A few days ago, Townhall reported that Catherine Almonte Da Costa, who had been tapped as Zohran Mamdani's Director of Appointments, resigned from his team after her antisemitic social media posts resurfaced.
Da Costa made the posts between 2011 and 2012 on a now-deleted account, and she referred to Jews as "money hungry," "rich Jewish peeps," and a Far Rockaway train as "the Jew train." After Da Costa resigned, Mamdani vowed to hire an outside legal team to help with the vetting process.
She wasn't the only controversial pick for his team, either. Earlier this month, The New York Post reported that several of Mamdani's appointments had misspellings in announcements and on his website. This includes the ex-con Mysonne Linen and "Black Nationalist" Lumumba Bandele. New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said, "These misspellings are deliberate. It's a very old trick to thwart Google searches for/about controversial names."
It turns out that more than one in five of Mamdani's appointees have extremist backgrounds.
BREAKING @J_Insider via @matthewkassel: “ADL finds more than 20% of Mamdani appointees have extremist backgrounds”
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) December 22, 2025
“Among the appointees, Kazi Fouzia called Oct. 7 justified and Mohammed Karim Chowdhury said Zionists are worse than Nazis” https://t.co/wYnCbkWS4R
According to Jewish Insider, these staffers have not only used antisemitic tropes like Da Costa, but they also celebrated and justified the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a lengthy document identifying many of the 400-plus transition team appointees as "individuals who have engaged in some type of antisemitic, anti-Zionist, or anti-Israel activities" or have ties to antisemitic groups and figures.
The ADL said that Da Costa's resignation showed "Mayor-elect Mamdani’s team can and will respond appropriately," but said her resignation makes it "more important to understand how other appointments with concerning backgrounds were made and what this reveals about the vetting standards that will be applied to actual administration positions."
The report highlights Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, co-executive director of Alliance for Quality Education. He was named to Mamdani's youth and education committee, and Shaakir-Ansari supported the anti-Israel college campus encampments that popped up in the fall of 2023. Shaakir-Ansari was pictured in front of a banner with an inverted red triangle (used by Hamas to identify targets) that read "long live the resistance."
Another member of Mamdani's committee on worker justice, Kazi Fouzia, defended the terror attacks in a social media post on October 8, 2023. That post read, "Resistance are Justified when people are occupied" with footage of an anti-Israel protest in Manhattan. Another member of that committee, Mohammed Karim Chowdhury, shared a post on social media that said, "Zionists are worse than Haman of ancient times, the Inquisition, and the Nazis" and that "Zionists are never Jews."
Youssef Mubaraz is part of Mamdani's committee on small businesses. He dismissed a video about Hamas' use of sexual violence on October 7 as "propaganda."
When confronted about the radicals on his transition team, Mamdani was dismissive, seemingly dashing any hopes the ADL had that he would respond reasonably.
🚨JUST IN - REPORTER: People on your transition team supported the killing of Jews after October 7th...will you reject them from your administration?
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 22, 2025
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: "...there's a wide variety of political opinion."
Wow. That's BAD. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/5p9v5MdvJX
"I have always spoken out against antisemitism and hatred in any form," Mamdani said. "The commitment I have made to protect New Yorkers, to protect Jewish New Yorkers, is one that I will uphold as the next mayor of the city."
That, of course, is a lie. When mobs of pro-Palestine protesters descended on the Park East Synagogue last month, Mamdani blamed the event organizers and the Jews in attendance for "violating international law" with an event on how to emigrate to Israel.
"We must distinguish between antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government," Mamdani continued. "The ADL's report oftentimes ignores this distinction, and in doing so, it draws attention away from the very real crisis of antisemitism we see not only just in our city but in the country at large."
"We will continue to build an administration of appointees that reflects not only our commitments but also the fulfillment of our affordability agenda," Mamdani said.
"There's no tolerance for antisemitism," Mamdani continued, "there's a wide variety of political opinion even within our own 400-plus transition committee."
We're not sure what part of any of the examples cited above is criticizing the Israeli government and not Jews. But when you're a guy like Mamdani, who supports "globalizing the intifada," we suppose that distinction is difficult to make.
Editor’s Note: Zohran Mamdani, an avowed Democratic Socialist, will be the next mayor of New York City.
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