How a video outside a billionaire’s house led to the mayor’s first real mini-scandal.
By
David Freedlander,
a features writer covering New York and national politics
For months, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s opponents have looked for ways to knock him down a peg. They tried calling him an antisemite. They tried calling him weak on crime. Now, thanks to a 70-second video, they think they have something. The rich are threatening to move out of the city (for real this time, they mean it), and they have a single frame as explanation: a close-up of Mamdani standing at night in front of the $238 million penthouse of Ken Griffin — the Republican megadonor and billionaire CEO of the hedge fund Citadel — name-checking Griffin, tapping the camera, and promising to “tax the rich.”
