The war in Iran speaks to a "broken kind of politics"
That chasm is most clear in his deep opposition to the U.S. war on Iran, he said.
"We're talking about a federal administration that has spent close to $30 billion dollars killing thousands of people at a time when working class people across this country cannot afford the bare minimum," he said. "And to be told that a city-run grocery store is implausible, but spending more than $500 million a day to kill people in Iran and Lebanon is not only plausible but necessary, it speaks to a broken kind of politics."
He said that New Yorkers feel the effects of that war beyond their pocketbook.
"At the core of any war is a dehumanization that takes place, and that dehumanization is not limited to any battlefield," he said. "It extends into the lives of people across this country."
He shared the story of a young Muslim woman he called after seeing the news that she had been thrown to the ground at a New York City subway stop.
"She told me that the first thing her attacker said to her before he attacked her was, 'I wonder how many Iranians we killed today,'" he said. "That is what we are allowing to take hold in our politics."