Copyright BuzzFeed
I guess word salad is on the menu for today! Hot Topic 🔥 Full coverage and conversation on Politics Today, Tuesday, Nov. 4, is Election Day, and all eyes are on the New York mayoral race. There are three names on the ballot: Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee; Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee; and Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who lost the primary and reentered the race as an Independent. Going into Tuesday, Mamdani led most pre-election polls by double digits, and conservatives are nooooot happy about that. After claiming he's better looking than Mamdani in his 60 Minutes interview (no, I'm not kidding), Trump endorsed Cuomo, who is polling 14 points behind frontrunner Mamdani, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average. BuzzFeed TrendingHot Topic Let's chat about all things Politics See our Politics Discussions Mamdani responded to both Trump's and Musk's endorsements of Cuomo, who has tried to distance himself from Trump throughout the campaign. "Another big endorsement for @andrewcuomo. And it only cost $959 million in tax breaks," he wrote after Musk's endorsement. The clock is ticking on this mayoral race, but that hasn't stopped one more conservative endorsement for Cuomo to roll in. Last night, Texas Senator Ted Cruz tweeted: "This seems like an easy one, New York City," alongside an edited photo of a ballot with two options. The first option, seemingly referring to Cuomo, reads: "A Democrat. Just a Democrat." The second option, which presumably refers to Mamdani, reads: "An actual communist jihadist. A literal Karl Marx-quoting, America-hating jihadist." It's clear that this is an attempt by Cruz to dissuade support for Mamdani, but many people are confused about what it actually means. So, let's break down what Cruz may have been insinuating with the "communist jihadist" label. Despite many, many conservatives attempting to label Mamdani as a communist, he has been clear about his political identity as a democratic socialist. He spelled it out clearly on NBC News when asked if he is a communist: "No, I am not." The Democratic Socialists of America describe their ideology simply on their website: They want to decrease the influence of money in politics, empower ordinary people in the workplace, and create structures that encourage gender and cultural equity. "We call this vision democratic socialism — a vision of a more free, democratic and humane society," the website reads. Still, that has not stopped people, like Trump, from continuing to call Mamdani a communist. That "jihadist" label has been used against Mamdani several times, too. The 34-year-old is Muslim. The term "jihadist" is regularly misused by politicians and Western media, according to the BBC. Jihad traditionally refers to a spiritual struggle within Islam, but the term "jihadist" has been used by Western academics to distinguish between violent and non-violent Sunni Islamists. Many, however, conflate violent “jihadists" with the religion of Islam and Muslim identity more broadly, despite the vast majority of Muslims rejecting such interpretations. These anti-Muslim attacks against Mamdani have been a constant throughout his campaign, echoed by both of his competitors. During a radio interview, Cuomo seemed to suggest that Mamdani would be happy about another 9/11 happening. Sliwa called Mamdani a "global jihad" during the final debate. Now, Cruz is using these same terms — "communist" and "jihadist" — to echo what other Mamdani adversaries have been saying throughout the campaign. However, people on social media have been quick to criticize Cruz's Twitter endorsement. One tweet reads: "I disagree w/ much of what Mamdani says & espouses. But the level of racist & slanderous vitriol directed at him is a sign of how deep the political rot runs." Others are poking fun at this bizarre, last-minute attempt to sway voters: "Completely unnecessary to call Curtis Sliwa a communist jihadist just because he wears a red beret." People have also been quick to point out that Cuomo is actually not even the Democratic nominee in this race: "Surely by 'democrat' they mean the guy who's running with the Democratic party and not the guy who was endorsed by Trump and musk." Some are even embracing this label. One person tweeted: "Hell yeah." This person pokes fun at the word salad-ness of Cruz's attempt at a dig. @AlSextoPino / Via Twitter: @AlSextoPino People are also confused by Cruz's thought that this would help: "it really is incredible how over the past 48 hours, all of the least popular political figures in America decided 'you know what will help Cuomo, in this city where I'm even less popular than I am in the rest of America? if *I* endorsed him!'" They also don’t understand why Cruz cares about this local New York election in the first place. Thoughts?
