Today’s quote comes to us from Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL). It concerns New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s commitment to arresting Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he comes to the city.
Mamdani’s justification is that there is an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu from the International Criminal Court (ICC)…
…which a) has no jurisdiction in New York City and b) is not recognized by the United States.
Yes, this is Mamdani’s basis for Netanyahu’s arrest. That and, I suspect, his hatred of Israel and of Jews who support Israel (in Mamdani’s world, anti-Israel Jews are probably tolerated).
Here is what Rep. Donalds has to say about it:
“Mamdani, I think, came out the other day and said that New York City is going to follow international law. Who the hell is he? He does not have the authority to do that.
“When he gets sworn in as the next mayor of New York, he’s still in that oath going to pledge allegiance to the Constitution to protect the laws of the city of New York and of the United States. That’s part of the oath.
“What is this guy doing? This is what happens when you elect a radical who’s never had a job, who’s never done anything constructive in his life except be in the New York Assembly and go on TikTok. Now you got a guy who’s saying that New York City won’t follow the laws of the United States. It will follow international law. That is insanity. So, unfortunately, this is going to come to a conflict, politically and legally, and Zohran Mamdani is going to lose.”
And then Donalds added this:
“They’re getting a lot louder. I’m not sure about larger because I think you have Democrat-registered voters in our country who love America, and they’re looking at this on the radical side of their party and saying, ‘This is crazy. I didn’t sign up for this.’”
I award Byron Donalds Quote Of The Day honors for clearly and plainly explaning why Zohran Mamdani – a man of absolutely no experience running anything who is about to be in charge of a major world-class city – has zero authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu or anyone else based on a warrant from the ICC.
And additional honors to Rep. Donalds for his optimistic expectation about some moderate Democrats recognizing where their party has lurched and rethinking their loyalty. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he has this right. Can you blame them?
