MAMDANI WATCH - Catholic League

Special Report

Unmasking Zohran Mamdani—August 20, 2025 (This comprehensive 18-page report by Bill Donohue is the first installment of a series of posts tracking Zohran Mamdani.)

News Releases

How Mamdani Treats Key Religious Days—March 30, 2026

Taliban Outclasses Mamdani And Sherrill—March 25, 2026

Mamdani Milks “Islamophobia”—March 19, 2026

Mamdani Rips Off St. Patrick’s Day—March 17, 2026

Mamdani Unsure He’s Marching In St. Pat’s Parade—March 16, 2026

Playing The Religion Card—March 5, 2026

Mamdani Stiffs Catholics For Third Time—February 9, 2026

Unmasking Mamdani’s Anti-ICE “Volunteers”—February 4, 2026

Mamdani Likes Anti-Religious Bigots—January 14, 2026

Mamdani’s Anti-Religious Messaging—January 6, 2026

Meet Mamdani’s Inaugural Staff—December 30, 2025

Mamdani Team Bears Watching—December 29, 2025

Mamdani’s Cop-Hating “Safety” Hire—December 8, 2025

Why Mamdani Didn’t March With Veterans—November 12, 2025

Will Mamdani March With Veterans?—November 10, 2025

Profile Of Mamdani Voters Is Telling—November 6, 2025

Mamdani’s Rulings Bear Close Scrutiny—November 5, 2025

Does Mamdani Hate Minorities?—October 6, 2025

Mamdani’s Communist Roots—September 30, 2025

In the News

“Why Mamdani Mentioned Palestinians in His St. Patrick’s Day Message,” New York Times, March 18

“Bill Donohue…criticized the mayor, who is Muslim, saying he had turned a St. Patrick’s Day message into ‘a radical Muslim rant.'”

“Sid and Friends in the Morning,” WABC Radio, March 17

“Now he wants to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade because he’s getting pounded.”

“On the front page of the Catholic League there’s something called ‘Mamdani Watch,’ and every day we are posting some stuff on it about him being anti-Jewish, being anti-Catholic, being anti-cop. I wrote an 18-page statement on him in August and I know this guy like the back of my hand and if he wants to debate Bill, I’ll do it right here at WABC.”

“Mamdani rips Palestinian ‘genocide’ at St. Patrick’s Day event — after he botches answer on unified Ireland,” New York Post, March 17

“The remarks drew criticism from Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, who rapped Mamdani for politicizing St. Patrick’s Day.

“‘Mamdani is a master of the politics of victimization. He delighted his left-wing Irish friends by saying, “The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,”‘ Donohue said in a statement.

“‘This is the mentality of the Left. He sees oppression everywhere, nicely teeing it up for guys like him to rescue victims from their oppressors.'”

“Mamdani distorting St. Patrick’s Day, Irish history just the latest example of his shameful obsession with Israel,” Michael Goodwin, New York Post, March 17

“As Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, put it in a blistering statement, Mamdani ‘is a master of the politics of victimization’ who appealed to ‘his left-wing Irish friends by reducing the story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City. . .to a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination.'”

“Critics Slam Mamdani for Gaza Remarks at Irish Event,” Newsmax, March 17

“Catholic League President Bill Donohue accused the mayor of pushing a left-wing grievance narrative.

“‘Mamdani is a master of the politics of victimization,’ Donohue said in a statement.

“‘He delighted his left-wing Irish friends by saying, “The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,”‘ he continued.”

Policies

Attempt to Demote NYPD Commissioner

On his first day in office, Mamdani issued an executive order that placed the New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner under the purview of the First Deputy Mayor. Many City Hall observers took this as a sign that Mamdani was attempting to demote NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who has disagreed with Mamdani on his “policing policies.” Some feared this was the opening salvo in a wholesale shakeup of the NYPD, and rumors began spreading that Mamdani would no longer receive daily intelligence briefings from the NYPD Commissioner. Mamdani entered damage control mode and quickly tried to spin the story claiming that it was for administrative purposes. Mamdani would still have Tisch report to him, but the daily oversight of the department would fall to the First Deputy Mayor.

Watering Down Protections for Houses of Worship

One of Mamdani’s first acts as mayor was to repeal an executive order issued by his predecessor, Eric Adams, which strengthened protections for houses of worship. Adams was compelled to pursue this policy after an unruly crowd of 200 anti-Jewish protesters assembled outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue screaming, “Death, death to the IDF” [Israel Defense Forces], “globalize the intifada,” and “take the settler out.” Others yelled, “We need to make them scared.” In response, Adams authorized enhanced protection “of both houses of worship and persons exercising their rights to free assembly and free speech near houses of worship.”

Personnel

Dean Fuleihan

Title: First Deputy Mayor

Fuleihan, 74, is a creature of New York fiscal policy, having spent his entire life working in shaping budgets in the city and in Albany. He’s widely regarded as a nonpartisan fiscal technocrat with decades of experience running complex government budgets and navigating Albany-City relations. Regarding issues relevant to the Catholic League, Fuleihan has no significant public record on religious liberty, Catholic institutions, or related policy fights.

Julie Su

Title: Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice

Su, 56, is a rabid leftist. She most recently served as Acting Secretary of the Department of Labor under Biden. Because of her extreme positions, Su was unable to survive the confirmation process in the Democratic-controlled Senate after moderate Democrats voted against her. This led to her serving in an acting capacity, the only member of Biden’s cabinet to do so. A major sticking points for the moderates was Su’s time as the California Secretary of Labor where she mismanaged the state’s Covid relief program. Fraud and abuse were endemic. According to reports, the program paid out over $30,000,000,000 to fraudsters, delayed payments to more than 5,000,000 beneficiaries, and a further 1,000,000 million people who should have received payments were wrongfully denied. Her mismanagement would become a political liability for her when she argued that the U.S. Department of Labor should cover the California Covid relief program’s shortfall, which was brought on by the massive amount of fraud. Further, Su was part of Gavin Newsom’s administration, which had some of the most draconian restrictions during the pandemic particularly on houses of worship and people of faith. Su has been a vocal supporter of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, even going so far as to author a column in the left-wing rag The Courier attacking parents for trying to remove books from school that are age inappropriate for containing graphic LGBT material and critical racism. Su attended Stanford and earned her law degree from Harvard. She also was named a MacArthur Foundation “genius,” a program that has been noted for its hostility to religious liberty and American exceptionalism.

Elle Bisgaard-Church

Title: Chief of Staff

Bisgaard-Church, 34, is frequently described as “Mamdani’s right hand” and the “brains behind the campaign.” Previously, she served as his chief of staff for his Assembly office and was his campaign manager for the primary. Following the primary, she became the campaign’s senior advisor. While Bisgaard-Church keeps a low public profile (she rarely sits for interviews and practically no social media footprint), it is safe to say she is a true believer in the radical agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Many of the policies championed by DSA conflict with Catholic teachings.

Lillian Bonsignore

Title: Fire Department of New York (FDNY) Commissioner

Bosignore has made history as the first “openly gay” FDNY Commissioner. She served more than 30 years in the FDNY’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS), starting as a tech and acquiring the rank of EMS Director in 2019. While her defenders note her leading EMS through the Covid pandemic, her critics point out that she has no experience in fire fighting. Additionally, she has been noted as a “trailblazer for the LGBTQ community.”

Ramzi Kassem

Title: Chief Counsel

Kassem previously served as a professor of law at the City University of New York (CUNY). He has a history of being involved with the anti-Israel and pro-Palestine movement. In 2025, he provided legal representation to Mahmoud Khalil, the activist and Columbia student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after participating in pro-Palestine protests at the university. He is the co-founder of Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (known as CLEAR), a CUNY law school clinic with a history of associating with anti-Israel activists. CLEAR has also provided workshops for pro-Palestine protesting students on how they can avoid arrest. Additionally, Kassem provided the legal defense for an Al Qaeda terrorist who bombed an oil tanker in Yemen.

Christine Clarke

Title: Chair and commissioner for the City Commission on Human Rights

Christine Clarke is an attorney who serves as Chief of Litigation and Advocacy at Legal Services NYC, a non-profit that seeks “racial, social, and economic justice for low-income New Yorkers.” The organization has provided legal counsel to transgender persons in several anti-discrimination cases. Clarke has also voiced support for transgender issues. Speaking in a Legal Services NYC statement in February 2025, she said that the Trump Administration’s decision to remove transgender language from the NYC Stonewall Memorial is seeking to “erase trans people from history.”

Previously, Clarke served as a staff attorney for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In this position she “challenged abortion bans in multiple states, helping keep health center doors open as long as possible.”

Afua Atta-Mensah

Title: Chief Equity Officer, Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice

Afua Atta-Mensah was appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Chief Equity Officer after previously working as a senior adviser on his campaign and holding roles with progressive advocacy organizations including Community Change and the Urban Justice Center. Her appointment drew scrutiny after deleted social media posts resurfaced in which she mocked liberal white women, endorsed the idea that there is “NO moderate way to black liberation,” and wrote “Tax Them To The White Meat!!!” in response to a discussion about taxing the wealthy. Mamdani has defended her appointment despite the controversy, saying he stands by her ability to lead the city’s equity agenda.

Dr. Alister Martin

Title: Commissioner of NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Dr. Alister Martin is an emergency physician who previously worked at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where his work focused on health equity and public policy. He is the founder of Vot-ER, a nonprofit that promotes voter registration in healthcare settings, and has also served in a federal advisory role at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Martin has also been affiliated with initiatives such as a Global Oppression Working Group that looks to examines how systemic inequalities affect health outcomes and promote policy approaches to address those disparities. Mamdani appointed Martin to lead New York City’s Department of Health, placing him in charge of one of the largest municipal health systems in the country. Martin has not previously run a large public health agency, and his background is centered on advocacy and policy work rather than managing citywide health operations.

Cea Weaver

Title: Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants

Weaver, 37, is a longtime housing activist and active member of the DSA. She previously led Housing Justice for All and the New York State Tenant Bloc. In resurfaced social media posts, Weaver wrote that “private property including any kind of especially homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy,” and urged supporters to “elect more communists.” In a recorded talk, she also argued for a shift away from private ownership, stating that “we’ll transition from treating property as an individual good to a collective good—whites especially will be impacted.” In 2018, Weaver posted online that she wanted to “impoverish the *white* middle class.” United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has officially warned the Mamdani administration from pursuing anti-white policies specifically referencing Weaver’s past statements. Reporting has further noted that Weaver’s family owns high-value residential property, a detail critics have pointed to as conflicting with her prior rhetoric on property and ownership.

Rafael Espinal

Title: Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment

Rafael Espinal was appointed by Mamdani to serve as Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, the city agency that oversees the Film Office, NYC Media, the Press Credential Office, and creative sector programs, and has historically been tasked with promoting New York as a global hub for media production. Espinal previously represented Brooklyn in the New York City Council and the State Assembly, where he championed progressive causes including the repeal of the city’s longstanding Cabaret Law and advocacy for portable benefits for freelance workers. After resigning his council seat to lead the Freelancers Union he has since aligned himself with labor unions and progressive industry coalitions on cultural economy priorities.

Anna Bahr

Title: Director of Communications

Bahr, 33, is an alumnus of both of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns. In addition to working for Sanders, she worked for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and successor Karen Bass. She previously worked in the media with a one-year stint at the New York Times and an internship with “Rachel Maddow Show.” In 2012, Bahr wrote a piece for Ms. magazine in support of Planned Parenthood and condemning North Carolina’s efforts to defund the abortion provider.

Julian Gerson

Title: Speechwriter

Gerson, 29, worked as a political director and speechwriter for Mamdani’s campaign. He previously served as campaign manager for New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler. In City Hall, he will be reprising his duties as speechwriter. Gerson has shown strong support for Luigi Mangione, who allegedly assassinated Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Lekha Sunder

Title: Deputy Director of Communications

Sunder, 26, played a central role expanding the Mamdani campaign’s media reach. She previously worked as a press secretary on Kamala Harris’ campaign.

Dora Pekec

Title: Spokeswoman

Pekec, 25, worked as the press secretary for Mamdani’s campaign. She previously worked on the Brad Lander Campaign. She will serve as the administrations senior spokeswoman. In 2023, she tweeted that the Supreme Court was leading a “descent into Christian theocracy.”

Joe Calvello

Title: Press Secretary

Calvello, 33, is another former aide to Bernie Sanders. He has also worked for Brandon Johnson, the radical mayor of Chicago, Senator John Fetterman, abortion providing behemoth Planned Parenthood, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. He will oversee the communications of all city departments for Mamdani.

Monica Klein

Title: Senior Advisor for Communications

Klein served as a deputy press secretary during the de Blasio administration. She is also the co-founder of Seneca Strategies, a progressive consulting firm that specializes in helping leftist women get elected. Not only do many of the candidates the firm works for support abortion, but also the firm has worked on behalf of several pro-abortion campaigns such as #VOTEPROCHOICE.

Simonia Brown

Title: Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy

Brown has more than two decades of experience in New York City and State government. Under de Blasio, she served as the Director of New York City’s State Legislative Affairs Office. Her work has primarily focused on budgetary policy.

Sam Lavine

Title: Commissioner for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection

Lavine served in the Biden Administration’s Federal Trade Commission. He was the head of the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Maria Torres-Springer

Title: Transition Co-Chair

Torres-Springer, 48, most recently served as New York City’s First Deputy Mayor, following a series of senior roles in both the Adams’ and de Blasio administrations. Of particular note for Catholics, during her tenure in New York City politics, Torres-Springer was a rabid support of abortion and transgenderism. She mourned the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal Roe v. Wade, exclaiming that “My daughters’ generation will be the first one in 50 years that has lost their right to determine their future.” Furthermore, she championed the passage of the city’s “Sexual and Reproductive Bill of Rights.” This radical “bill of rights defines health as inclusive of access to sexual health care, birth control, gender-affirming health care, and abortion services.” She praised the bill by saying, “This Sexual and Reproductive Health Bill of Rights will enshrine the right to comprehensive reproductive health and family planning…to help all women, including transgender and gender expansive New Yorkers, thrive.” Additionally, Torres-Springer held a leadership role at the Ford Foundation and has been appointed President of the Revson Foundation, both prominent promoters of progressive policies.

Lina Khan

Title: Transition Co-Chair

Khan is the former Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she pursued aggressive antitrust and regulatory actions. She previously worked for the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee. While most of her career has been on antitrust and other regulatory issues, Catholics should note that as FTC Chair under the Biden administration Khan made headlines for helping push the White House’s pro-abortion agenda. In 2024, she targeted Outlogic, a data brokerage firm, accused of selling people’s location data surrounding their trips to healthcare facilities. This fed into the liberal panic of the time that states with strong protections for the unborn could use these data brokers to target women who traveled out of state to have an abortion. While this was more of a symbolic gesture (Outlogic was only accused of selling people’s data regarding visits to their doctors and local pharmacies to big pharmaceutical companies), Khan claimed her actions were authorized by Biden’s executive order to protect women’s privacy to seek abortions. Khan also teaches at Columbia Law School, focusing on expanded federal regulatory authority.

Melanie Hartzog

Title: Transition Co-Chair

Hartzog is the President and CEO of the New York Foundling, a major social-services nonprofit founded by the Sisters of Charity and supported by substantial city contracts. She previously served as Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, serving in both the de Blasio and Bloomberg administrations. Most of her career has been in social-services management.

Grace Bonilla

Title: Transition Co-Chair

Bonilla is the President and CEO of United Way of New York City, a nonprofit closely tied to city-funded social-service programs. She previously served as Administrator of the NYC Human Resources Administration in 2017, overseeing welfare and benefits operations. Additionally, under de Blasio, she served as the first Executive Director of the city’s Taskforce on Racial Equity and Inclusion, an initiative in the wake of the George Floyd riots. Bonilla began her career in municipal government in the Bloomberg administration.

Elana Leopold

Title: Transition Executive Director

Leopold is a political staffer and strategist who served as a senior advisor on Mamdani’s campaign and previously held multiple roles in the de Blasio administration. During her tenure in the de Blasio administration, she was one of more than 230 staffers who signed a letter in June of 2020 demanding that the mayor “reduce the NYPD operating budget by $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2021, and reallocate that money to essential social services.” Leopold is also the co-founder of Seneca Strategies, a progressive consulting firm that specializes in helping leftist women get elected. Not only do many of the candidates the firm work to support abortion, but also the firm has worked on behalf of several pro-abortion campaigns such as #VOTEPROCHOICE.

Tamika Mallory

Title: Transition Advisor

Mallory, 45, has been involved in activism promoting progressive causes for practically all her life. Growing up, her parents were deeply involved with Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN), and by the time she was 15, Mallory began working as a volunteer with the organization. By 2011, she became the youngest national director of NAN. While she would step down from this position in 2013 to pursue her own activism, Mallory remains involved with NAN. In 2014, she would work in the de Blasio administration leading efforts to combat gun violence. In 2017, she would serve as a national co-chair of the Women’s March, which was ostensibly to protest the inauguration of Donald Trump but evolved into promoting a number of anti-Catholic causes particularly abortion and LGBT issues. Much of the Women’s March pro-abortion messaging and iconography was inherently anti-Catholic. Throughout the horde of angry women many protestors held signs “Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries” and “#IstandWithPlannedParenthood.” Mallory would go on to serve as the organization’s co-president. In this roll, she took credit for being responsible for bringing in the abortion providing behemoth Planned Parenthood as a significant financial supporter of the Women’s March. However, Mallory would generate great controversy for her support for Louis Farrakhan and other anti-Semitic statements she made to a Jewish member of the organization’s leadership team. Ultimately, Mallory would be kicked out in 2019. After her unceremonious departure from the Women’s March, Mallory became actively involved in Black Lives Matter (BLM) following the death of George Floyd. Here, too, she would raise eyebrows. A family members of one person killed in a police involved shooting accused Mallory of being a “clout chaser.” This criticism was compounded after she appeared in a BLM-inspired Cadillac commercial, leading to accusations that Mallory was “commodifying activism.” Further, she downplayed the severity of the riots that swept across the nation inspired by BLM. More recently, Mallory has been hypercritical of Trump highlighting the extreme violence faced by Christians in Nigeria. She downplays the violence, arguing Trump is just promoting American imperialism.

Hassaan Chaudhary

Title: Transition Adviser

Chaudhary, 31, served on Mamdani’s campaign as a Muslim-engagement staffer. He was instrumental in pushing the campaign’s line that any criticism of Mamdani was rooted in Islamaphobia. Recently, old social media posts from roughly 2012 surfaced showing Chaudhary using a derogatory Urdu slur for Jews, praising former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling Israel a “cancer,” and posting other hostile language toward Israel and Jewish people. Chaudhary has since deleted his social accounts and issued an apology saying the posts do not reflect his current views. Additionally, he claimed on social media to be the “political-director” of the transition and inaugural teams. However, a spokesperson for the campaign denied that Chaudhary had that position. The spokesperson, though, did not condemn his vile comments.

Catherine Almonte Da Costa

Title: Director of Appointments [resigned after being exposed for anti-Semitism]

Da Costa was appointed to the role of Director of Appointments for Zohran Mamdani’s administration before resigning after a day when decade-old social media posts surfaced containing anti-Semitic language and hostility toward law enforcement. In those posts, she referred to “money-hungry Jews” and disparaged NYPD officers using demeaning terms, prompting public scrutiny of Mamdani’s vetting process. Previously, Da Costa served in the de Blasio administration.

Alex Vitale

Title: “Community Safety” Adviser

Vitale is the Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College. While his fawning acolytes in the liberal press champion him as a serious scholar offering timely and pointed criticism of law enforcement with an eye toward reforming the system to promote social justice, Vitale’s own radical rhetoric reveals his deep hatred for the police and public order. He has railed against law enforcement agencies all across the nation, going so far as to call police officers “violence workers.” In fact, there are very few law enforcement agencies that he has not called for the defunding or the outright abolishment of. He has previously gone after prisons, Border Patrol, ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Texas Rangers. Unsurprisingly, he is a proponent of open borders. Furthermore, Vitale’s 2017 book The End of Policing has been described as the “bestselling bible of the movement to defund the police.” [For more on Vitale, you can read Bill Donohue’s article on him, here.]

Justine Olderman