“Mamdani won a big victory. Have you endorsed him yet?” host Jonathan Karl asked Jeffries on Sunday.

“I have not. We had a conversation on Wednesday morning where I congratulated him on the campaign that he ran, a campaign that clearly was relentlessly focused on the high cost of living in New York City and the economy,” Jeffries said.

Karl asked what was holding him back.

“We don’t really know each other well. Our districts don’t overlap. I have never had a substantive conversation with him,” Jeffries said. “So that’s the next step in terms of this process, to be able to sit down, which we agreed to do in central Brooklyn, discuss his vision for moving the city forward and addressing the issues that are important to the communities that I represent.”

Jeffries noted the diversity in his district, mentioning the Jewish American communities in Brooklyn. He criticized Mamdani for using the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which refers to the violent uprisings against Israel. While Mamdani continues to stand by the phrase, Jeffries said it is “not an acceptable phrasing” that Mamdani will have to “clarify his positioning on.”

REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS ENCOURAGE NEW YORKERS TO MOVE AFTER DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

Some of Mamdani’s campaign promises are to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, freeze rent while shifting tax burdens to “whiter neighborhoods,” and provide free child care. It remains to be seen how Mamdani will fare in the general election against not only Republican candidates but also the incumbent Adams, who initially won office as a Democrat but is now campaigning as an independent candidate.

According to Jeffries, Mamdani’s winning platform was centered on economic matters, and suggested that other Democratic politicians “address relentlessly the issue of the lack of affordability in this country.” Meanwhile, House Republicans will likely be passing tax legislation after the Senate issues its own amendments in the coming hours.