Zohran Mamdani (guest)

And I think what's been galling to many in this city has been the ability to be blind to certain injustices.

We have a mayor right now.

who has often been blind to the suffering of many in this city, especially, I would say, Palestinian New Yorkers.

I met a Palestinian New Yorker from Bay Ridge about two weeks ago.

It's an older man who walked with a cane.

We were having chai in Astoria.

And he told me how he'd lived in this city for decades.

He's from Gaza.

And for decades he worked to save up to build a house in Gaza.

And he built that house and it was the pride and joy of his life.

And the Israeli military destroyed that house in one minute.

And in the rubble of that house lay the dreams that he had held for decades and how his son and his grandkids were in Gaza, continue to be in Gaza today.

And he told me about how his son called him the other week and said,

Listen, listen to my son.

He gave the phone over to this man's grandchild, and the grandchild said, I'm hungry.

Can you send me anything?

And this man had to grapple with the fact that there was nothing more he could send.

There was no way he could reach out.

This is a New Yorker.

Because I think there's no other way to respond to this kind of despair and to hold this despair and say that as the mayor of your city, I see what you are struggling through.