‘Will probably cost him’: CNN’s Van Jones blasts Zohran Mamdani for pulling ‘character switch’ in victory speech

CNN’s Van Jones criticized Democratic New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday for appearing harsher in his victory speech than he did during his campaign.

Mamdani spoke for over 20 minutes after winning the race, seeming to scream throughout. Jones said during CNN’s election night coverage that the speech failed to help Mamdani expand his constituency.

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“I think the Mamdani that we saw in the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present in that speech,” Jones said. “And I think that Mamdani is the one you need to hear from tonight. There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he going to include me? Is he going to be more of a class warrior even in office? I think he missed a chance tonight to open up and bring more people into the tent.”

“I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that’s not the Mamdani that we’ve seen on TikTok and the great interviews and stuff like that,” he added. “So I felt like it was a little bit of a character switch here, where the warm, open, embracing guy that’s close to working people was not on stage tonight. And there was some other voice on stage … I think he missed an opportunity to open himself up tonight. And I think that that will probably cost him going forward.”

With about 90% of the vote tabulated, Mamdani led with 50.4% of the vote compared with independent candidate Andrew Cuomo’s 41.6% and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa’s 7.1%, according to CNN as of Wednesday morning.

Mamdani, an avowed socialist, is set to become New York City’s first Muslim mayor and one of its youngest ever leaders at 34. He won despite controversies about his policy stances and conduct on the campaign trail.

The socialist campaigned on a platform of hiking taxes on corporations and wealthy New Yorkers, freezing rents, free buses, city-owned grocery stores and free childcare, according to his campaign website.

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