"Possession of machine guns and conspiracy to possess machine guns" he's the president of an entire fucking country what the fuck are you on
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Trying to prosecute a leader of another country with National Firearms Act violations is nuts
Mamdani, the guy who called Maduro a dictator?
At least his statement today didn't do the same... unlike Bernie's statement.
I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City.
Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law.
This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home. My focus is their safety and the safety of every New Yorker, and my administration will continue to monitor the situation and issue relevant guidance.
This is a good statement tbh. moving passed the "maduro is a dictator" shit and getting to the point that this is insanely illegal is important.
Perhaps an unpopular take, but that one time he called Maduro a dictator was literally on MyCultura, an iHeartRadio podcast network basically for gusanos. Should he have said that shit? No, obviously not.
But also I saying that trash is basically a requirement for getting to speak on the gusano podcast, Laser sights trained on your forehead if you don't. Unfortunately, that medium is how you reach a lot of Spanish speaking New Yorkers. Anti-communism runs deep and the "freedom of speech" that hogs love to screech about continues to be wholly hypothetical.
He didn’t say it on the podcast, he waffled and pretended to not know enough about Cuba and Venezuela. It was his post pod follow-up where he called them dictators
This is a detail many people seem to have missed, which IMO made the whole incident reflect much worse on Mamdani. It wasn't a concession extracted under pressure during an interview, it was a considered and prepared statement after the fact.
some advisors probably evaluated that saying that shit would help with gusanos and libs more than it alienated us
nice to see he's less daft as actual mayor than he was as a candidate/ the mayor elect.
some advisors probably evaluated that saying that shit would help with gusanos and libs more than it alienated us
Certainly possible, though I'd argue that allowing that kind of calculus for an election that he had already functionally won doesn't reflect well on him either. It's possible that he saw some backlash after that and that informed this statement too.
nice to see he's less daft as actual mayor than he was as a candidate/ the mayor elect.
So far I agree, hopefully this trend doesn't reverse. If his statement on this had been any less than what it was it would have been beyond unacceptable.
It's possible that he saw some backlash after that and that informed this statement too.
reasonable
Perhaps an unpopular take, but that one time he called Maduro a dictator was literally on MyCultura, an iHeartRadio podcast network basically for gusanos. Should he have said that shit? No, obviously not.
But also I saying that trash is basically a requirement for getting to speak on the gusano podcast, Laser sights trained on your forehead if you don't. Unfortunately, that medium is how you reach a lot of Spanish speaking New Yorkers. Anti-communism runs deep and the "freedom of speech" that hogs love to screech about continues to be wholly hypothetical.
He didn't say it on the podcast, he said it 2 weeks later after the podcast host convinced him Venezuela and Cuba are bad.
He didn't say it on the podcast,
"When New York Assembly member Zohran Mamdani finally decided to speak publicly about Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, he didn't do it in a press conference or a statement through his office but on a podcast. He was being interviewed by none other than Emmy Award-winning journalist Jorge Ramos and his daughter, political commentator Paola Ramos"
I think he said it on the podcast, babes
I think he said it on the podcast, babes
He spoke publicly about them on the podcast (as your quote says), but he didn't call them dictators on the podcast, as I said.
Quoted below from the linked article, emphasis added by me.
Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee and leading candidate in the race for New York City Hall, has often spoken about housing rights and immigrant justice but stayed cautious when asked about Maduro's authoritarian rule or Díaz-Canel's repression in Cuba. During the interview, the duo pressed him on whether he considered them dictators. The initial answer was mild, condemning the repression in both countries but declining to call them "dictators." However, his campaign sent a much more contundent position days after the interview:
" I want to be clear on where I stand. I believe both Nicolas Maduro and Miguel Diaz-Canel are dictators. Their administrations have stifled free and fair elections, jailed political opponents, and suppressed the free and fair press. And yet, our federal government's long history of punitive policies toward both countries, including extrajudicial killings of Venezuelans and the continuation of a decades long blockade of Cuba, have only worsened these conditions. Democratic socialism is about dignity, justice and accountability. And above all, it's about building a democracy that works for working people, not one that preys on them."
I was mistaken about the timeline, it was a few days rather than 2 weeks. The point is that he successfully went on the podcast and spoke to that audience (in my opinion still making distasteful concessions) and then after that he worsened his stance and called them "dictators".
I wouldn't be condescending about a podcast I didn't listen to. He was ambivalent in the interview, dodging the dictator question, and saying he didn't know enough but that his democratic socialism was different from Maduro's. Then he followed up afterwards explicitly calling both Maduro and Diaz-Canel dictators. It's in the article you posted btw
The very same.
How is another head of state owning machine guns even a crime lmao, it's called being cool.
Maduro gets raided and yet some chucklefuck in Nebraska probably has an armory of automatic weapons.
As a bare minimum Zohran needs to rescind any quid pro quo on not challenging Hakeem Jeffries (and all other establishment candidates) seat after Jeffries has essentially given Trump the green light on his illegal war and regime change in Venezuela.
If you cannot find the spine to stand against something so obviously wrong and illegal, he will undoubtedly find a way to oppose any agenda of affordability Zohran believed he could secure by not challenging the seat
As a bare minimum Zohran needs to rescind any quid pro quo on not challenging Hakeem Jeffries
He's two days into his term as mayor. He's going to have much, much higher likelihood of instituting his agenda in his current position. Going to Congress without a robust political network of allies would neutralize him. If he has any quid pro quo to not run against Jeffries, then any benefit he gained is pure positive.
i think she meant the thing where he didn't endorse some dsa guy who was trying to primary jefferies
...so. If he's going to court, he's getting a lawyer right? And that lawyer is gonna say, "My client is not a citizen of the United States, you can't prosecute him" or something to that effect. And if he doesn't get a lawyer... uh. I dunno. This doesn't seem very thought out.
Not that I'm expecting this admin to follow the rule of law, or that somehow some legal technicality is gonna fix this. Just. That. They're not exactly doing themselves any favors in that department. If the Dems were a serious opposition party willing to set the president of presidents facing consequenses, they could very easily spin an impeachment out of this.
It looks like a you confess or your wife commits suicide situation. Why else would they arrest the wife too.
It depends on if he's gonna get granted diplomatic immunity or not, and even then it's not like the feds have been very serious about trials lately. According to the constitution, everyone under US jurisdiction has constitutional rights like right to public defense and a trial by jury. By definition everyone in US soil except foreign diplomats and enemy combatants are within US jurisdiction, thus they're supposed to have constitutional rights. But given how this current (and past) admin are kinda loose with what kind of trials they give foreign citizens on US soil, I'm not holding my breath. And I don't really know what kind of precedent there is for prosecution in regards to foreign heads of state given criminal trials on US soil. It's only happened like what, twice?
Actually now that I type all that out I have to wonder if all the ICE raids and deportations were like trial runs of how to prosecute foreign citizens without all that pesky litigation.
Also habeas corpus and public defense have been a sham for at least 10 years. Shadow courts are well documented for terrorism and drug trafficking.
They try extradited narcos all the time. Us citizen or not us citizen, if you "bring drugs into the US" (biiiiig airquotes), you can be summarily rendered to the US and tried for us crimes.
Surely these are all federal crimes meaning, regardless of district, Mamdani has no authority to intervene at all.
I get this is a joke post but Mamdani has zero moves here other than condemning Trump, which he has already.
Don't forget he endangered dea agents during his arrest. felony assault on a LEO right there 😔
My bitter cackle when I saw the DEA patches as I realized how they were spinning it, I am so unmoored rn lmao
the DEA patches
God, this pisses me off so much
He's gonna be sitting next to Maduro if he does anything lol
i'd watch that movie