the mere fact that I don’t strangle them within 30 seconds is often a surprise.”
(Laughter)
STEWART: “You’re doing well based on the low bar that’s been set.”
MAMDANI: “But — and then I think it is an opportunity, where I both could tell things that I will do and things that I won’t do. I will freeze the rent. I won’t to defund the police. I will make buses fast and free. I won’t decriminalize misdemeanors. I will deliver universal childcare. I won’t require everyone to eat halal food.
(Laughter and Applause)
This sounds like a punch line.”
STEWART: “You just made news.”
MAMDANI: “This is literally in a push poll to New Yorkers, saying that I will make halal mandatory. And it’s like, if you do want to eat halal, go to 34th Avenue in Steinway, go to Mahmoud’s, but I’m not going to force you to go there.”
STEWART: “You would not force them, but you would describe it in such delicious terms that people would have a hard time — “
MAMDANI: “Yeah. If they want chicken and rice, there will only be one place. Yeah.”