Schumer Never Endorsed Mamdani

This is your TPM evening briefing.

Kate Riga

Josh Kovensky

, and

Nicole Lafond

Nov 04, 2025

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 29: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) holds a news conference with fellow Senate Democrats to introduce legislation that would ensure SNAP and WIC benefits are issued until the end of the federal government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on October 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration said that it would not cover the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in November, possibly halting more than 42 million people’s ability to pay for groceries. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Baffling Political Miscalculation

It is now Election Day in New York, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) never endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City. He wouldn’t even say whether he voted for him.

It wasn’t for lack of opportunity — he was asked about his conspicuous non-endorsement nearly every time he talked to reporters in recent months, and repeated some pablum about having productive conversations with the candidate.

“I voted and I look forward to working with the next mayor to help New York City,” he said Tuesday afternoon at his press briefing when asked if he voted for Mamdani.

His accomplice in baffling political miscalculation, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), grudgingly endorsed Mamdani late last month. He was quick to undermine his own reluctantly given support, though, answering “no” when asked whether Mamdani is the future of the party, instead providing this illegible quote: “I think the future of the Democratic Party is going to fall, as far as we’re concerned, relative to the House Democratic Caucus and members who are doing great work all across the country.”

Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate who seems to be cruising to a win in the Virginia gubernatorial race, is less responsible than congressional leadership but performed equally dismally on the topic.

When asked by CNN about Mamdani winning the soul of the Democratic Party, she said snidely: “Then maybe he should be a Democrat.”

She then went on to dismiss his campaign promises as both deceptive and impossible to deliver, adding that that’s why she herself doesn’t promise to do anything, just to try to do things. I can hear the enthusiasm swelling now.

Hillary Clinton, now over a decade removed from a position of party leadership, still has its instincts (asked whether she would have voted for Mamdani): “You know what? I don’t vote in this city. Look, I am not involved in it. I have not, you know, been at all even asked to be involved in it, and I have not chosen to be involved in it. I will be there the day after, and everybody else should be too, no matter what happens.”

These Democrats are palpably terrified of the right’s guaranteed next move — to make Mamdani the radical, socialist, MUSLIM face of the party. Every crime in New York, and maybe everywhere, will be his fault. There will be nonstop “coverage” of the disaster wrought by putting a young charismatic brown guy in charge.

But instead of planning for and counterprogramming that attack, they cower. Schumer seems to be preparing to use his non-endorsement as some kind of washing of hands — “this isn’t my fault” — as if Fox News won’t anoint Mamdani king of the Democrats the second the results are in.

This reminds me of the dithering over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) bid to lead the oversight committee. Leadership passed her over, instead giving the messaging job to the now deceased and at-the-time very sick Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA).

They were so frightened of the right wing’s inevitable fixation on her that they crumpled into a defensive crouch, silencing one of their most effective communicators. Of course right-wing media wasn’t going to cover the Connolly Oversight Committee — he presented absolutely no threat.

Democratic voters are screaming their disapproval with the party, but establishment types stay the course, silencing or undermining any figure in the party who offers even a chance to whip up some enthusiasm.

Democrats desperately need leadership change in the party, and it’s not just the geriatrics that need ousting. Mamdani is a hopeful glimmer of that new era — but he will have to forge ahead under unrelenting attack from the opposing party and its media apparatus, and with no institutional support whatsoever from his own.

— Kate Riga

House Republicans Demonize Mamdani

As the MAGA world and Fox News whips its viewers into an unjustified and Islamophobic frenzy over the potential election of Mamdani tonight, House Republicans and the New York Young Republican Club are seeking to legitimize those various right-wing efforts to demonize the insurgent candidate and actually block him from office. The New York Post published an article over the weekend, outlining the ways in which this effort is unfolding. Basically, Republicans think that they can prevent Mamdani from being sworn-in as mayor if they can get Congress to ban the 34-year-old candidate from taking office under the 14th Amendment, claiming that his activism, including calls to resist ICE, might fit within its prohibitions on officeholders who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or who has “given aid or comfort to the enemies.”

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) has taken it upon himself to legitimize the effort in Congress.

— Nicole LaFond

Unleashing the Kraken on Maduro

2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado was sounding more like Sidney Powell this week than a Nobel laureate.

Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain suggested to Machado on a podcast that the U.S.’s Caribbean military buildup may be tied to Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and “the allegation that voting machines and people close to Maduro’s circle were involved in the election.”

It’s a reference to one of the strangest claims to come out of the feverish, frantic search for a way to explain away Trump’s defeat that year. Sidney Powell explained it most memorably alongside Rudy Giuliani during a press conference, blaming Hugo Chavez for creating vote-rigging software that was later deployed in the U.S. as part of an international communist conspiracy.

Machado halfheartedly suggested to Husain that the Venezuelans were involved, saying there’s “no doubt” that Maduro and others “are the masterminds of a system that has rigged elections in many countries, including the U.S.” She also mentioned an investigation that the U.S. is conducting into the matter.

This is the first link I’ve heard between Trump’s desire to take out Maduro and 2020 election conspiracy theories.

— Josh Kovensky