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Mamdani Backs Squatters’ Rights in Video Demonizing 'Billionaire' Jewish 'Slumlord'
'Exploiting,' 'speculative' owner brought rats and roaches, removed Christmas decorations
A video issued by the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, vilifies a man identified as rental apartment building owner Joel Wiener. (Screenshot via YouTube)
Ira Stoll
August 6, 2026
A new 13-minute video released by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani backs the idea that property should be controlled by people who occupy it, not those who own it.
"In the end a home is not defined by a deed or a lease but by those who live in it," the narrator says at the conclusion of the video.
The video extensively features Cea Weaver, the director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver has a track record of comments calling for an end to private property rights.
A 2018 tweet from Weaver said, "Impoverish the white middle class. Homeownership is racist/failed public policy." In another video conversation that took place in 2021, before Weaver became a city official, she said, "I think the reality is that for centuries, we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good. And we are gonna... and transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently. And it will mean that families, especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are gonna have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have." In a 2020 video she advised even tenants who had funds available to cease paying rent and talked about "the short term transitional demands that we have to get out of this trap of private property."
The Mamdani administration’s slickly produced video opens with close-up images of Weaver, wearing a Soviet-red zippered sweater and looking directly into the camera while seated, legs crossed, in an armchair before what appears to be a City Hall fireplace. "This is Cea, Cea Weaver … she’s here to tell us a story about one of the worst landlords in New York City," the video says.
'Exploiting,' 'speculative' owner brought rats and roaches, removed Christmas decorations
A video issued by the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, vilifies a man identified as rental apartment building owner Joel Wiener. (Screenshot via YouTube)
Ira Stoll
August 6, 2026
A new 13-minute video released by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani backs the idea that property should be controlled by people who occupy it, not those who own it.
"In the end a home is not defined by a deed or a lease but by those who live in it," the narrator says at the conclusion of the video.
The video extensively features Cea Weaver, the director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver has a track record of comments calling for an end to private property rights.
A 2018 tweet from Weaver said, "Impoverish the white middle class. Homeownership is racist/failed public policy." In another video conversation that took place in 2021, before Weaver became a city official, she said, "I think the reality is that for centuries, we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good. And we are gonna... and transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently. And it will mean that families, especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are gonna have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have." In a 2020 video she advised even tenants who had funds available to cease paying rent and talked about "the short term transitional demands that we have to get out of this trap of private property."
The Mamdani administration’s slickly produced video opens with close-up images of Weaver, wearing a Soviet-red zippered sweater and looking directly into the camera while seated, legs crossed, in an armchair before what appears to be a City Hall fireplace. "This is Cea, Cea Weaver … she’s here to tell us a story about one of the worst landlords in New York City," the video says.
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/mamdani-backs-squatters-rights-in-video-demonizing-billionaire-jewish-slumlord/
