Mayor Mamdani struggles to define who the working class is in a word salad interview

New York City’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, struggled to define who the “working class” is in a word salad response to a question about the people he vows to fight for.Mamdani, in a lengthy interview with the New York Times published over the weekend, was asked point-blank by journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro, “How do you define the working class?”“I think if you have to work to pay your bills, I think that that is one definition of being a part of the working class,” he vaguely responded.When pushed whether he would consider those who make $250,000 per year as working class, he said, “I haven’t asked myself where it starts and stops.“What I would say is those who are working to try and afford the basic dignities of life and aren’t able to do so, I think that that is also working class.Oftentimes we’re asked how we divide this country.

I think there’s only one majority in this country — it’s the working class,” he then rambled.Confused by the convoluted reponse, Garcia-Navarro admitted that Hizzoner’s description didn’t seem to “ring true,” to her.“It just seems a very easy answer to what is a complicated question,” the reporter fought back.“Because politically, if you’re saying everyone is the working class, or anyone that gets a salary is the working class, yes, that opens up your tent.

But practically speaking, we are divided by income — and especially if you want to tax people, where you draw those lines matter.”Mamdani then said he would draw the line at around $1 million per year — which Garcia-Navarro pointed out could alienate potential voters such as a janitor who he’s lumped in the same “working class” category as a successful lawyer.“That feels like a distinction that might matter,” she told the mayor.“When I was running, a question I would face was: What does it mean to be a democratic socialist? And I only bring that up because I think sometimes there’s a fixation on a definition of...