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  2. What the Hell Is Going On/
  3. WTH Do Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists Really Believe? James Kirchick Explains.
October 30, 2025
October 30, 2025

•Episode length: 1h 4m

American Enterprise Institute

WTH Do Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists Really Believe? James Kirchick Explains.

Episode length: 1h 4m

Subscribe to What the Hell Is Going OnSubscribe

With just one week until Election Day in New York City, we’re reflecting on the past and future of the Democratic Party, Gracie Mansion, and the political home of mayoral hopeful, Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist, having campaigned alongside and accepted donations from members of the Democratic Socialists of America, a group with a clear, parasitic strategy towards the Democratic establishment and post-colonial West. What does this mean for our political parties? If successful, what does it mean for New York? And for our country?

James Kirchick is a journalist and the New York Times-bestselling author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington and The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, a writer at large for Air Mail, and a contributor to the Axel Springer Global Reporters Project, he has reported from over 40 countries and his writing has appeared in many publications including the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

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Hosts:
•Danielle Pletka•Marc Thiessen

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