The arrest of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on Tuesday was denounced by many public officials, including many of the people who are his opponents in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Lander is among the 11 Democratic candidates running to replace Mayor Eric Adams in the primary elections. He recently cross-endorsed fellow candidate, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
The video of Lander being hauled away in handcuffs by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in masks energized the comptroller’s mayoral primary opponents like an early morning cup of extra caffeinated coffee. They rushed to the scene to denounce the arrest, and quite possibly share in its publicity.
“ICE has no interest in law, no interest in order. It only has an interest in terrorizing people across this country,” Mamdani said.
“I think it was a disgusting display of the thuggery of Trump’s ICE. I mean, it was breathtakingly ugly and rude. And then what I thought about, it was this is a city official with security guards. Imagine a family, a family in a Home Depot, or a family in a school,” former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “And you are attacked by ICE thugs. Imagine the situation they’re in.”
“First, I just want to say to Meg and the family that we stand behind you, 110%,” Scott Stringer said. “And he didn’t just talk the talk today. He walked the walk, and I want to praise him for that, and we should all give him a round of applause, because it really matters.”
“This is disgraceful. Any time we have to continue to see families torn apart in Donald Trump’s America. What happened to your America? What happened to your America? What happened to our America? This is disgusting. This is not law. This is lawlessness,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said.
“Let’s be very clear, we are not here as candidates. We’re here as New Yorkers. We’re here to do what’s right. Brad asked the very quick, very clear question: you do not have a judicial warrant, why are you here? We’re not going to be silent as Trump and his clowns continue to break the law. ICE has no damn business here,” Michael Blake said.
Last week, Lander received the support of a majority of a New York Times opinion panel of experts, which said it believes he is the best candidate to lead the city.
So how could this arrest impact the primary race? The ability to stand up to President Trump is a key part of what the campaign is about, and the first thing Lander did when he was to denounce Mr. Trump’s deportation policy.
