New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is trotting out arch-progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders for his public swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 1.
At the stroke of midnight, Mamdani will have New York state Attorney General Letitia James swear him in, his transition team said, according to NY1.
A public ceremony scheduled for 1 p.m. will feature Sanders.
Mamdani said it would be “an honor to be sworn in by two leaders I have admired for years: Attorney General Tish James and Senator Bernie Sanders.”
“Attorney General James has taken on powerful interests in her defense of New Yorkers and embodied the principle of equal justice before the law,” he said.
“Sen. Bernie Sanders laid the foundations for our movement with his steadfast commitment to the dignity of working people and his belief in a government that serves the many, not just the few,” Mamdani said.
“I can think of no better leaders to help usher in a new era for New York City,” he added.
Sanders has done this before. He swore in former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018 as de Blasio entered his second term.
Mamdani’s inauguration spectacle is peak performative authoritarianism—a seven-block cult rally masking the chaos he’s unleashed since November. This isn’t a “new era”; it’s taxpayer-funded theater while NYCHA crumbles and crime soars. Remember when he mocked Hanukkah and faked…
— CityDeskNYC (@CityDeskNYC) December 21, 2025
“At a moment when democracy is under attack and cynicism about our politics runs deep, Zohran Mamdani represents a new generation of progressive leadership rooted in courage, integrity, and solidarity,” Sanders said, according to CBS News.
“His victory is not just about one city or one election, it is about the strength of a working class movement that says unequivocally: the future of New York belongs to the people, not the billionaire class. It is my honor to swear him in as the next mayor of New York City,” he said.
The inauguration is a ticketed event with 4,000 people invited.
A block party from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day on Broadway will be open to the public.
Last week, a Mamdani appointee quit after one day on the job when anti-Semitic posts from her past surfaced, according to Politico.
Director of Appointments Catherine Almonte Da Costa had posted comments such as “Money hungry Jews smh”; “Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps.”; and “Far Rockaway train is the Jew train.”
A New York Post editorial said that Mamdani’s administration will be “A City Hall run by a combination of supposedly moderate veterans of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s crew plus an all-star team of outright radicals drawn from the nationwide hard-left movement.”
The editorial noted that Julie Su, Mamdani’s pick for deputy mayor for economic justice, is a “pro-union progressive who allowed billions in fraud when overseeing California’s unemployment benefits, and couldn’t win Senate approval to serve as President Joe Biden’s Labor secretary as moderate Democrats found her too radical.”
“At the very least, it’s plain that the City Hall braintrust will be far to the left of the crew that ran Gotham under de Blasio, until now New York’s most left-wing mayor ever,” the editorial said.
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