Mamdani defends housing activist despite resurfaced tweets calling homeownership weapon of white supremacy
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended tenant advocate Cea Weaver on January 7 against controversy surrounding years-old social media posts in which she linked homeownership to white supremacy and called for seizing private property. Weaver’s appointment as director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants represented a central part of Mamdani’s housing reform agenda, yet her past rhetoric drew swift criticism from conservatives, business groups, and even some moderate Democrats. The controversy tested Mamdani’s willingness to stand by appointees whose ideological commitments aligned with his own worldview despite public backlash.
The Social Media Controversy Explained
Weaver, a 37-year-old tenant organizer and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had posted extensively on social media about housing policy during her years as a housing activist. In a 2019 tweet, she wrote: “Private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.” In other posts, she called to “seize private property,” “elect more communists,” and advocated for transitioning from treating property as individual good to a collective good. These tweets, documented on Wikipedia and in media accounts, reflected Weaver’s ideological commitment to property redistribution and housing justice as reparations for systemic racism.
The Resurfacing of Past Rhetoric
Conservative accounts including Libs of TikTok circulated screenshots of Weaver’s deleted posts on social media, generating rapid coverage across right-wing outlets. The controversy reached national attention within days of her appointment. However, crucially, Mamdani’s office revealed that the administration had vetted Weaver thoroughly and was aware of her social media history when making the appointment decision. Mayoral spokeswoman Dora Pekec stated simply: “She was vetted. We were aware of all of these tweets.”
Distinguishing Between Weaver and Da Costa Resignations
The timing of Weaver’s appointment to controversy became even more sensitive because Mamdani had accepted the resignation of another appointeeCatherine Almonte Da Costa, his director of appointmentsjust weeks earlier over antisemitic social media posts. The contrast between Mamdani’s decision to force Da Costa’s resignation while defending Weaver drew immediate criticism. When pressed on this distinction, Mamdani responded: “I accepted Kat Da Costa’s resignation. Cea Weaver is someone that we hired to stand up for tenants across the city based on the track record that she had”. This framing attempted to distinguish between appointments made despite being unaware of problematic rhetoric (Da Costa) versus appointments made with full knowledge and deliberate acceptance of ideological positions (Weaver).
Weaver’s Tenure in Housing Activism
Prior to her mayoral appointment, Weaver led the Housing Justice for All coalition, which was widely credited with pressuring state lawmakers to pass a sweeping package of tenant protections in 2019. This track record gave Mamdani substantive grounds for the appointment beyond ideological alignment. Advocates for the appointment argued that her years of housing activism, during which she had fought for rent-stabilized tenants and opposed landlord abuses, demonstrated her actual commitment to protecting New Yorkers.
Weaver’s Response to Controversy
In interviews, Weaver acknowledged that her past posts were problematic. Speaking to local television, she stated: “You know, those are certainly regretful tweets and not something I would say today.” She emphasized her current focus: “I want to make sure that everybody has a safe and affordable place to live, whether they rent or own, and that is something I’m laser-focused on in this new role.” This framingacknowledging past rhetoric while emphasizing pragmatic focus on protecting vulnerable tenantsattempted to separate ideological Twitter commentary from actual policy work.
Landlord and Business Community Concerns
The landlord community and real estate interests reacted with alarm to Weaver’s appointment. Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, expressed concerns about the ideological positions guiding tenant protection work: “To solve housing problems, you need to have dialog with all the stakeholders, and that includes the operators and owners of housing, as well as the tenants.” According to housing expert Salim Furth, “Landlords are definitely upset that Mamdani will be holding public hearings in every borough to shame and embarrass them”. This concern reflected broader anxiety among building owners that Weaver’s appointment signaled an adversarial rather than collaborative approach to housing policy.
The Ideological Question: Property Rights and Housing Justice
The controversy raised fundamental questions about property rights, race, and housing justice that persist in American urban policy. Weaver’s framework treated propertyparticularly homeownershipas embedded in systems of racial exclusion and wealth accumulation that had systematically excluded Black and brown communities. This perspective, rooted in critical race theory and housing justice scholarship, is increasingly influential in progressive housing circles but remains anathema to mainstream property-owning constituencies.
Mamdani’s Ideological Alignment and Transparent Vetting
Mamdani’s defense of Weaver effectively signaled acceptance of her ideological framework regarding property and housing. When asked directly about the homeownership comment, Mamdani responded: “I think 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”. This framing made clear that her ideological commitment to tenant protection over property rights was precisely what made her suitable for the role.
The Larger Question of Mayoral Administration Ideology
The Weaver appointment and Mamdani’s defense of her became a test of his administration’s ideological direction. Critics on the right saw the appointment as confirmation of their concerns that Mamdani intended to govern as a socialist, prioritizing collective housing solutions over individual property rights. Progressive supporters argued that his willingness to support Weaver despite backlash demonstrated commitment to housing justice even when politically costly. The controversy will likely define Mamdani’s administration’s relationship with business community and landlord class throughout his term, establishing whether his administration will pursue confrontational or collaborative approaches to housing reform.
