A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, June 28, 2026 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.JONATHAN KARL, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: You've had a heck of a week. I mean, the election, you -- the candidates you endorsed won down the line, and you knocked off two Democratic incumbent members of Congress. Is this, is this like a unique moment in New York, or is this the beginning of a national movement?MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) NEW YORK CITY: I think we are seeing a hunger that is not just felt by New Yorkers, but frankly by Americans from coast to coast, for a new kind of politics, one that puts working people at the heart of it. And I think for far too long what we as a party have been able to say to New Yorkers who are struggling is simply to explain why they're struggling, not actually offer them a vision for how to make life better, and these candidates -- Brad, Darializa, Claire -- they ran campaigns that spoke to working people, and that said life in the nation's most expensive city need not be this way any longer. And I can't wait to have them as partners in DC and at work. KARL: So, do you see yourself endorsing candidates outside of New York? Or --MAMDANI: For now, my focus is -- is on this incredible slate of three congressional candidates, as well as, as you said, the five candidates I endorsed, who ran and won, who are all going to be heading to Albany in the state legislature. But I do think, as you said, it's not just New York City where working people are asking themselves, why can't I afford my rent, why can't I afford my groceries, why can't I find enough money in my pocket for childcare, no matter how hard I work? And I'm so excited that these incredible soon-to-be congressmembers will be helping to lead the fight across the country on making sure that working people are right there where they should be, which is the heart of the conversation.KARL: The reaction from Democrats has been something. You've had some prominent Democrats dismissive of what happened here. I mean, you had Senator Blumenthal say, "The effort to nationalize New York is going to fail. What happened in New York will be really irrelevant by the time of the elections in November." Hakeem Jeffries basically said the same thing, saying that this is not indicative of what needs to happen in November. What do you make of that?MAMDANI: You know, I think that when you ask Americans what they're feeling in this moment, amidst reports of an economy that's strengthening, of a stock market that's booming, you will hear an exhaustion at having to try and make ends meet every single day, every single week, every single month, and that it's getting harder and harder. And so, a message of fighting for working people, we don't have to nationalize that message -- that is a national message. It's a national crisis. And for far too long, all we've had to say as a party is opposition to the current administration. What do we have to say beyond that? And what these candidates offer is a vision that extends beyond the midterms, it extends beyond 2028. It speaks to what makes so many of us proud to be Democrats. It speaks to a vision that goes back to a New Deal understanding of what working people deserve. And I'll tell you that for too long that kind of politics, you can only find it in history books, and we need to bring it back to the present day. KARL: And you're hearing some, not just dismissive, though, there's resentment, and this is from fellow Democrats who think that this could jeopardize Democratic chances in the fall. I mean, you got Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic member of Congress, says “many of us believe, as do I, if you're a socialist, you are not a Democrat.” And in fact, they put out a manifesto today. Have you seen this thing? MAMDANI: Sounds pretty socialist to me. [LAUGHS]KARL: It's not a communist manifesto, it's a moderate manifesto [LAUGHS] saying “we are capitalist and not socialist. We believe in a growing, fair, and competitive economy, entrepreneurship, ownership.” I mean, this is a direct response, they've made it clear, to what you did here on Tuesday.MAMDANI: Well, you know, that's great, but what's a party if not its voters? And I'm proud to sit in front of you as the mayor of our city, having received more than a million votes a little over -- a little less than a year ago, and when we're talking about these incredible congressional candidates, they won their races, and they won their races with a vision of what politics should be, and one that actually speaks to working people. And for a lot of people who ask themselves, what does democratic socialism mean? And you can tell them the answer at a theoretical level -- it's the choice to extend democracy from the ballot box to the rest of their lives -- but in terms of what it means over these last seven months, we've seen a city with democratic socialist principles at the heart of it within our administration, and what we've delivered has been record lows when it comes to murders and shootings. KARL: So is it pragmatic democratic socialism? MAMDANI: I think democratic socialism at the heart is pragmatic, because if we cannot deliver for working people, then what is this for? I'm not interested in writing a manifesto or, frankly, in reading one. I'm interested in delivering, and that's exactly what we've been showing.KARL: But they're saying that if you're a socialist, you're not a Democrat. I mean, is there room in the party for, for both of these views?MAMDANI: Yes, here I am. [LAUGHS] Here are so many more, and I think what makes our party a beautiful party is the fact that it's a big tent that we have people -- KARL: But you've also said it has to be a party with a spine, with a backbone. MAMDANI: Yes. KARL: So it has to standMAMDANI: Even a tent has to stay up. KARL: Yes so, you know, does it have to stand firmly for these ideas that you're talking about that others are calling dangerous?MAMDANI: I think it has to stand for working people, and I think it has to be willing to fight for working people, and I think that there are some who are offended by the prospect of a party that knows who it fights for and goes every day to work for that, because what we've seen over many years is a willingness to not only explain away the status quo, but frankly, even to look to benefit from the status quo, and that's not what working people are looking for from our party.KARL: As New Yorkers were going to vote, you said something interesting. You said the race for 2028 starts now, the presidential race. What do you, what did you mean by that?MAMDANI: Well, a lot of pundits asked me about this race and what it means, and how to think about it, and at the core of Tuesday's results was a message from Democratic voters across the largest city in the United States of America about the kind of politics they want to see, and we know that we oppose the cruelty of the federal administration. What is it that we stand for beyond that? KARL: So, you can't just be anti-Trump -- MAMDANI: You can't.KARL: Obviously. MAMDANI: You got to have something you are not just willing to stand up for, but that you're also willing to explain how this is relevant to working people, and I think this just comes back to the fact that I'm leading a city that's the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. I could end the sentence there and say that life is great for eight and a half million people, but it's also a city where one in four are living in poverty, and for far too many Americans, those contradictions have become their day-to-day life, and we need a party that's able to recognize the strengths of this economy and understand that it hasn't reached enough people.KARL: Now, you know, there's been a lot of attention on one of the candidates you supported, one who knocked off an incumbent Democrat, is Darializa Avila Chevalier. She said some very controversial things, including calling for the abolition of prisons, couldn't say whether or not somebody who had committed murder should be in prison. Called for open borders. Against all deportations, including those of violent criminals. Are those positions that the Democratic Party could win on nationally?MAMDANI: I think what the Democratic Party can win on nationally is a focus on working people, and I think that what I saw from Darializa when I would walk the streets of her district was a focus on what she describes as the politics of life. She would talk about how we have to invest in babies, not bombs. She's now going to represent what is one of the poorest districts in the United States of America, and what people in that district are exhausted by is a politics that has justified the spending of tens of billions of dollars in killing civilians overseas, while working people are struggling just to do the basics. KARL: But how does that -- how does abolishing prisons or having open borders fit into that? I mean, do you see how that's -- those are ideas that a lot of your Democrats that are warning about what happened here say are toxic, most of America won't go along with it, are bad ideas, that are dangerous ideas. MAMDANI: I think what the focus of her race was, what the focus of her candidacy was, was about the struggle that working people are facing. And I think that we can have disagreements on policy positions. What we have to agree on is what are we fighting for, and who are we fighting for? She showed that in her race, and I think that many people will come to appreciate that in her leadership to come. KARL: So we can disagree on something as basic as whether or not there should be prisons?MAMDANI: There -- KARL: That's not your position. MAMDANI: There are prisons. KARL: Yes. MAMDANI: And what we're also showing in this city is that safety is not something that's up for debate, it is something that we're actually delivering on. And I'm proud to be the mayor of a city that currently has the lowest recorded number of murders and shootings in recorded history in New York City. KARL: So there was also a take -- it's not just Democrats. You probably heard what President Trump had to say about you and about the candidates you supported. And he warned that if socialists win -- and he calls you communists but -- you will start living in squalor, there'll be no food, no housing, no military, no law and order. There'll be nothing, and he had a few other choice words. By the way, he also said he still likes you, [LAUGHS] but what do you make of what he.. I mean, the Democrat-- Republicans are going to make you the poster child for the Democratic Party. MAMDANI: Let them. We don't have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last November, and over the course of these last six months, what we've delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible. We've delivered free childcare for two year olds for the first time in New York City history. We've delivered tens of millions of dollars back to tenants who were taken advantage of by bad landlords. We've delivered 165,000 potholes being paved, and we've done all of these things while also delivering the lowest recorded crime in our city's history. That's what it looks like to have democratic socialism, and what you're seeing is that New Yorkers experienced this for six months and made the decision that they wanted to see more of it on the national stage as well. KARL: Can a democratic socialist get elected president? MAMDANI: I think a democratic socialist can get elected anywhere across this country for any position. What I think we need to bring is a focus on working people.KARL: And that's the direction that the party should go in, in terms of selecting a candidate for 2028?MAMDANI: I think the direction that the party should go in is how best to fight for working people. I think we need to have a platform and a vision that doesn't sound as if it was cooked up by consultants, but instead one that you would say in response to someone who's asking, why can't I afford my rent, why can't I afford my groceries, why can't I afford my childcare? We need to make clear who we stand for, how we're going to stand for them, and that we're actually willing to fight for them when the going gets tough.KARL: Obviously, Israel was a big issue in these races, not the only issue, but a big issue. Is there room in the Democratic Party for candidates, officials who support Israel, not just support Israel, but support military aid for Israel? This was a huge issue for you.MAMDANI: Well, I think what we've seen is that the time for us as elected officials to pronounce what the party should be is one that should come to an end, and we should let Democratic voters themselves take the lead. We've seen on Tuesday evening, we saw Democrats turn out in districts across the city to make clear that they were tired of tens of billions of dollars being spent in our taxpayer dollars to violate international law, to kill thousands of civilians, and you and I know that right now the way that Palestine is described is as if there is a cease fire, that's the language that's typically used.KARL: Yeah. MAMDANI: More than a thousand Palestinians have been killed in that cease fire, and what New Yorkers want to see is a politics of conscience, a politics of clarity, a politics of conviction. And to follow international law, to believe in the humanity of all people, it shouldn't be a journey too far. And I think that our party needs to hear what Democrats are telling them.KARL: Democratic Socialists of America now says they no longer favor a two-state solution. Is that the way you see it as well? The idea of two states, Palestinian and Jewish states, side by side, living in peace. MAMDANI: The way I see it is equal rights for all people, and I think that that's the truth for Israel. It's the truth for any country in the world. And frankly, as we're coming up close to the 250th anniversary of our nation, one of the things that makes me proudest to be an American is the belief that equal rights are at the bedrock of our notion of what it means to be an American. KARL: And the idea of a Jewish state, Israel as a Jewish state, that's in the charter, that's the way it is now. Do you support that?MAMDANI: I've said time and again that I support the state of Israel as a state with equal rights. I believe that any state that -- KARL: But as a Jewish state is the question. MAMDANI: I think any state that privileges one religion over the other is one that I can't tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, and a lot of that comes back to a fundamental belief that we should all be considered equal, no matter what our faith is. KARL: How big a problem -- you've said it's rising -- is anti-Semitism in this city?MAMDANI: We've seen anti-Semitism rise in this city, we've seen the fact that Jewish New Yorkers comprise a minority of our city's population, and yet continue to constitute a majority of the hate crimes that have been purveyed in this city, and that's something that's unacceptable. It's something that we will never come to see as if it is a part of life. It's something that has to be fought and rooted out of every one of the five boroughs.KARL: What did you think when Dan Goldman -- when that coffee shop in Brooklyn, said that they didn't -- they wouldn't serve him because of his support for Israel.KARL: Do you have a problem with – I mean, the idea of, you know, of an establishment like that saying they're not going to serve somebody if they support Israel.MAMDANI: I've said that I have political disagreements with Congressmember Goldman. I do believe that that's a response that goes beyond that. KARL: So that's not the right kind of thing. MAMDANI: No, I think -- I think it's much better to keep that critique in the way that we’ve done it. KARL: Okay, so we're just about out of time. I got to ask you, I noticed that you're turning 35 soon, right? MAMDANI: In a few months, yes. KARL: So you now hit one of the constitutional requirements to run for president, but there's another one that says you have to be a natural born citizen, you were not born here. Popular ReadsMAMDANI: Yes. KARL: But do you think that's a, that's a -- something that should be changed in the constitution? It would take an amendment, but do you think that that's -- we should change that? MAMDANI: No. KARL: No?MAMDANI: I think the constitution looks good the way it is. KARL: Just the way it is. MAMDANI: Just the way it is. I'm very excited to focus on New York City, but thank you for reminding me of my upcoming mortality. KARL: 35 years old, 35 years old. All right. MAMDANI: Yes sir. KARL: Mr. Mayor, thank you very much.MAMDANI: With pleasure. //JONATHAN KARL: You are recruiting and supporting veterans who want to run for office, who meet certain criteria -- again it’s bipartisan, it's not ideological -- because you believe, and you believe there's evidence that military veterans are more likely to show the kind of political courage and also to cross party lines. RYE BARCOTT: That's exactly right. So, With Honor has helped support over 100 veterans, there are about 50 that are currently in Congress. And they take a pledge to serve with integrity, civility, and courage, including the courage to work across party lines, not necessarily agree with every policy, but to maintain that trust to address matters that really are important to the country.KARL: Senator Young, you served in the Marines. How does that service inform what you do here? This is a very different kind of courage. SEN. TODD YOUNG: It is. This sort of courage, in some respects, is one that's less familiar to many people. It's, it’s the courage to be misunderstood by people you respect and love and whose values you share on, on difficult issues. It's courage to do unpopular things and to be held to account or to be able to persuade people so there's uncertainty and risk associated with, with those sorts of things. But I feel like that sort of courage, which is emphasized in military service, is necessary in order to serve the common good in divided times. People don't send us here to be influencers. They don't send us here to make political statements, but in the end, they send us here to solve hard problems working with people who don't always see the world the same way we do.KARL: The argument that the book makes is that, again, courage and civility -- only courage and civility will save us. But doesn't political courage often look uncivil? I mean, you need to stand up. You need to go up against the prevailing view. You need maybe to stand against somebody in your own party. SEN. MARK KELLY: You also have to do stuff that also might not be in your own personal best interest… KARL: Yeah. KELLY: … at times in this job, in the United States Senate. You have to take stands that you know are the right thing for the nation that moves us forward in a positive way, but could be politically harmful to you and your career. That's hard for some folks.KARL: Well, let's get to something uncomfortable here. Senator Young, what was your reaction when the President of the United States accused Senator Kelly of sedition, punishable by death, when the Secretary of Defense tried to punish him… YOUNG: I'm glad you asked.KARL: Because he made a video telling the message that people shouldn't, members -- service members shouldn't obey unlawful orders. YOUNG: So as Mark can share with you, my first reaction was to text Mark and engage in a dialogue that very morning. And we had an exchange back and forth, an exchange which I will keep private about what I should do, how I should respond, where this led, and so forth. And so it demonstrates that it's really important to develop trust among your colleagues in solidarity, even during what I know was a difficult time for, for Mark. And I like to think, because we've developed that partnership, it leads to constructive action on things like shipbuilding. These are difficult times. They're difficult times for people -- KARL: But, but can I just press you for a second, because it seemed like -- YOUNG: Of course. KARL: -- it seemed like a pretty outrageous thing, the president of the United States suggesting that this senator next to you could be put to death for something he said. And there wasn't much of an outcry among Republicans in Congress over that. It was a kind of like... YOUNG: Oh, it does lead to a larger question, which is, why am I here, Jonathan? KARL: Yeah. YOUNG: Am I here to, to hold forth every time I have a concern about utterances or even actions, but render myself unable then to work on broader initiatives that are important to my constituents on behalf of my constituents in the country, or am I here to narrate a presidency? There are times, there are times when one must speak up when you feel strongly about things. That was a case when one could fairly say that should have been the singular moment. But just keep in mind that there are trade-offs and this gets back to what Mark was talking about. It's very difficult this job to navigate the shoals and assess, you know, the moral calculus in a moment and assess when you should go to the wall, so to speak.KELLY: Johnathan, I had one of my colleagues who I won't mention who it was, but said, “Hey, this is a food fight. When this turns into a knife fight, I will say something.” So there's a little bit of that. I mean, sometimes this feels like a knife fight for me. I've been to... KARL: I mean, when the president of the United States is saying you could be put to death... KELLY: Well, also when you find out that they -- they're in front of a grand jury, and by the way, they don't... KARL: Try to indict you and failed. KELLY: Yes. Yeah. For seditious conspiracy. KARL: Yes. YOUNG: Let me add this, I've had conversations with the White House since this episode played out in a very public way. And the question was, naturally, we've been working on the shipbuilding initiative. Is it going to be a problem that I'm working with Senator Kelly in this initiative, because we're investing a lot of time and energy on this. And the answer was no. “No, we think it's important that ships be built. We welcome your collective efforts, your bipartisan efforts, your bipartisan efforts” … KARL: So we'll work with the guy that we're accusing of seditious conspiracy. YOUNG: And, and, and so it is, it is complicated there's no question. KELLY: Well, you got to compartmentalize things. YOUNG: That's right. KELLY: We're all adults. We understand the complexities of our own individual politics and certainly how complex it is, especially for Republicans with this administration in particular. It’s not -- it’s, it’s, it’s really not -- it’s -- I'd say in this situation, it's easier to be in the minority. KARL: Yeah. KELLY: To be in a majority and the leader of your party is, fair to say, very unconventional about how he approaches this job. It is very complicated for them. KARL: Well, look, you, as a newly minted senator, took on the president of your own party over immigration.KELLY: Yeah.KARL: I mean, you were barely in the Senate… KELLY: Right. KARL: … and it was an unpopular view. I mean it's written about, you write about it in the book. KELLY: Yeah and he -- I mean he created or responsible for I think is really fair to say. KARL: Yeah. KELLY: I think it's also fair to say create, created a crisis at the southern border.KARL: Biden did? With how he handled the... KELLY: Yeah, the Biden administration did a bad job at the border. Now, um, I am a border senator, I represent the state of Arizona, and this was affecting my constituents more than it was affecting, let's say, Todd's in Indiana. So yes, I wound up in a situation with them where I had to do some unpopular things, and I think unpopular things for being a Democrat. KARL: Right, and you took heat, but how hard is it in this administration, Senator, to take a stand against this president? KELLY: Well, I think it's harder.KARL: I mean, we've seen — I mean you've seen two of your colleagues lose primaries, two sitting senators lose primaries, um, because the president of the United States didn't support -- supported their opponent. YOUNG: In a sense, you can't fault the president for using the leverage he has to affect the agenda he was, he was elected to implement. He is a master of social media. He has more loyal political followers than I've ever encountered in political life. And he's used those. We've never seen a president have those tools, have that sort of leverage against Congress before in my lifetime. And so does it require a more sophisticated, more nimble sort of public leadership? I think it does, yes. But that in no way absolves myself or any of my colleagues, Republican or Democrat, from the agency we have. We still need to sacrifice when we feel like the common good can be advanced through personal sacrifice. We still need to cast principled votes and work on ambitious projects and make those arguments and, and I've attempted to do that. KARL: How does, how does this all look at America 250, which the celebrations itself are being politicized? KELLY: You know, we are clearly very divided. KARL: Yeah. KELLY: Americans are not optimistic at this point. Congress is deeply unpopular. My view on this and I'm sure, you know, Todd might disagree is that we have a president that looks for, looks at every opportunity not as an opportunity to bring the country together but to further divide us. And even this 250th celebration, this is really an opportunity to think about, like, the history of our country and all the great things we've done, all the innovation. But what's going to happen on July 4th? We're going to have a rally. YOUNG: Well, Mark was kind to recognize that I would have a different perspective and he's not wrong, I do have a different perspective. I think that lets, lets our country off a little too easy. I think the reason we're so divided right now, and the reason we have a government that we're unhappy with, is because the American people have elected the current crop of, of senators, of congressmen -- KARL: The president.YOUNG: -- of the president, all of us, and they haven't demanded more of us. I mean, really this is in the American people's hands. You ask about the 250th. This is an experiment. It is a fragile experiment, and it only exists if the American people take command of this country, and if they have challenges with the way we're being led, then put people in office that can do a better job. So it's in the American people's hands.