Mamdani opposed Ossé’s long-shot run and spoke at a DSA forum discouraging the organization from endorsing him, saying it would make it more difficult to enact his administration’s policy priorities. “Right now is not the time to be engaging in that type of primary,” he said in an interview on local outlet PIX11 News, a Nexstar affiliate, shortly after Ossé filed paperwork to run.

Right now is never the time.