Jacob Soboroff: Joining me now is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mr. Mayor, it's great to see you. How you doing?
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: You know, what an incredible night. What an incredible morning. I'm doing great. How are you?
Soboroff: I'm good. It's good to see you again. Did you get any sleep?
Mayor Mamdani: You know? I went to sleep at 3.45 a.m. And like most New Yorkers woke up asking myself: "Did that really happen"?
Soboroff: And it did happen. I can confirm. I saw it at a bar in the Lower East Side. You are such a diehard Knicks fan. It has been so fun to watch you go through this playoff run. I saw a video of you celebrating in the streets a few hours ago. I think you were in the West Village. Is that where you were?
Mayor Mamdani: Yes, yes. That's where I was and I think it was the same thing no matter what part of the city you were in. People have been waiting for this for 53 years and there have been so many heartbreaks, so many near-misses, so many years, every year, where we've told ourselves it's the year and for it to actually happen now? I mean, there's nothing more we can ask for as New Yorkers.
Soboroff: Talk to me about the energy in this city right now, with the World Cup going on, with the Knicks winning the championship. Have you ever felt this way in New York City before, seen New York city so united before?
Mayor Mamdani: It's honestly a beautiful thing. And I think I was reading a piece this morning that really wrote about it quite beautifully, where it said that oftentimes, this kind of unity comes in moments of tragedy. And to see it coming now in a moment of joy, it's something that I've never seen before across our city, where the nation's largest city has become what feels like the world's smallest town, where everyone is thinking and hoping and praying for the same thing. And now, here we are, and we're just pinching ourselves and asking: "Is it real"?
Soboroff: I feel like the parade announcement dropped in the seconds after the championship being clinched. What can you tell us about what we can expect for Thursday?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, first and foremost, as a fan, I'm always hesitant not to jinx anything, but as the mayor, we do have to prepare for all the logistics. So, thanks to the team and partners at MSG as well as at the NYPD. This work has been happening behind the scenes just in case we were to win Game Five. And we're going to have a parade on Thursday. And it's going to be a parade that has a ceremony at City Hall. We'll be presenting keys to the city to the Knicks team. And then it will be the first ticker-tape parade in Knicks' history, where New Yorkers will be able to celebrate a moment that has feels like we waited an entire lifetime for, because when it comes to people my age and a little bit older, we have.
Soboroff: I just got the chills with you saying that. And in fact, [there is] no reason you'd know this, but this show is gonna be originating from my hometown of Los Angeles, but I happen to be here in New York with our team in Times Square to launch the show. There has not - I couldn't have picked a better time to be in the city for all of this. And it was the most unbelievable experience I think I've ever had, including in my years at NYU 20 years ago. I wanna play you, Mr. Mayor, something that has gone viral since the Knicks made the finals. I am positive, 100 percent positive you've seen it, but I just wanna get your reaction. Watch this.
[Video plays.]
MD Ahnaf Hossain: My mayor's still Muslim. My bagel's still Jewish. Even the Pope's on our side! Knicks in five!
[Video ends.]
Soboroff: He was right. He was - he was right. Did you get to meet him? Do you know anything about him? Have you reached out to him?
Mayor Mamdani: I haven't met him, but he is a New Yorker whose words have really stayed with all of us. Thanks to him, there are a lot of people who have just been running up to me over the last few weeks, just shouting at me: "My mayor's Muslim!" I said: "It's true. I am."
Soboroff: And my bagel is Jewish, and so is this news anchor. And it's a beautiful thing, New York City. Mayor, I want to tell you-
Mayor Mamdani: It truly is. I think it speaks to just what this city is and even this team. It's not just a cookie cut out of the same thing again and again. It's every single player having a role, bringing together all of the five boroughs for this moment. It's truly a joy.
Soboroff: I wish my Christian was Dior. Well, we got to talk World Cup, mayor. You were in the stands.
Mayor Mamdani: Yeah, I know.
Soboroff: I saw you in the stand with New Yorkers who won that 1,000-affordable-ticket giveaway. What was it like for you to be out there with everybody? They seemed so pumped to see you.
Mayor Mamdani: It was amazing. We were able to deliver 1,000 tickets at the cost of $50 each with free round-trip travel, and to sit next to so many New Yorkers who had dreamed of this day. I was sitting next to a woman who showed me that she had posted on Facebook eight years ago that her dream was to go to the World Cup, and thanks to this raffle, she was able to do so. And I think that's just - it speaks to what we want sports to be. I mean, even when we're talking about the Knicks. We don't want sports to be a luxury commodity. We want it to be something that every person can see themselves in and be a part of. And to sit next to those New Yorkers who have long been waiting for this moment, it was one of the best moments that I've ever had.
Soboroff: It was so cool to see, and it is such a celebratory atmosphere in the city right now, but just to make it turn: A lot of New Yorkers are worried about what Tom Homan said about sending all these ICE officers to New York City. You and I talked about this when I saw you during the transition, when we walked from your office over to City Hall in between the Tweed Courthouse. Do you think New Yorkers should be afraid of a surge of ICE agents here? Have you talked to the administration at all about this surge, and what is New York city gonna do about it if it happens?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think it's actually not too unrelated from the conversation we were just having. This is a moment of such excitement and joy as part of a reflection of the city as being a place where everyone is welcome, everyone is a part of it. There's a room for everyone to see themselves not only in the past or the present of the city, but also the future of the city. And these kinds of threats, as you've said from Tom Homan and the federal administration, they're not new and neither will our response be. We continue to be proud of being a sanctuary city. We continue to be ready to stand up for our immigrant neighbors and we continue to be ready to use every single tool at our disposal. And I've said to the president directly that I believe that ICE raids are cruel, and they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety. And I do believe it's a rogue agency that should be abolished, because we need an approach to immigration in this country that has more humanity at the heart of it. And right now, in this city, humanity is what we are showing, by and large, across the five boroughs. And it's something that we're going to keep showing in our response to the federal government as well.
Soboroff: Do you believe this? Is this a real threat or is it just bluster? Have you gotten any indication they're serious about this?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, we've heard threats time and again, I'm sure we'll hear more of them. We treat every single one of these as real things to be responded to, but we will not be backing down from our laws or from our values.
Soboroff: On your midterm endorsements, these three that you have made, and you're going out actively campaigning for everybody, I would love for you to talk a little bit about this, because a Democratic strategist who worked with you during your 2025 run called these endorsements of these progressive candidates "high risk, but also high reward." Do you think - I mean, it could expand the power of democratic socialists in Washington. It could also backfire. How did you level that decision?
