WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is mulling whether to use her powers to probe socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani as a “danger” to New York City, a source familiar with the matter told The Post.
Noem made the stunning suggestion she could invoke previously unused “authorities” to look at whether the 33-year-old candidate’s whitewashing of anti-Israel demonstrations was a threat to the public during a Wednesday meeting of President Trump’s Homeland Security Advisory Council.
“The Department of Homeland Security has authorities that have never been utilized before,” the secretary noted in remarks to the 22-member council about Mamdani, which were first reported by NOTUS, “and I’m going to need some good minds on how to use those authorities.”
Mamdani, a Muslim, won an upset victory against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Big Apple’s Democratic primary last month, and was promptly lambasted by Trump as a “total nut job” as well as threatened with arrest if he bucks federal immigration enforcement.
The socialist mayoral candidate ran on a platform to freeze rents, open government-run grocery stores and made an 11th-hour pledge to not chip away at the police budget after having previously backed calls to defund law enforcement.
Even members of his own party — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) — have condemned his controversial statements about wanting to “globalize the Intifada” and opposing the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
David Chesnoff, a criminal defense attorney who also sits on the president’s advisory council, expressed disgust at how protests sweeping across New York have at times publicly endorsed foreign terror groups like Hamas or Hezbollah by waving their banners.
“It’s amazing you can have the Hezbollah flag being marched within shouting distance of where the towers fell,” Chesnoff said in reference to the World Trade Center collapse after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“We have somebody running for mayor,” added Chesnoff, per NOTUS, “that applauds the very same philosophy and people that did that. We need to send a bigger message to the American public of the danger that poses.”
Chesnoff told The Post Wednesday afternoon that he could not recall making the latter comments about Mamdani, but confirmed his earlier statement about pro-Hezbollah demonstrations.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, another member of the advisory council, offered that Mamdani presented a unique “combination of an Islamic extremist and a communist” that warranted serious scrutiny.
Asked by a reporter Wednesday about the potential probe, Mamdani replied, “Ultimately, what I fear … is that if this is what Donald Trump and his administration feel comfortable about saying about the Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City, imagine what they feel comfortable saying and doing about immigrants whose names they don’t even know.”
“Donald Trump said that I should be arrested,” the candidate added. “Someone who would also be the first Muslim and the first South Asian mayor in this city’s history, less so because of who I am, because of where I come from, because of how I look or how I speak and more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for. I fight for working people.”
Other council members include Noem’s chief adviser Corey Lewandowski; Chris Cox, the founder of “Bikers for Trump”; ex-cop-turned-actor Bo Dietl; venture capitalist Marc Andreessen; Fox News host Mark Levin; and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.
The council, which has an annual budget of $800,000, is tasked with advising Noem about how to protect against future terror attacks, major disasters or other national emergencies.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Giuliani reportedly backed GOP mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa in the New York race — and hinted that he and Dietl have been discussing ways to counter Mamdani’s status as frontrunner in the Dem-dominated city.
Reps for DHS and Giuliani did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Read the full article here
