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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., defended Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani after Republican Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, criticized him for campaigning in Arabic.
“Just a couple decades after 9/11, the leading candidate for NYC mayor is campaigning in Arabic. The humiliation is the point,” Gill wrote in a post on X, sharing a Mamdani campaign video in Arabic.
The Republican made the comments when retweeting a Mamdani post on X written in Arabic, which featured a video of the mayoral candidate speaking the foreign language.
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Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Ocasio-Cortez, who has been backing Mamdani, retweeted Gill’s post and commented, “Over 100 languages are spoken in our great city and it’s actually a pretty amazing part of being an American. If you are humiliated by America and the diversity that powers our nation’s Nobel Prizes, Olympic Gold Medals, and breakthrough innovations and culture, that’s on you.”
Gill’s comments drew broader Republican pushback. GOP Rep. Randy Fine of Florida shared Mamdani’s Arabic-language post and asserted, “If you do not speak English, you should not be able to vote.”
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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani holds hands with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., at the end of a campaign rally at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City on Oct. 26, 2025 (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Mamdani, an Empire State assemblymember, describes himself as a “Democratic Socialist” on his X profile.
President Donald Trump has urged Big Apple voters to back former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral race.
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“A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” the president said of the Republican mayoral candidate in a Truth Social post.
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!” Trump asserted.
Election Day in New York City is Tuesday, Nov. 4.
