Overview
- On The Breakfast Club, Charlamagne told Van Jones to "shut the F up forever" and named him "Donkey of the Day" for calling Zohran Mamdani’s speech divisive.
- Jones said on CNN that Mamdani "missed an opportunity," faulting a "sharp" delivery that he described as almost yelling and a departure from the candidate’s usual persona.
- Charlamagne argued the speech was inclusive, pointing to pledges to work with police on crime and homelessness and to appeals to immigrants, trans people, Black women, Jewish and Muslim communities, and the broader working class.
- Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race the night before, defeating Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.
- Guest Mehdi Hasan cited Jones’s 2017 praise of a Trump address to Congress to question the consistency of his criticism of Mamdani.