National Review senior editor Charles C. W. Cooke, on today’s edition of The Editors, said New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is a communist.

“Let’s not dance around it. . . . and if you go back through his Twitter feed, at various points, he says this. He praises communists, and he says that what New York City needs is this communist that he links to and shows a picture of. He’s a communist! I’m not red-baiting.” (For video evidence, see here.)

“And I’ll say something maybe others wouldn’t feel so comfortable doing, as the immigrant in the group,” Cooke continued. “I don’t think that it is okay to be a communist and move from another country to the United States. I just don’t think that we should, as a country, endorse that. You can’t come in if you say you’re a communist!”

Mamdani was born in Uganda, came to America as a child, and became a citizen in 2018. “Do you have any idea how many times I had to promise that I wasn’t a communist?” Cooke said. “I did it over and over again. I did it with my J-Visa, and I did it with my green card. I did it throughout my citizenship process. I did it on the day of my citizenship ceremony.

“This is a disqualifying question. You’re not allowed to be communist. You’re not allowed to try and turn the American government or any part of it into a communist government.”

Cooke went on to say that the government probably can’t stop communists from naturalizing, since applicants can simply answer no or deny affiliation regardless of their views.

The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.