Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday claimed he never saw the mountain of vile social media posts from fellow DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier — before he endorsed her insurgent bid for Congress.
Hizzoner continued to stand by his pick in the Democratic primary for New York’s 13th House District — challenging longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat — despite a slew of her controversial statements resurfacing, including calling the US “a f–ing disgrace” and accusing veterans of committing “war crimes”.
“When it comes to Darializa’s campaign for Congress, no, I had not seen those tweets,” he told reporters when pressed again on the comments during an unrelated press conference.
Mamdani denied having seen the offensive tweets. Matthew McDermott for NY Post“What I’ve heard from her, and what I know a lot of others in the district have heard from her, is that her views have evolved, and that the campaign that she’s running on is reflective of what she’s going to be fighting for,” he said.
But as recently as February, Avila Chevalier’s campaign website boasted she would “vote against sending weapons or bombs to any country while our families at home continue to be left behind,” if elected, according to screenshots reviewed by The Post.
The section was part of a sweeping pledge that she would halt US military aid to NATO allies, Ukraine and other key military partners. It has since been scrubbed from the site, though its not known exactly when.
A spokesperson for Avila Chevalier’s campaign claimed the website was updated “largely to reflect Spanish language updates and condense policy language into bullet points so they were clearer to readers.”
“Darializa continues to support funding our communities here at home instead of forever wars abroad, as well as utilizing diplomatic options to uplift the dignity and sanctity of life everywhere,” the spokesperson said.
Mamdani’s recent backing of the 32-year-old far-left candidate – a Florida native who volunteered for his mayoral campaign after spending years as a community organizer in Harlem — came as a major slight to the upper Manhattan and Bronx districts’ longtime incumbent Espaillat, a former political ally of the mayor.
More of her controversial views came back to light after Mamdani endorsed her in late May, including attacking establishment Dems, such as calling former President Joe Biden a “rapist” and “war criminal” during the 2020 presidential election.
Mamdani said that he had not seen Chevalier’s problematic tweets before giving his endorsement. Robert Miller for NY Post“Cause the Cold War ended, and we’ve been bullying Russia ever since,” Avila Chevalier wrote in another deleted post from 2022, in response to a user who questioned why the US was getting involved after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
When a Post reporter pressed her on the comments, first reported by Politico on Friday, she claimed she didn’t know the “context” surrounding her own statement.
“I’m not interested in relitigating the politics of my tweets,” she also said at a WNYC congressional election forum earlier that week.
Avila Chevalier had multiple vile posts on the platform. darializabonet/XThe scandal-plagued Columbia University alum also has a long history of criticizing Israel — and attended an anti-Israel protest just one day after Hamas’s horrific Oct. 7, 2023 attack — where hate-fueled mobs burned Israeli flags and displayed swastikas.
In August 2020, she shared a Twitter post that read “Israel suddenly disappears, your third emoji is your reaction,” with the reply “Trick question — Israel doesn’t exist!”
Espaillat’s latest ad features some of the since-deleted posts from his challenger, including “f—k Kamala Harris” and accusing black and Muslim men of “fetishizing colonizer women.”
Avila Chevalier also peddled a crackpot COVID-19 theory that said the virus originated in France — and quoted a Chinese Communist propaganda organ as evidence.
The 32-year-old volunteered for Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. Facebook/Darializa for CongressStill, Mamdani praised his endorsee’s “record” of standing up to ICE in the district.
“I think that she would be an incredible champion for that district and for the city as a whole,” he said Wednesday.
Ella Devi Weerackody – an 18-year-old influencer who identifies as a “socialist socialite” on X and serves as a volunteer social media coordinator supporting the campaign– praised her Avila-Chavelier’s old posts and the negative press surrounding it.
“They just keep making her sound cooler and cooler,” Devi Weerackody wrote on X with a compilation video featuring Avila Chevalier grinning next to a cover of The Post highlighting her most radical posts.
A spokesperson for the campaign claimed Devi Weerackody is strictly a volunteer, and “any posts, tweets, or actions she has made discussing Darializa Avila Chevalier’s campaign have been entirely voluntary and unpaid.”
