Pro-communist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is going viral for all the wrong reasons after failing to do a single unassisted bench press rep with a low weight.
The mayoral frontrunner turned up at a Men’s Day open streets event in Brooklyn Saturday and ended up being called “Mamscrawny” by one of his mayoral rivals.
Footage from the event shows Mamdani, 33, was unable to lift the bar loaded with what was said to be 135 pounds of weight off the rack without help. He then proceeded to churn out just two, fully assisted reps from one of the event organizers.
After standing up from the bench, Mamdani gave all the credit to the spotter, who was from the organization “500 Men Making a Difference.”
Mamdani’s mayoral rivals, including former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and current Mayor Eric Adams, seized on the opportunity to poke fun at the frontrunner. Adams soon traveled to the same location and easily churned out multiple reps with ease, all without any assistance from what appeared to be the same spotter.
“64 vs 33. A lifetime of hard work vs. a silver spoon. The results speak for themselves,” Adams posted on X. The weight of the job is too heavy for ‘Mamscrawny.’ The only thing he can lift is your taxes.”
Cuomo, who is running an independent campaign after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic Party primary, also took the opportunity to mock his rival.
“It’s easy to talk, it’s hard to carry the burden,” Cuomo wrote in an X post of his own. “This guy can’t bench his own body weight, let alone carry the weight of leading the most important city in the world.”
Men’s Day is an annual open streets event featuring outdoor gyms, music performances, and car shows, which occurs towards the end of each summer, according to a report from the New York Post. While Mamdani indicated that he is far from a “bench press champion,” he did manage to have a better showing while kicking a soccer ball at an inflatable target.
