Ex-Obama aide slams Andrew Cuomo’s NYC mayoral marketing campaign video

A former staffer of former President Barack Obama shredded a marketing campaign video by New York Metropolis mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo, who misplaced the Democratic main to socialist Zohran Mamdani final month. 

“This is among the least compelling marketing campaign movies that I’ve ever seen,” Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama White Home deputy communications director and advisor, wrote on X. 

“Only a visibly irritated man carrying an ill-fitting shirt saying issues he clearly would not imagine,” Pfeiffer mentioned, stating that Cuomo had “No message,” “No charisma,” and that the video didn’t have any “compelling visuals.”

Cuomo launched the marketing campaign video formalizing his impartial mayoral bid on Monday, with the accompanying remark, “In it to win it.” 

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Reached by Fox Information Digital, a Cuomo marketing campaign spokesman famous that the video had accrued greater than 12 million views in lower than a day because it was printed on-line. 

“If the insular pod saves America guys don’t like one thing, it should imply we’re in the fitting monitor,” the spokesman added of Pfeiffer, who co-hosts the main progressive podcast titled, “Pod Saves America.” 

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Cuomo’s video begins with him standing in a New York Metropolis park saying that “except you’ve been residing below a rock, you in all probability know that the Democratic main didn’t go the best way that I had hoped.” 

“To the 400,040 New Yorkers who voted for me, a honest thanks. Thanks for believing in me and in my agenda and expertise,” the previous three-term governor turned mayoral candidate mentioned. “I’m really sorry that I allow you to down. However as my grandfather used to say, ‘once you get knocked down, study the lesson and decide your self again up and get within the sport, and that’s what I’m going to do.” 

Cuomo delivered his message whereas footage performed of him shaking the palms of individuals on the road and within the subway system. 

“The struggle to avoid wasting our metropolis isn’t over. Solely 13% of New Yorkers voted within the June main,” Cuomo mentioned. “The overall election is in November, and I’m in it to win it. My opponent, Mr. Mamdani, affords slick slogans however no actual options. We’d like a metropolis with decrease lease, safer streets, the place shopping for your first house is as soon as once more doable, the place childcare gained’t bankrupt you. That’s the New York Metropolis we all know. That’s the one that’s nonetheless doable.” 

“You haven’t given up on it, and also you deserve a mayor with the expertise and concepts to make it occur once more. And the center to tackle anybody who stands in the best way,” Cuomo added. “On a regular basis I’m going to be hitting the streets, assembly you the place you might be to listen to the great and the unhealthy, issues and options. As a result of for the following few months, it’s my accountability to earn your vote. So let’s do that. I’ll see you on the market.” 

White Home senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer speaks throughout an interview in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Nov. 7, 2014.  (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)

Mamdani’s main victory over Cuomo and 9 different candidates three weeks in the past rocked the Democratic Social gathering, and boosted the Ugandan-born 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens towards changing into the primary Muslim mayor of the nation’s most populous metropolis. Mamdani surged to a main victory due to an lively marketing campaign that put a serious deal with affordability and New York Metropolis’s excessive price of residing.

Mamdani made good use of social media platforms, together with TikTok, as he engaged low-propensity voters. He proposed eliminating fares to experience New York Metropolis’s huge bus system, making CUNY (Metropolis College of New York) “tuition-free,” freezing rents on municipal housing, providing “free childcare” for youngsters as much as age 5, and establishing government-run grocery shops.

Thanks partly to the efforts of an enormous grassroots military of volunteers, he rode a wave of help from youthful and progressive voters to catapult into first place over Cuomo, who had been the front-runner.

In deep blue New York Metropolis, the Democratic main winner is essentially favored to win the overall election. If Mamdani wins in November, he would be the first Muslim and millennial mayor of New York Metropolis. Mamdani was raised in Uganda after which Cape City, South Africa, till shifting at age 7 to New York Metropolis, the place he attended Bronx Excessive Faculty of Science. 

President Barack Obama and senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer disembark from Air Power One upon arrival at Andrews Air Power Base in Maryland, March 6, 2015. Obama has not formally voiced a place on Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy.  (SAUL LOEB/AFP through Getty Pictures)

Mamdani’s father is a Columbia College professor who sits on the advisory council of an anti-Israel group that helps boycotts and sanctions of Israel, routinely accuses the Israeli authorities of committing “genocide”, and has expressed sympathy for suicide bombers. His mom is a celebrated Indian filmmaker. 

Mamdani notably declined in a June interview to sentence the phrase “globalize the intifada,” sparking severe concern from Jewish New Yorkers dealing with elevated antisemitism within the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, assaults by Hamas terrorists in Israel. 

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Additionally on the overall election poll is Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his main bid earlier this 12 months amid sinking ballot numbers within the wake of quite a few controversies. Adams is operating as an impartial.

Different candidates within the basic election are Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor operating as an impartial, and Guardian Angels co-founder Curtis Sliwa, who, for a second straight election, is the Republican mayoral nominee.

Fox Information’ Paul Steinhauser, Andrew Mark Miller and Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this report.