00:00Zoran Mamdani's sheltered life, not just his privileged upbringing, but his whole adult career, is on display whenever someone asks him a real question, such as why he's besties with a guy who thinks America deserved 9-11.
00:16That came Wednesday at a Bronx event at the campaign stage to let him demand that somebody hand out free tickets to the World Cup final. A reporter asked Mamdani why he hangs out with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who has said some nasty stuff.
00:33The candidate missed a beat, then flashed his trademark grin and replied, I'm here to talk about the World Cup. Well, sure, that's what you want to talk about, Zoe, but reporters don't work for you.
00:46Nor do the voters. Mamdani and his operatives act baffled whenever anyone asks a direct question about the candidate's past statements and alliances.
00:56Bring up his career-long demands to defund the police, close jails, arrest Bibi Netanyahu, and offer sex change operations to children on demand, and Mamdani and companies sing in unison, that's not in his campaign.
01:13As if we've entered some new world of politics, where candidates aren't responsible for positions they proudly held until 10 minutes ago.
01:22It's Not Our Campaign is a heck of a lot different from, I've realized I was completely wrong, let me explain my errors.
01:30It's a tale of two zorongs.
01:32One Mamdani is on the record as a socialist firebrand who quotes Soviet-backed anti-colonial guerrilla revolutionaries as inspiration, rails about Zionism, and praises the confiscation of private property.
01:46Oh, never mind all that, his campaign demands.
01:49Look at this other Mamdani, who's only about this free stuff and magically making the rich pay.
01:55Asking about anything else is somehow irrelevant, impertinent, and offensive.
02:01He may really believe he's entitled to this no-off-topic-questions privilege.
02:06Mamdani has lived his whole life in a bubble of praise.
02:10He was raised to smile patronizingly at incorrect political opinions in his leftist parents' many homes.
02:17Then did his adulting deepen the same ideological comfort zone.
02:21Pricey, ultra-liberal Bowden College, a self-indulgent rap career, plus Democratic-Socialist struggle sessions.
02:30Then a cushy spot in the legislature's progressive supermajority.
02:34Answering even slightly challenging basic questions about his and his friends' revolting opinions is a strange new thing.
02:42Yet, the questions will keep coming.
02:44The only mystery is whether the voting public will ever hear any straight answers.
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