Former Rep. Barney Frank said Saturday on Newsmax that he "couldn't support" New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, calling him "very unrepresentative in his views of most of the country and most of the Democrats in the country."
Further, the Massachusetts Democrat told Newsmax's "Saturday Report" that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' endorsement of Mamdani shows the party's internal strains.
"With Hakeem Jeffries, what you have is what you have with a lot of people in both parties," Frank said.
"You support people you don't really like because you've gotten support from them in the party."
He added that Democrats who backed Mamdani "should make clear that they disagree with so much of what he says."
Frank also on Saturday criticized President Donald Trump's reported request for $230 million in taxpayer money, saying the president "left on the table" the possibility of using the funds to pay for the construction of a new White House ballroom.
"This very wealthy man is asking for $230 million of taxpayer money to pay him for an investigation; nobody else has gotten that," Frank said.
Meanwhile, Frank said the East Wing demolition and the ballroom project are getting "too much attention," and Trump's focus on the construction reflects deeper issues.
"It almost seems to me like Donald Trump is focusing on the inanimate object — the White House — because dealing with real, live dictators like Xi [Jinping] in China and [Vladimir] Putin in Russia isn't going well for him," Frank said.
He added he'd "much rather talk about the worsening situation in Ukraine or the breakdown of talks with China" than the ballroom.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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