Backlash Grows After Mamdani Calls AIPAC ‘Monsters’ Moving ‘Dark Money’

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing growing backlash after accusing AIPAC of being “monsters” who move “millions in dark money” to preserve power, comments critics said echoed antisemitic conspiracy tropes.

The remarks were made at a Brooklyn rally headlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, where progressive candidates and activists criticized AIPAC’s political influence. Sanders also targeted AIPAC funding, saying much of U.S. foreign policy is affected by it. According to reports, AIPAC did not respond to requests for comment.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon accused Mamdani of using his office to spread hostility toward Israel and the Jewish community.

“At every opportunity, Zohran Mamdani, the Mayor of New York City, exploits the public stage to attack the Jewish community and spread anti-Israel messages,” Danon wrote.

“Mamdani, when you call AIPAC ‘monsters who move millions in dark money to preserve power,’ you are employing blatant antisemitic narratives,” he added. “The only monster in this story is the hatred that you continue to normalize and spread.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said he initially waited to respond because he expected Mamdani to walk back the remarks.

“It’s been three days since Mayor Mamdani took the stage to demonize and denigrate his Jewish constituents,” Greenblatt wrote. “I initially didn’t say anything because I felt certain he would retract his incendiary comments or at least explain them. I was wrong.”

Greenblatt called the remarks “bigoted conspiracy mongering” and said they were especially alarming from the mayor of a city facing high levels of antisemitism.

“This is not a principled disagreement. This is prejudice pure and simple,” he said. “It is deliberate, dangerous and disgraceful.”

ADL New York/New Jersey also demanded an apology, saying Mamdani had crossed “a dangerous line” by referring to Jewish community members who support pro-Israel advocacy as “monsters” using “dark money.”

“This is not about political disagreement,” the organization said. “It is about crossing a dangerous line by invoking dehumanizing and conspiratorial rhetoric with a long and troubling history in antisemitic tropes.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer also sharply criticized the remarks, saying the language used by Mamdani was not ordinary criticism of a lobbying group.

“‘Monsters.’ ‘Dark money.’ A hidden hand ‘turning us against one another,’” Gottheimer wrote. “Swap ‘AIPAC’ for ‘Jews’ and it’s the oldest antisemitic conspiracy theory in the books.”

Gottheimer said the remarks were “dangerous” coming from the mayor of a city with more than one million Jews.

Jewish billionaire investor Bill Ackman also criticized the remarks, calling Mamdani’s rhetoric hateful and dangerous. Writer Dovi Safier pointed to the use of terms such as “money men,” “dark money” and “monsters,” arguing that such language carries a long history when directed at Jewish political participation.

Mamdani later appealed to Jewish voters during the same rally, speaking about New Yorkers who worship in a shul, mosque, church or elsewhere. But Jewish leaders said the unity language did not erase the earlier attack.

The controversy has deepened concern among New York Jewish leaders that anti-AIPAC rhetoric is being delivered from City Hall in language they say echoes old antisemitic claims about Jewish money, power and hidden control.