“The Core Issue At Hand Here Is, What Are We Hiring This Person To Do?”

And the answer is “hiring them to stand up for tenants in a way that we haven’t seen before,” starting with recasting homeownership as a tool of white supremacy. But before we get there, first it emerges that “vetting” seems to mean hunting for gay slurs or the N-word in old Tweets. (Also, how common was that that they had to focus there? Can you imagine Bloomberg’s people feverishly Googling whether Dan Doctoroff used the N-word in his X account?):

Even before Zohran Mamdani, fresh off his successful mayoral run, found himself ensnared in controversy over a new hire’s antisemitic social media posts, his hastily convened transition team seemed to understand the risks of tapping activists who have been prolific on social media.

The team vetting potential City Hall appointees was asked to search for particular key words as they pored over social media accounts, said one person involved with the transition. Among them: homophobic slurs, variations of the N-word and references to Arabs and Jews.

Despite those precautions, a vetting debacle quickly exploded into the public domain. Mr. Mamdani named as director of appointments Catherine Almonte Da Costa, 33, who had, among other things, posted about “money hungry Jews” when she was 18.

[. . .]

Ms. Da Costa promptly tendered her resignation, and Mr. Mamdani promised to strengthen his vetting operation, only to run into another buzz saw of criticism weeks later, when he tapped Cea Weaver, a well-known tenant advocate, to run the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. She had tweets that described homeownership as a “weapon of white supremacy” and said it was important to “impoverish” the white middle class. Unlike Ms. Da Costa’s posts, Ms. Weaver’s were known to Mr. Mamdani before she was hired.

And feel free to correct the impression here, but when the mayor says “we are hiring them to stand up for tenants in a way that we haven’t seen before and that’s exactly what they’re doing” that’s basically telling you, “Yes, and?” There’s no real disavowal here, much less an apology:

The mayor has vociferously backed Ms. Weaver, and several New York leaders have risen to her defense, arguing that her ideological comments bely a sharp — and more measured — political mind. Ms. Weaver, who like Mr. Mamdani is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, is one of his closest political allies; Ms. Da Costa is not.

Asked this past week if he regarded the substance of their tweets as fundamentally different, the mayor replied: “The core issue at hand here is, what are we hiring this person to do? We are hiring them to stand up for tenants in a way that we haven’t seen before and that’s exactly what they’re doing.”

Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said, “The conflation of these two is absurd.”

[. . .]

“We have been clear that we strengthened our vetting process in response to Da Costa’s resignation, and we continue to stand with Weaver and have full confidence in her ability to deliver for tenants in this administration,” Ms. Pekec said in a statement. “We are surprised and disappointed to see The New York Times amplifying right-wing hysteria.”

And on the topic of “right-wing hysteria”:

Some have also questioned the decision to retain Ms. Weaver, who is white, while accepting the resignation of Ms. Da Costa, who is Latina.

“How can seemingly the same issue arise for a white woman and a Latina woman and the Latina woman be disqualified while the white woman is excused for her indiscretion?” said [the president of a New York City-based civil rights group], who said there was already concern among Black and Latino New Yorkers about what some see as a lack of diversity in the Mamdani administration.