New York Attorney General Letitia James stood on stage before the November 2025 mayoral election and said Zohran Mamdani embodied "courage." She told voters she was "supporting him" because "he, like me, knows what it's like to be attacked, to be called names, to be threatened, to be harassed."
That was then. Now Mamdani's socialist movement just steamrolled the Democrat establishment in three congressional primaries, and James is furious — at the guy she helped create.
According to the Daily Wire, James ripped into Mamdani this week for backing candidates she says "do not understand the politics of New York City, the cultural differences from district to district, who have not been part of the history and the struggle of some of these districts, and are relatively new to the body politic."
Three Mamdani-backed socialists won Democratic primaries for U.S. House seats. Former New York City comptroller Brad Lander knocked off incumbent Representative Dan Goldman in New York's 10th district. State Assemblymember Claire Valdez took New York's 7th with 56% of the vote. And community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier unseated Representative Adriano Espaillat — the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — by fewer than 4 percentage points in New York's 13th.
Three races. Three incumbents or establishment picks. Three socialist wins.
James tried to draw a line: "All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party. But you don't blow it up. That's what MAGA has done."
Except the people doing the blowing up aren't taking advice from the woman who sued Donald Trump for a living. The Sunrise Movement, a left-wing activist group backing Mamdani's slate, posted on social media after the results came in: "Young people have taken over New York City and we are going to Congress. Young people, who are unapologetically Democratic-Socialist. Tonight marks the end of the bought out, boomer establishment Democrats."
They followed that up with a direct shot at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: "WATCH OUT CHUCK SCHUMER!! YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE TAKEN OVER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!!!"
For her part, James seems to have forgotten that she personally endorsed Mamdani's mayoral campaign against Andrew Cuomo. She called him "a leader fighting for a better future for this city." She praised his courage. She vouched for his character.
Then his movement grew legs and started winning races she didn't authorize, and suddenly he's an outsider who doesn't understand New York politics.
President Trump, watching from the Oval Office on June 24, offered his own analysis of the Democrat transformation. He noted Chuck Schumer "has become 100% Palestinian" and said he'd asked "for a beautiful, silk outfit to be sent in the Palestinian tradition" as a birthday gift. He called the shift "the greatest transformation of a political ideology I've ever seen."
The Democratic Party is now running two campaigns simultaneously — one against Republicans and one against itself. The establishment wing wants to hold power. The socialist wing wants to replace everyone holding it. And the attorney general who endorsed the socialist mayor is now complaining that socialism is spreading.
She lit the match. Now she's calling the fire department.
