The Anti-Defamation League has launched a comprehensive initiative to track and monitor the policies and personnel appointments of Mayor-elect Zorhan Mamdani’s incoming administration, aiming to protect Jewish residents across the city’s five boroughs.
The initiatives include an antisemitism tipline, early-warning research into Mr. Mamdani’s policies that affect Jewish community interests and a Mamdani monitor intended to track his administration’s policies, appointments and actions that could adversely impact the Jewish community.
Mr. Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, has been accused of being antisemitic and anti-Israel. He insists his stance against Israel is strictly political and not racially motivated.
The ADL says the city is in a period of “unprecedented antisemitism.”
“Mayor-Elect Mamdani has promoted antisemitic narratives, associated with individuals who have a history of antisemitism, and demonstrated intense animosity toward the Jewish state that is counter to the views of the overwhelming majority of Jewish New Yorkers,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director.
“We are deeply concerned that those individuals and principles will influence his administration at a time when we are tracking a brazen surge of harassment, vandalism and violence targeting Jewish residents and institutions in recent years.”
Mr. Greenblatt said the ADL expects Mr. Mamdani, who will lead the city with the largest Jewish population in the world, “to stand unequivocally against antisemitism in all its varied forms and support all of its Jewish residents just as he would all other constituents. We will hold the Mamdani Administration accountable to this basic standard.”
Heritage Foundation loses another top staffer
The Heritage Foundation has lost more key staff after its president defended Tucker Carlson for doing a friendly interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
The latest resignation from Heritage is former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore.
Mr. Moore, who served for over a decade as a senior visiting fellow at the conservative think tank, quit without mentioning Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ video defending Mr. Carlson or Mr. Roberts’ later apology.
“After 12 happy and productive years, I have decided to resign … to concentrate my workload on continuing to build up @Comm4Prosperity [Committee to Unleash Prosperity] and the mounting influence of our daily Hotline,” Mr. Moore said on X.
He quoted Mr. Roberts’ predecessor, the late Edwin Feulner, adding, “As Ed Feulner would say: ’onward.’”
Mr. Moore’s wife, Anne Moore, hinted that her husband’s resignation was due to the Carlson-Roberts backlash when she responded to a question from former “The View” co-host Meghan McCain about it Thursday morning.
“When you fail to do the right thing in the first place from such a place of privilege, you don’t get a second chance,” Ms. Moore wrote before she deleted her account on X. “My husband will be submitting his resignation after twelve meaningful years at Heritage.”
Mr. Moore’s exit follows at least five members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force resigning in protest.
Mr. Roberts’ chief of staff also resigned after initially defending Mr. Roberts, saying the critics within Heritage were “virtue signaling” and should resign if they were outraged by the remarks.
Conservative leaders pitch softer Senate filibuster
Leaders of three conservative organizations urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer to consider lowering the vote threshold to advance legislation to a final vote.
George Landrith, President of Frontiers of Freedom Institute and David Wallace, founder of the Fair Energy Foundation and Restore America’s Mission, sent a letter to both lawmakers suggesting a “Non-Nuclear Filibuster Option.” They want to reduce the vote threshold to end a filibuster, what’s known as a cloture vote, from 60 votes to 55 or 56 votes, rather than completely blow up the filibuster.
The conservative leaders said it would preserve Senate tradition, encourage bipartisan action, restore fiscal responsibility, reduce polarization and teach moderation to the electorate.
President Trump had pressured Senate Republicans to eliminate the chamber’s long-standing filibuster to end the government shutdown and pass GOP priorities. Some senators were swayed, but his arguments have not swayed nearly enough.
The president said Democrats will “immediately” end the filibuster whenever they take control of the Senate, and Republicans should do it first to enact their agenda.
Mr. Landrith and Mr. Wallace told the Senate leaders that the chamber’s rules have always “evolved to balance deliberation with decision-making.”
“The filibuster, designed to encourage reflection and prevent rash majoritarian action, once required a two-thirds majority (67 votes) to end debate,” they wrote.
They note that in 1975, when Democrats controlled the Senate, the two-thirds majority rule for advancing legislation was revised, reducing the threshold to the current three-fifths, which is 60 votes in the 100-member chamber.
“At that time, the Democratic caucus held a commanding majority in the Senate — 61 seats,” Mr. Landrith and Mr. Wallace said. “We have not seen all twelve regular appropriations bills — that is, a full on-time federal budget — passed before the October 1 start of the fiscal year since 1994.”
For two decades, Republicans and Democrats have relied on funding the government with stopgap funding bills, massive catch-all spending bills and a partisan budget reconciliation process that prevents a filibuster.
“Lowering the cloture threshold to 55 votes would encourage the Senate to resume its full appropriations process by making compromise achievable without eliminating the deliberative safeguard of cloture.”
• The Advocates column is a weekly look at the political action players who drive the debate and shape policy outcomes in Washington. Send tips to theadvocates@washingtontimes.com.
