Social media users are cackling after New York City's mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's reaction to learning that former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney had just died went viral.
Cheney spearheaded the "War on Terror" and pushed for the invasion of Iraq on the false premise that the regime of Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and had an operational relationship with Al-Qaeda. His policies resulted in the deaths of 4.5 million people and counting and have displaced at least 38 million others.
The moment Mamdani learned the news was filmed while he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, showed up to vote in person on Election Day yesterday at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens.
He asked:
"When did that happen?"
When he learned that Cheney's death had been reported earlier that morning, he nodded in response... and simply moved on.
You can watch what happened in the video below.
Cheney wielded unprecedented power as vice president, effectively functioning as the de facto president while advancing the false claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Under his influence, the United States unleashed devastation across Afghanistan, Iraq, and much of the Middle East. When reports exposed the U.S. militaryâs abuses at Abu Ghraib and GuantĂĄnamo Bay, Cheney defended the actions under the guise of âfighting terrorism,â a justification many saw as an attempt to excuse war crimes.
Cheney and his allies not only executed the war but rewired the machinery of American power to sustain it. Exploiting post-9/11 legislation such as the Patriot Act, he enabled mass surveillance programs like the NSAâs Stellar Wind to target Americans, particularly Muslims.
His promotion of the âunitary executiveâ theoryâa once-obscure legal notion asserting near-total presidential control over the executive branchâfurther expanded the Bush administrationâs authority, allowing it to wage war and circumvent Congress with unprecedented ease.
Many felt Mamdani's reaction said it all.
That Mamdani, a South Asian Muslim, won the election the same day Cheney died feels rather poetic in hindsight.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
