It seems clear to me that he tries not to answer it in the actual podcast, and that he also doesn't have a way to dance around the subject. He clearly attempts to avoid the topic, but the guy he's talking to isn't your run-of-the-mill podcast host chud; he's a journalist with decades of experience. The guy does not let up, and then the topic is shifted. I get the sense the other co-host (the journalist's daughter) has more of a soft spot for Mamdani since she doesn't interject at all during this exchange and then tries to transition out of the awkward conversation, and seems to be (not that I listened all that hard) to want to give him the opportunity to distinguish himself from typical Democrats. The excange starts with her saying this:

Jorge Ramos (17:40): You have the same [...][so] ideology is not that important?

Mamdani (17:42):
I think It's not been the first question that New Yorkers have asked me. But even more than that, I've often been asked us to what does it mean when I say that I'm a Democratic socialist.

Paola Ramos (17:51):
I think that's important because Republicans and some Democrats weaponize that term so much. I mean, it's completely misconstrued. So what's the most simple way to address a Spanish speaking Latino New Yorker who may want to vote for you, but he's so scared about that term.

[–] newacctidk@hexbear.net 15 points 5 days ago

Gotta love the mythical "spanish speaking Latino New Yorker" who hates Maduro and Cuba. It ain't fucking Miami, there are different LatAm countries, different communities, etc. Hell a huge chunk of Spanish speaking New Yorkers are from a place with no democracy and occupation by a hostile government, it is called Puerto Rico

[–] LangleyDominos@hexbear.net 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I think you're onto something because this seems like bad training. Mamdani's claim is that he's really good on the everyday issues that affect the people of NY. The problem is he's probably focused so much on that and nothing else. The journalists have picked up on it over his Israel/Palestine comments and the reaction. Now they can just lob this stuff at him and he can't do anything. He might be someone who can be Rogan'd into the correct opinion if he spent time with his constituents and more knowledgeable people. Too late now though.

Maybe they should have flipped it around from the start. Go so hard and aggressive into foreign issues these journalists are saying you don't care about NYC. Then spend the last month correcting them by doing nothing but talking about the city. Recency bias wins and forced the media to go where you wanted.

[–] RedWizard@hexbear.net 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This is also the first episode of this podcast. I have no idea if these two have massive popularity that brings them a built in audience, that's probably the case. That said, I don't think I would be the launching episode of a new podcast if I was campaigning, that's for sure.

The conspiracy worms in my brain could say something like: The Democrats likely paid this guy to push their opening episode in favor of this one specifically to grill Mamdani on this topic. They didn't inform him that this was going to be asked specifically to scold and correct him.

But that's not the the likely scenario.

[–] SickSemper@hexbear.net 3 points 5 days ago

Unfortunately, he's probably doing this out of love of the game (anticommunism)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Ramos_(news_anchor)