Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) went to bat for New York City’s controversial Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, in a fiery Monday appearance that spotlighted the deepening rift within the Democratic Party.
During a tense exchange on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” host David Faber challenged Warren on Mamdani’s aggressive tax proposals targeting high-income New Yorkers.
“This idea of somehow raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, who, by the way, would point out pay roughly 15 percent of their income right now between city and state. Raising taxes on them will simply drive them away,” Faber warned.
He he asked Warren whether it made sense for a mayor to prioritize maximizing revenue without pushing businesses and wealthy residents to more tax-friendly states.
Sen. Warren went on CNBC today to promote Zohran Mamdani and got wrecked 😂 pic.twitter.com/vuo1YPLUvu
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 5, 2025
“They can go to Austin. They can go to Dallas. They can go to Atlanta. They can go to Nashville. This is your issue. It’s a national issue, not a local issue,” he said about the Democratic Party.
Warren, unfazed by concerns over economic flight, insisted the focus should be on affordability.
“The issue is affordability. Do you know how many working families are chased out of New York City every day because they can’t afford housing, they can’t afford groceries, they can’t afford child care?” she responded.
She praised Mamdani for seeking to keep everyday New Yorkers in the city.
“What Zohran is saying [is], ‘I want people to be able to afford to live in New York City.’ That’s what keeps it a vibrant city. That’s what makes people want to live here.”
Faber pushed back again, noting, “Nobody disagrees with that, senator, but raising taxes in order to do it? Why is that the answer?”
Warren quickly shot back, “Oh my goodness… Oh dear, are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?”
Mamdani shocked New York’s political establishment earlier this summer when he unseated former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor.
His unapologetically progressive platform called for significantly increasing taxes on the city’s top earners and corporations.
According to Mamdani’s campaign, aligning New York’s corporate tax rate with New Jersey’s 11.5% would generate $5 billion in new revenue.
He also proposed a 2% flat tax on the top 1% of earners—those making over $1 million annually—claiming that current tax structures treat a $50,000 income the same as a $50 million income.
In a Rolling Stone op-ed published the same day as her CNBC interview, Warren lauded Mamdani’s victory.
She credited his campaign’s success to relentless outreach focused on reducing costs for families, arguing that even significant ad buys against him couldn’t derail his grassroots momentum.
“Mamdani pulled off an inspiring 12-point victory to become the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York,” Warren wrote.
“He campaigned relentlessly on lowering costs for families, helping him build a grassroots movement so strong that millions of dollars in attack ads couldn’t touch him.”
But Warren’s enthusiastic support for Mamdani hasn’t been widely echoed within her party.
Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) notably avoided backing the socialist candidate when pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday.
Raju asked Booker if the party’s hesitation to embrace left-wing candidates like Mamdani was a problem.
Booker brushed the question aside, calling the divide “not a left-right issue.”
He said the deeper issue was about the common ground Americans share, not the divisions.
When asked again whether he would endorse Mamdani, Booker declined. “I have learned a long time ago, let New York politics be New York politics,” he said.
“We got enough challenges in Jersey. I got a governor’s race, I’m supporting Mikie Sherrill. I got legislative races. That’s where my energy is going to go, going into November.”
“New York City, I love you. You’re my neighbor. You’re about 10 miles from where I live. You guys figure out your elections. I’m going to focus on mine,” he added.
Booker joins a growing list of prominent Democrats who have distanced themselves from Mamdani.
That list includes New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, all of whom have declined to lend their public support to Mamdani’s campaign.
Elsewhere, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy seized on the party’s growing ideological divide to rally support for free-market capitalism.
In a Monday appearance on “Fox & Friends,” Ramaswamy warned that the left’s tilt toward socialism was opening the door for conservatives to present a clear alternative.
“The key answer right now is is it about socialism or capitalism,” Ramaswamy said. “That’s the choice. It’s a fork in the road for the future of the country.”
Ramaswamy has repeatedly criticized Mamdani as the face of what he sees as a troubling trend within the Democratic Party.
He noted that Mamdani isn’t alone—shortly after Mamdani’s win, Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh announced a bid for Minneapolis mayor with a platform echoing similar socialist themes.
“There’s a deep fissure in the Democratic Party where a lot of their base is, unfortunately, in electing socialism over capitalism,” Ramaswamy argued.
He encouraged Republicans to use this political moment to champion the principles of capitalism and free enterprise.
“My advice to Republicans across the country is this is our chance to actually offer an alternative vision– to make the case why free enterprise, why capitalism, is the best system known to the history of man.”
“This is a special opportunity for us as Republicans to really show not just what we’re against, but what do we actually stand for,” he concluded.
Socialist/communist versus capitalism. A test of the American resolve to remain independent and live off your own resolve or have Man dam, the communist, take care of you and the real cost will be high. China and Russia are living that fake dream.
There is an elite in that system that rules everyone else. Guess that is true in every type of governance but in capitalism it is not a cast system. Opportunity and inventive resolve in capitalism is still a change mechanism.
It does not exist in Socialism/communism. And they have lost their edge in creative skills. That is why they are always stealing from the other countries. They are not inventive or stimulated to be so. Why, when the government will take your inventions and still leave you with no reward.
Warren WONT suffer like Joe Jane New Yorker will if he wins
I love seeing Dems openly admit that they’re Marxists. I thin NYC needs to elect Mamdani and show us how well his policies work.