The office of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani denounced antisemitic statements from Brooklyn Democrat leader Carmella Charrington on Monday but stopped short of calling for a resignation.
Charrington was elected in June to serve as the Democratic district leader in Brooklyn despite having a history of antisemitic posts online, per Jewish Insider:
Charrington shared an Instagram video last fall boosting the notorious pamphlet series by the founder of the Ford Motor Company, a clip that blamed Jewish people for a range of societal maladies from slavery to the proliferation of alcohol and drugs.
Charrington won her race with backing from key figures in the Democratic Socialists of America, state Sen. Jabari Brisport and state Assembly nominee Eon Huntley. On her Instagram account last November, Charrington declared the video — which also urged viewers to watch a notorious Swedish neo-Nazi documentary and read Holocaust denial literature — “the truth” and asserted, “This better be the topic at the table.” In a subsequent conversation with JI, she told a reporter to “get your rabbi” for a “roundtable” she planned to hold on a “bullying community.”
Despite her issuing an apology to the New York Times, Charrington later appeared in an Egyptian influencer video wherein she “attacked Jewish investors with whom she has been locked in a high-profile fight over control, describing the men as ‘Zionists.’”
“They’re Zionists that basically did this. Same thing that they’re doing in the West Bank, it’s the same thing. There’s a connection,” Charrington said. “But they are connected, the same people that’s doing it in the West Bank. I didn’t believe it at first. I just was like, who? Like, they’re like, it’s the people in Brooklyn, not just anything like in the U.S. It’s the connection straight to Brooklyn. And then they’re so bold, they come here and do it and show it.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James denounced the statements from Charrington along with New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin. On Monday, after Jewish Insider published its report saying that Mamdani has been “silent” on the issue, the mayor’s office issued a condemnatory statement that stopped short of calling for Charrington’s resignation.
“Suggesting that an alleged deed theft in Brooklyn is part of a global conspiracy involving Jewish people is blatant, reprehensible antisemitism,” the statement said. “Trafficking in these dangerous antisemitic tropes is vile and inexcusable.”