Turn your AC to 78^

NYC Mayor Mamdani tells sweltering residents to set thermostats to 78 degrees

and the backlash was immediate

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told millions of residents baking in a holiday weekend heat wave to crank their air conditioners up to 78 degrees, and the internet let him have it.

The post on X, made from the official @NYCMayor account, racked up more than 36.5 million views as critics from reality TV stars to sitting governors piled on with a single recurring word: communist.

The mayor's directive came as officials warned that temperatures in the city could feel as hot as 112 degrees. Mamdani framed the ask as a matter of grid stability and public safety, but the optics of a self-described socialist mayor lecturing sweating New Yorkers about their thermostats proved irresistible to his critics, and, notably, to at least one prominent liberal.

Bill Maher, hardly a right-wing figure, used his Friday closing monologue on HBO's "Real Time" to weigh in. The host did not hold back, as Breitbart reported:

"Democrats seem to be having this debate whether or not Mayor Mamdani is a socialist or a democratic socialist. Let me settle it: He's a straight-up Communist."

Maher cited a statement from one of Mamdani's own major advisers who reportedly urged supporters to "elect more Communists." And Maher had a warning for his own side of the aisle.

"If liberals deny it like he's just going through a goth phase, they're going to lose more elections."

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