Mamdani, Trump and the End of the Old Politics
About this episode
After Zohran Mamdani's upset of Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, Klein and MSNBC's Chris Hayes argue the old politics is over. They advance two theories of political attention: Cuomo's Super PAC-funded TV ad blitz versus Mamdani's earned, native social-media presence — authentic video the algorithms rewarded. Hayes contends Democrats' dependence on billionaire-funded TV advertising and consultant-driven candidate selection is a brittle model, while Mamdani's materialist platform (freeze the rent, free buses, free child care) shows policy can be 'mimetic' and travel. They debate replicability (citing Mikie Sherrill and Roy Cooper as counterpoints), the rent-freeze fight, Albany tax politics, Gaza as an intra-Democratic culture-war signifier, and whether attention mechanics or governing substance will define the party's future.