Get the latest news on New York politics Thursday as the Senate investigates lost unemployment benefits in New York, and the city enjoys a historic Knicks win.
On Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani again promised to dismantle the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group — even as he praised the controversial unit’s officers for their role in containing raucous Knicks celebrations.
Two Republican US senators have launched an inquiry into improper unemployment insurance payments by New York, accusing the Empire State of lacking adequate anti-fraud measures.
“During the pandemic, New York’s comptroller reported that state leadership had been aware of issues with its unemployment insurance system since 2010,” Cassidy and Scott wrote in a letter to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. “This preceded a threefold increase in fraud claims.”
Follow The Post’s live updates on New York politics for the latest news:
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani candidly dropped a major hint about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s forthcoming wedding while discussing security measures being taken for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
“I am fully confident in the work of the NYPD, as well as our state partners, in delivering that safe experience,” the politician told reporters at a press conference Monday.
Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock
“We are the biggest city in the country,” he continued. “We are used to big events, and we are incredibly excited for this one. We know it coincides with the Knicks’ [NBA] Finals run. We know it coincides with July 4, America 250, Taylor Swift’s wedding — all happening at the same time — and we are so excited to welcome the world here.”
Mamdani, 34, emphasized the weekend’s big sporting events — the New York Knicks’ win against the San Antonio Spurs in Texas and the Brazil vs. Morocco World Cup game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — as showing togetherness among New Yorkers.
The fat lady has sung, but try telling that to Albany.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature are still using taxpayer funds for a COVID-era giveaway for Broadway flops — and even quietly boosted the pot by $150 million in this year’s budget.
“This is another New York taxpayer subsidy for wealthy investors that should not exist,” said John Kaheny, executive director of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany.
Cast members of the Broadway musical KPOP performing at Circle in the Square on Oct. 11, 2022. AFP via Getty Images
“New York State taxpayers should not be underwriting Broadway shows. There’s no fiscal or economic argument for it,” he said.
The massive special-interest goodie — a k a the NYC Musical and Theater Production Tax Credit — was started during the pandemic to help keep even traditional theater hits such as “The Lion King” and “Wicked” afloat during the dark times.
A controversial far-left insurgent congressional candidate backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani only trails longtime New York Rep. Adriano Espaillat by eight points — just one week before the Democratic primary, a new poll claims.
Doctoral candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is also supported by the Democratic Socialists of America, bested Espaillat among white voters, 35% to 25%, according to the survey obtained by The Post.
Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Marcus Garvey Park on June 5, 2026. The democratic socialist is trailing incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat by 8 points, according to a new poll. Robert Miller for NY Post
Espaillat led among black voters 36% to 21% and Latinos 42% to 30% in the 13th House District that runs through the northern Manhattan neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, East Harlem, Washington Heights/Inwood and the western Bronx.
Overall, the five-term incumbent only led by a less than comfortable margin — 35% to 27%, according to the survey conducted by Mercury Public Affairs for the pro-Espaillat National Black Empowerment Action Fund.
Ex-state Attorney General and accused sex pest Eric Schneiderman has re-emerged -- to back Micah Lasher for Congress.
Schneiderman told City&State that Lasher, currently a state assemblyman, was a whiz kid when he worked on his first campaign for state Senate in 1998.
Former attorney general Eric Schneiderman enters his building on West End Avenue on May 10th, 2018. Richard Harbus
"I can’t pretend to be a neutral observer. Back at the very beginning of my political career, when I first ran for the state Senate in 1998, Micah was a junior at Stuyvesant [High School].. But he was so skilled, he was my deputy campaign manager. That’s how smart this kid is," Schneiderman told the outlet.
Lasher later worked for Schneiderman in the AG's office, as his chief of staff.
Schneiderman, who abruptly resigned as attorney general in 2018 following a sexual harassment and abuse scandal, praised Lasher, 44, as a "super confident" teenager then.
"We saved money on my campaign because he recruited some other, like, 10th graders from Stuyvesant. These are kids who would stuff envelopes under the doors in the building and you buy them a Coke and some Twizzlers, and they thought they had it great," he told City&State.
"Ordinary kids his age would be at home playing video games – Micah would be doing pie charts of voter turnout."
Schneiderman also contributed $500 to Lasher's campaign for the 12th House District, which covers the east and west sides of Manhattan, according to campaign records filed with the Federal Elections Commission .
Lasher worked for Schneiderman in the AG's office, as his chief of staff. Richard Harbus
Federal campaign records also show he donated $500 to Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso's campaign for Congress in the 7th House district to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
Lasher, 44, faces off against a slew of candidates to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, including Assemblyman Alex Bores, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, George Conway and Nina Schwalbe.
Schneiderman abruptly resigned as state AG in May 2018 amid accusations by four women that he would get drunk and choke and hit them during sex.
He publicly apologized in November 2018 after Long Island prosecutors declined to bring a criminal case against him.
But his law license was suspended in April 2021 following charges mounted by the Attorney Grievance Committee stemming from the scandal.
The state Appellate Division's First Department reinstated Schneiderman’s law privileges in 2022.
Lasher had no immediate comment on receiving backing from his scandal-scarred former boss.
He also served as Gov. Kathy Hochul's policy director and as a top aide in the administration of former Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Hochul endorsed Lasher, as has billionaire Bloomberg, who also donated $10 million to a pro-Lasher Super Pac that has bankrolled TV ads and mailers.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday again promised to dismantle the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group -- even as he praised the controversial unit’s officers for their role in containing raucous Knicks celebrations.
Mamdani condemned a “select number” of Knicks fans who turned post‑Game 5 celebrations Saturday night into violent mayhem, including clashes with officers, before defending the department’s work.
"There were a select number of New Yorkers who celebrated in a way that was frankly unacceptable, it was not celebration, it was an excuse, whether it be to attack someone around them or to be violent, even towards our police officers,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaking to press next to a "Champion Way" street sign that will installed for the Knicks parade on Thursday. James Messerschmidt for the NY Post
“I’m deeply appreciative of the work of the men and women within the NYPD for keeping our city safe, not only (throughout this finals run) but frankly, every single day,” he said, adding that he believed “the NYPD handled themselves appropriately in delivering safety to New Yorkers across the city.”
Asked specifically about the NYPD's Strategic Response Group's role in policing the celebrations - and whether he still believes the elite unit should be disbanded - Mamdani doubled down on his long standing pledge to get rid of the protest policing squad even as his administration leaned on it to manage the Knicks crowds.
“When it comes to SRG, I continue to believe in the importance in decoupling our response to protests and our response to threats of terrorism,” Mamdani said. “That’s something that I am speaking more with the Commissioner on -- to disband SRG to ensure that we have responses that are separate from each other, but we’re doing so on a time frame that we’re making sure we keep New Yorkers safe.”
The comments encapsulate a pattern of Mamdani talking like an anti‑police crusader to his base while relying on the NYPD to manage public order.
NYPD officers patrolling the streets after the New York Knicks won the NBA Finals in Game 5 against the San Antonio Spurs. AFP via Getty Images
Mamdani ran for mayor promising to disband SRG -- a citywide NYPD unit that handles counterterrorism, rapid response and crowd control at protests and large events -- and to shut down or replace the department’s sprawling gang database, even repeating that pledge several times in office.
After SRG officers arrested dozens of anti‑ICE protesters occupying a Midtown hotel lobby in January, Mamdani reiterated that he wanted the unit dissolved, telling reporters he was in “conversations with the police commissioner about the ways in which we can do so that are operational.”
His own base has begun to publicly rebuke him over his policing double-talk.
NYC‑DSA, which backed Mamdani’s mayoral run, blasted his plan to add 580 NYPD officers as a betrayal of his promise to keep headcount flat.
“We are calling on Mayor Mamdani to reverse this proposed expansion of the NYPD and invest the money in community safety programs instead,” NYC‑DSA said in a statement released last week, arguing that the move “runs counter to the values of the socialist and working‑class movement that elected him.”
DSA in the same statement called on Mamdani to “follow through” on his campaign promises to eliminate SRG and abolish the NYPD’s gang database
Mamdani also broke with his DSA base last month by backing police‑union‑supported bills in Albany -- including raising the mandatory retirement age for most NYPD officers from 62 to 65 and allowing them to calculate pensions based on any of their last three years of service.
He quietly issued a message of necessity that helped City Council resolutions endorsing the measures move forward after unions lobbied him to get behind their priorities.
GOP candidate for governor Bruce Blakeman vowed to lift New York's fracking ban if he's elected in November -- calling it the answer to the state's "affordability crisis."
Blakeman, while campaigning upstate Friday in Olean, NY, said he’d reverse what he called Gov. “Kathy Hochul’s fracking ban.”
"The solution to New York’s affordability crisis is sitting right beneath our feet,” Blakeman said of the The Marcellus Shale deposit covering Central New York and the Southern Tier.
"Kathy Hochul’s fracking ban keeps that prosperity locked in the ground. Instead of lowering energy costs, the Hochul administration approved 48 utility rate hikes,” he said -- repeating his campaign promise to cut utility bills in “half.”
State Sen. George Borrello (R-Chautauqua), who joined Blakeman for the event, said he sees the clear difference in his communities and those across the border in Pennsylvania, which allows fracking.
"Pennsylvania is just a stone's throw from where we're standing today. The communities on the other side of that border sit atop the same resource, yet their economy has been transformed by the jobs, investment, and growth that natural gas development has brought,” Borrello said.
"Here in New York, Kathy Hochul and her party chose radical environmentalism over opportunity.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo first blocked fracking via executive order in New York before Hochul signed a ban into law in 2023.
Thousands of soccer fans swarmed Lower Manhattan on Friday — some lining up as early as 1 a.m. — to get their hands on limited edition New York City-themed World Cup jerseys as soccer fever intensifies in the Big Apple.
Fans have lined up for hours to score a limited edition NYC themed World Cup jersey. James Messerschmidt for the NY Post
Christian Pichardo of Sunnyside secured the No. 1 spot in the queue at the NYC City Store by plopping down outside One Centre Street at 1 a.m. after catching a movie nearby — and sitting outside for eight hours before the shop opened.
“There were only 1,500 jerseys that were going to be sold. There’s gonna be a really high demand … And New Yorkers seem to like standing in line,” said Pichardo, 26.
The highly-anticipated Game 5 of the NBA Finals -- where the Knicks could clinch their first championship in 53 years -- will be streamed live on some of the Big Apple's LinkNYC kiosks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Friday.
The big game scheduled for Saturday at 8:30 pm at the San Antonio Spurs' Frost Bank Stadium in Texas will be available on 130 of the city's more than 2,200 public free Wi-Fi stations, as part of a partnership with the NBA, the mayor's office said.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani got called a "party pooper" by Madison Square Garden. Instagram/@zohrankmamdani
"The Knicks belong to all New Yorkers, whether you’re watching from the Garden or not,” Mamdani in a press release.
The city also aired Wednesday night's Game 4 -- in which the Knicks made a historic comeback to best the Spurs 106-107 at Madison Square Garden -- on the street fixtures after team owner James Dolan cancelled the watch party outside the arena.
“Earlier this week, New Yorkers gathered around LinkNYC kiosks to watch one of the greatest comebacks in basketball history," Mamdani said.
"This weekend, we’re running it back. More than a hundred kiosks will turn our sidewalks into watch parties and our streets into celebrations. Knicks in 5."
The city didn't provide locations for the kiosks that would be showing the game.
As of Friday evening, it was still unclear whether there would be a Game 5 watch party outside MSG, which is hosting a concert by the Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds to Summer that night.
Dolan feuded with Mamdani and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch over restrictions the city wanted to impose on the Game 4 watch party, calling it overkill.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to rally with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his far-left picks for a slew of congressional Democratic primaries in New York next week.
The socialist standard-bearer will join Mamdani and his three endorsees at the Kings Theater in Brooklyn Thursday ahead of Election Day the following week, sources told the New York Times.
“Last June, New Yorkers from across our city showed up at rallies, canvasses and ballot boxes with a clear message: No longer will politics be done to us. Now it is something that we do,” Mamdani told the Times in a statement.
Mamdani is backing his Democratic Socialists of America comrade Darializa Avila Chevalier, a community organizer, in the June 23 primary against longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th House District.
Hizzoner has also endorsed DSA Queens state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez in the Democratic primary for the open 7th House District seat to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez, who is backing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to succeed her.
And Mamdani is throwing his weight behind former city comptroller and failed mayoral candidate Brad Lander, who is gunning for incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman's seat in the battle for New York's 10th House District.
The trio recently collaborated with Mamdani for a basketball-themed political ad that aired during Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs -- depicting the mayor's handpicked candidates as "the team."
Lander, while a progressive, cut ties with the DSA a few years ago but he and Mamdani cross-endorsed each other in the 2025 ranked-choice Democratic mayoral primary, which the now-mayor won.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Knicks owner James Dolan could be forced to bury the hatchet if the team clinches an NBA championship — for potentially the biggest ticker-tape victory parade in New York City’s history.
The Knicks’ instant-classic Game 4 victory Wednesday over the San Antonio Spurs puts the team one win away their first NBA championship in 53 years – and amped up talks about a befitting mega-celebration, insiders said.
Knicks owner James Dolan sitting with President Trump during Game 3 of the NBA Finals on June 8, 2026. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
Jinxes be damned, officials were said to have met in City Hall on Thursday afternoon to hash out the logistics of a throwing a ticker-tape parade as soon as next week if the Knicks best the Spurs during Game 5 in San Antonio on Saturday, according to sources.
“Nobody is going to not have a parade,” a former City Hall staffer said, before adding, “There could definitely be drama in the details.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani flexed his political muscle to nab exclusive seats to the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden — potentially running afoul of city ethics rules — and downplayed how much he paid for the hot ticket, The Post has learned.
The young democratic socialist mayor claimed he paid “roughly $1,000” for his nosebleeds standing-room spot to Monday night’s Game 3 between the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, though sources with knowledge of the matter said the ticket actually cost him $750.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani with state lawmakers at Game 3 of the NBA Finals in Madison Square Garden on June 8, 2026. NYC Mayor's Office
Regular plebes had to shell out an average of around $7,500 for a ticket to the high-profile event.
But Mamdani’s team reached out to MSG ahead of the game and told reps the mayor wanted a half-dozen tickets to attend the NBA Finals ahead of the games this week, and asked for the cheapest seats, according to sources briefed on the conversations.
Brad Lander shed a tear Thursday after a judge cleared the congressional hopeful of a low-level charge of “unreasonably” blocking an elevator during a protest last year at a federal immigration detention center in Manhattan.
“I’m genuinely moved by the rule of law,” the 56-year-old former city comptroller told reporters as he choked up outside Manhattan federal court, clad in a gray suit and New York Knicks cap that still had a sticker on the brim.
Brad Lander speaking outside of federal court after being found not guilty in his immigration court arrest case on June 11, 2026. REUTERS
Lander getting arrested by ICE and FBI agents at 26 Federal Plaza on June 17, 2025. Dean Moses/amNewYork
“What a blessing to live in a country where if the government arrests you and charges you with something, you can count on the ability to go in and make the government prove its case,” added the gleeful pol.
The display of emotion came after an unusual Manhattan federal court trial over a petty “violation” — the legal equivalent of a parking ticket — where a judge ruled that Lander was not obstructing anyone from his seat in front of the elevator at 26 Federal Plaza.
