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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
We continue our coverage of the New Year’s Day inauguration of the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York City. It was below freezing, huge public ceremony outside City Hall, with thousands attending. We turn now to independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, originally from Brooklyn, who swore in Mamdani.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: I’m here mostly to thank the people of New York City. At a time in our country’s history when we are seeing too much hatred, too much divisiveness and too much injustice, thank you for electing Zohran Mamdani as your mayor. New York, thank you for inspiring our nation. Thank you for giving us, from coast to coast, the hope and the vision that we can create government that works for all, not just the wealthy and the few.
In a moment when people in America, and, in fact, throughout the world, are losing faith in democracy, over 90,000 of you in this city volunteered for Zohran’s campaign. You knocked on doors. You shared your dreams and your hopes for the future of this city. And in the process, you took on the Democratic establishment, the Republican establishment, the president of the United States and some enormously wealthy oligarchs, and you defeated them in the biggest political upset in modern American history.
AMY GOODMAN: Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, speaking just before he swore in democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York. Yes, Mayor Mamdani made history as New York’s first Muslim, first South Asian, first African-born mayor; at the age of 34, the youngest mayor of New York in generations. This is part of Mayor Mamdani’s historic inaugural address.
MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI: My fellow New Yorkers, today begins a new era. I stand before you, moved by the privilege of taking this sacred oath, humbled by the faith that you have placed in me, and honored to serve as either your 111th or 112th mayor of New York City.
But I do not stand alone. I stand alongside you, the tens of thousands of you gathered here in Lower Manhattan, warmed against the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope. I stand alongside countless more New Yorkers watching from cramped kitchens in Flushing and barber shops in East New York, from cellphones propped against the dashboards of parked taxi cabs at LaGuardia, from hospitals in Mott Haven and libraries in El Barrio that have too long known only neglect. I stand alongside construction workers in steel-toed boots and halal cart vendors whose knees ache from working all day. I stand alongside neighbors who carry a plate of food to the elderly couple down the hall, those in a rush who still lift strangers’ strollers up subway stairs, and every person who makes the choice,