The campaign political director for socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D.) expressed admiration for accused murderer Luigi Mangione in recently unearthed Facebook posts, writing in one that he looks forward to driving down a street renamed in Mangione's honor.
Mangione "is adored not only because he dared to target a leader of one of the most vile, self-enriching industries darkening our society today, but because he dared to defy the stasis of nihilistic rejection," Julian Gerson, who has worked for Mamdani's campaign since March, wrote last December in social media posts reported by the Daily Mail.
"The question is not whether he was right or wrong," Gerson went on. "It's how many others he has shaken loose."
In another post, Gerson suggested that a street should be renamed in honor of Mangione, writing he was "looking forward to driving down Mangione Avenue a few decades from now," the Daily Mail reported.
Mangione, 26, is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4, 2024. Attorney General Pam Bondi in April directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione.
Gerson in the social media posts also described Mangione as "one of the few entities not rejected online" and said that "while his remarkable good looks hardly hurt, anyone who thinks his acclaim is rooted primarily in aesthetics (looking at you, Vanessa Friedman) is missing the point, probably on purpose," according to quotes screenshotted by John Podhoretz.
Gerson appears to have taken down his Facebook page following the Daily Mail's report.
The political aide's remarks surfaced as his boss is polling in second place behind former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D.) in the mayoral race.
Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has long faced scrutiny over his far-left stances, particularly his anti-Semitism. The candidate earlier this month defended the phrase "globalize the intifada," a popular chant at anti-Israel protests that calls for violence against Jews worldwide. The mayoral candidate instead described the anti-Semitic slogan as showing "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights."
Following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, Mamdani took to the street and was arrested outside Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D., N.Y.) home in Brooklyn, demanding that Schumer stop Israel from retaliating against Hamas terrorists.
Mamdani has also refused to acknowledge Israel's right to exist, expressed support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, and declared that, if elected mayor, he will not visit the Jewish state.