This week saw the debut of a new alliance in the ongoing resistance to President Donald Trump. New York Attorney General Letitia James, already a hero on the left for the 2022 lawsuit she filed in an attempt to cripple Trump's business empire, joined up with New York City Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in a rally that was nominally about Mamdani's campaign, but also about James' defense against mortgage fraud charges brought against her by the Trump Justice Department. And in a larger sense, it was about the face of the Resistance in the second Trump administration.
James' message was defiance, defiance, defiance. "I know what it feels like to be attacked for just doing your job," she shouted. (James shouts a lot in her campaign appearances.) "But I also know what it feels like to overcome adversity. And so I stand on solid rock, and I will not bow, I will not break, I will not bend, I will not capitulate, I will not give in, I will not give up. You come for me, you gotta come for all of us."
James, who is black, said she sees her experience today in light of the experiences of earlier generations. "I've learned to stand on the shoulders of my ancestors," she said. "Despite being seared with scars, they survived." Over the last few days -- in other words, since the indictment -- James has said, "I've summoned their strength, their courage, and I will keep fighting for justice."
Entering with a raised fist, James received the loudest ovation of the night, save for the cheers for Mamdani himself. Mamdani has previously held rallies with progressive stars Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, and it was clear that Letitia James is now in their league.
Mamdani says his campaign is about making New York City more affordable, mostly by offering lots of taxpayer-paid handouts. And indeed, his warm-up act, a comedian named Gianmarco Soresi, led the crowd in an affordability call-and-response. "Freeze the -- " Soresi said, waiting for the crowd to shout "RENT!" Soresi then said, "Make buses fast and -- " before the crowd shouted "FREE!" Then Soresi said, "Deliver universal -- " and the crowd shouted "CHILD CARE!" Everybody knew the script.
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Mamdani's remarks were about much more than affordability. They were also about the current president of the United States. "This is not a moment for capitulation," Mamdani said. "We are in a period of political darkness. Donald Trump and his ICE agents are snatching our immigrant neighbors from our city in broad daylight, right before our eyes. His authoritarian administration is waging a scorched-earth campaign of retribution against any who dared oppose them."
Mamdani told the story of a young woman fighting deportation, how she was assisted by a minister, and how the case was reminiscent of the Underground Railroad. That, he suggested, means it's no exaggeration to believe the present day is like the Civil War, or World War II, or other momentous times in history. "We are living in the times we read about," Mamdani said. "I know that for many of us, when we look back at moments in history that rhyme with today, where tyranny loomed and the state imposed violence with sinister glee, we ask ourselves what we would have done. We need not wonder. That time is now."
The rally was also about the leadership of the Democratic Party. The fact is, the party has no leader now. It doesn't control the presidency, the House of Representatives or the Senate, which means there is no individual Democrat with formidable institutional authority. That's just a fact of life for parties completely out of power.
When that happens, there is often a lot of action on the fringes. The party figures, like AOC, who say the wilder things, get more attention for doing it. But if Mamdani becomes the mayor of New York -- and the polls continue to point toward that -- a Mayor Mamdani, proud Democratic Socialist, might ascend to another level of national leadership, at least at the rank of anti-Trump governors like California's Gavin Newsom and Illinois' JB Pritzker.
And don't look for Mamdani to become the nation's affordability advocate. Yes, that's his campaign platform now, but it's not what he is deep inside. In a new New York Times profile, writer Astead Herndon looked at the Ugandan-born Mamdani's political development on issues like housing and cost and noted that, on one hand, they were important. "But there was one issue that was most formative to Mamdani's political identity, the one he knew he would never compromise on: Israel and Palestinians," Herndon wrote. "Mamdani's pro-Palestinian advocacy dates to his high school days at Bronx Science, when he furiously traded Facebook posts with a pro-Israel classmate, and continued at Bowdoin College, where he founded the school's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine."
At another point in the article, Herndon wrote: "When I asked if there was a part of the city that had surprised him during the campaign, an experience or a neighborhood that inspired his connection to the city all over again, Mamdani took a beat to reflect. ... More than 20 seconds later, he had an answer: during Ramadan, in March. Mamdani told me he tried to 'attend as many new prayers and gatherings as possible.' Not just going to one celebration of Chand Raat, or 'night of the moon,' the traditional South Asian festival, but as many as he could -- 'getting in that moment,' he said, 'a snapshot of Muslim life across New York City.' His answer reminded me of just how different a candidate he is. Mamdani has placed his faith, his Indian-Ugandan roots and his pro-Palestinian activism at the center of his campaign."
In national terms, what to make of the alliance between Letitia James, the lawfare warrior, and Zohran Mamdani, the pro-Palestinian activist running to be mayor of the nation's largest city? Who knows? Nothing is clear, but it probably means there will be some unexpected turns as the second generation of Trump resistance goes forward.
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