New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attends a Children's Halloween event at Bowne Park in Queens, New York City, US, October 30, 2026. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/Pool
Fox News’ Shannon Bream drew widespread mockery after critics said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani “whipped” her “into shape” when she tried to corner him with a series of “gotcha questions.”
“Mamdani whipped her into shape with ease. I don’t know who she thought she was playing with,” wrote Nicolas-Tyrell Scott, a British music and culture journalist.
A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani appeared on “Fox News Sunday” to address his standing with the leftist organization, a group that reported at least 105 electoral victories in last week’s midterms, including eight U.S. House seats.
“You are a self-described democratic socialist — the DSA had a really good night on election night, but Third Way, which is a center-left Democrat group, has cautioned against reading too much into that,” Bream said.
Laughing, Mamdani quipped, “I’m sure they have.”
A Washington-based centrist think tank, Third Way has long been at war with progressive Democrats, and last week, just two days after the midterms, attacked Mamdani’s “policy ideas” as “deeply unpopular in the red and purple places Democrats must win to retake Congress and the White House.”
“We therefore urge Democrats at all levels to resist the pressure to align with Mamdani’s politics and agenda,” the group said in a statement.
Mamdani dismissed Third Way’s warning and said that he was a “proud” member of the DSA, prompting Bream to hit the New York City mayor with a series of questions.
“Okay, get rid of borders?” Bream asked.
“No,” Mamdani said, smiling.
Bream then pressed Mamdani on whether he wanted to get rid of the Supreme Court and jails. He answered “no” to each before Bream asked whether the DSA would kick him out.
“No,” Mamdani said, grinning.
Micah Erfan, a liberal media strategist and commentator, argued that the exchange was “absolutely brutal” and that Mamdani “completely” disproved Fox News’ “entire narrative in 30 seconds.”
Freelance journalist Lee Burkwood argued that Bream’s “gotcha questions” fell flat entirely due to Mamdani’s “very slickly done” response, and Richard Hanania, a right-wing political writer, conceded that conservatives’ own caricature of Democrats has made them easy to outmaneuver.
“They’ve created such an absurd caricature of Democrats that all they have to do is show up and not sound crazy and they can own conservatives,” Hanania wrote.
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