Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) lambasted New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s policing policies during a speech before Florida sheriffs and told the roomful of law enforcement officers that Mamdani’s calls to defund the New York Police Department were “asinine.”
“This guy running for mayor in New York City, you know, wants to defund the NYPD — said that many, many times. And this is an asinine policy,” DeSantis said at the Florida Sheriffs Association Summer Conference in Orlando Tuesday.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York assemblyman, has previously called to “defund the police,” and in 2020, labeled the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.
What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD.
But your deal with @NYCMayor uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat.
NO to fake cuts – defund the police. https://t.co/2RCXU8heg2
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) June 29, 2020
However, in a mayoral debate during the Democratic primary this year, Mamdani flip-flopped, saying that he would “not defund the police,” but “work with the police.”
DeSantis, a second-term governor and former U.S. congressman, put Mamdani on blast at several points during his remarks. DeSantis predicted that a swarm of NYPD officers would seek to relocate to Florida and take law enforcement jobs there if Mamdani won the November election.
“I think you’re going to end up at this conference next year, potentially be talking about, ‘Hey, they elected some, some anti-law enforcement mayor in New York City, and now all these NYPD cops want to come work in our agencies and get the $5,000 bonus,’” DeSantis said, a reference to the state’s bonus payment for newly employed law enforcement officers.
“Would you want to put on a uniform and go out and serve if the mayor doesn’t even think your agency should exist or get any funding at all — doesn’t think police should go into dangerous areas — that they should send social workers into there,” DeSantis added. “That ain’t my cup of tea.”
Florida has proven to be a leading ally of the Trump administration as the federal government expands its mass deportation operation. The state immediately took action in the first weeks of the Trump administration to put in place laws that would crack down on illegal immigration, and it has also made big moves in recent weeks to spur on those federal efforts.
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Mamdani is running against Andrew Cuomo, an independent candidate and former Democratic governor of New York; incumbent NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent; and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
The Mamdani campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.