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New York City Mayor Eric Adams warned on Tuesday that people "don’t really understand the term ‘socialism’" as he faces off against democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, running on the Democratic Party ticket, in the mayoral race.
"70% of New Yorkers are not anti the term ‘socialism,’" Adams told Coleman Hughes on the "Conversations with Coleman" podcast. "And many people don't really understand the term socialism and what it means."
"You know, I've been to Cuba. I've been to Venezuela. I've been to countries where socialism exists. I saw the empty shelves, the ration books in Cuba and what it means," he added. "So, we're romanticizing the terminology, and it always sounds good, you know that, ‘I'm a socialist.’ But when you dig into what it means, you understand when you get stuff for free, someone is paying for it."
Adams argued that Mamdani’s campaign promises, such as city-owned grocery stores, would harm the working class he claims to want to help.
Incumbent Mayor Adams, who is running as an independent, faces off against democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani in the November election. (Getty Images)
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"His socialist theory of 'let's open government supermarkets' – hey, what about the bodegas, brother? What about those men and women in the Korean community that open up supermarkets, that open up stores? What about the Chinese community or the Arab community? All of these communities have used their feeding of their constituencies as a way to hire people and a move up in the American dream. So, we're going to totally disregard them and collapse their entire industry," Adams said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.
Mamdani won the Democratic New York City primary race for mayor in June, defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has not yet dropped out of the formal race.
Mamdani won an upset victory in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor in June. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Adams, elected as a Democrat, announced that he would be running as an independent.
Mamdani's win shocked many with his overt support for socialist policies and past comments utilizing communist revolutionary language.
In 2020, while campaigning for a seat in the New York State Assembly, Mamdani wrote on social media, "Each according to their need, each according to their ability," a direct quote from Karl Marx’s infamous "Communist Manifesto."
Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks at his primary election party, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
A 2021 video of Mamdani also showed him urging people at the Young Democratic Socialists of America conference to not compromise on goals such as "seizing the means of production."
He has also repeatedly argued that "we shouldn’t have billionaires," despite New York City’s large billionaire population whose taxes help fund the local government.
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Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.