Ms. Menin said she “certainly” did not support the online comments made by Mr. Mamdani’s new director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, including the appointee’s
contention that homeownership is “a weapon of white supremacy.”
“I don’t agree with them at all,” she said, but added, “I’m focused on running the Council.”
“So,” she continued, “I’m not going to comment on every tweet that an appointment of the mayor makes, because I don’t think that that’s particularly productive.”
She said that after Mr. Mamdani
canceled an executive order that embraced a contentious definition of antisemitism that equated some criticism of Israel with hatred of Jewish people, she called him and the two had a “productive conversation.” Mr. Mamdani is a longtime critic of Israel who does not support its existing status as a state with laws privileging Jews. He has repeatedly vowed to protect Jewish New Yorkers from antisemitism.