Why CNN's Van Jones Ripped Zohran Mamdani's Victory Speech

Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City. It’s not shocking—we all knew this was going to happen based on the shambolic candidates the anti-Mamdani folks selected. His victory address was wild, quoting Eugene Debs, which riled up his supporters. It did not sit well with Van Jones last night, who felt it was a missed opportunity to moderate and not scare the hell out of roughly half the city that voted against him. But he also said that he’s young and pulled off a difficult campaign —did he, Jones? Given the opposition, this guy cruised to a win—the race was called quickly:

CNN's Van Jones was not a fan of Zohran Mamdani's angry, far-left, rage-filled victory speech:

"I think he missed an opportunity. I think the Mamdani that we saw in the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present… pic.twitter.com/aM2AlcgM1U
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 5, 2025

I think he missed an opportunity. I think the Mamdani that we saw in the campaign trail, who was a lot more calm, who was a lot warmer, who was a lot more embracing, was not present in that speech. And I think that Mamdani is the one you need to hear from tonight. There are a lot of people trying to figure out, can I get on this train with him or not? Is he going to include me? Is he going -- is he -- is he going to be more of a class warrior even in office? I think he missed a chance tonight to to open up and bring more people into the tent. I think his tone was sharp. I think he was using the microphone in a way that he was almost yelling. And that's not the Mamdani that we've seen on Tiktok and the great interviews and stuff like that."
"So, I felt like it was a little bit of a character switch here, where the warm, open, embracing guy that's close to working people was not on stage tonight. And there were some some other voice on stage. That said, he's very young. And he just pulled off something very, very difficult. And I wouldn't write him off, but I think he missed an opportunity to open himself up tonight. And I think that that will probably cost him going forward."