New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that he will continue to work with Morris Katz, one of the leading political consultants behind Graham Platner’s doomed bid for Senate.
“I will continue to work with Morris Katz, he remains a top advisor of mine,” Mamdani said at a news conference on Monday.
Many of Katz’s fellow Democrats lambasted him after Platner withdrew from the race following a rape accusation – which Platner denied – from an ex-girlfriend, arguing that Katz failed to do his due diligence before promoting Platner to party leaders. Some in the party are now calling for him to be blacklisted from future political operations.
Katz and his consulting partner, Daniel Moraff, ignored multiple requests from their own vetting team to dig deeper into Platner’s past over concerns of possible scandals, a source familiar with the early stages of the Platner campaign previously told Fox News Digital. The duo paid just over $6,000 for a three-day vetting job, something that usually takes weeks and costs tens of thousands of dollars.
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In addition to a rape accusation, Platner also attracted scrutiny over a trove of controversial deleted Reddit posts, a Nazi-linked tattoo he acquired while serving in the military and his alleged mistreatment of women.
The reporter asking Mamdani about Katz cited a letter circulated by the Democratic Socialists of America urging their political allies not to work with him.
KINGMAKER MAMDANI CALLS ON PLATNER TO ‘DROP OUT OF THE RACE’ AFTER RAPE ALLEGATION
“Morris Katz is one of the chief parties responsible for the catastrophic campaign of scandal-ridden Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner,” the letter reads. “Billed as a top adviser to the campaign, Katz helped recruit Platner and supercharged his candidacy with slick video production, friendly media placements and political connections.”
Democratic sources claim that Katz pitched Platner as a potential successor to an elderly Sen. Bernie Sanders and a potential presidential contender — a characterization he now denies.
After Platner announced his intention to suspend his candidacy, Katz wrote on X that “as soon as the team became aware of the rape allegations against Graham Platner we advised he suspend his candidacy, and in the following days worked to wind down the campaign” and that he was “deeply disappointed.”
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A community note attached to his post points out that Platner’s campaign initially denied the rape allegation.
Katz also threatened former Platner staffer Genevieve McDonald in an attempt to dissuade her from cooperating with reporters seeking to cover Platner’s alleged emotional abuse of women.
“Just want to be clear on where we are right now,” Katz wrote in the message obtained by the Bangor Daily News. “If the story goes in its current iteration we’ll communicate directly on the record, and by name, that Genevieve violated the personal trust of Amy and Graham and shared explicit falsehoods to sabotage the campaign.”
Katz also faced criticism earlier this year over a puberty book he previously authored.
The political consultant authored a book in 2020 that bills itself as a “puberty book” for “curious boys” aged 10 to 12. Sections of the book include “Your New Penis” and “The Magic of Masturbation.”
In a footnote on page 15 of the text, Katz wrote that he planned to “use images of my penis” to show children how genitalia develop during puberty, but that publishers shot the idea down for being “inappropriate.” Conservative critics swiftly condemned him over the remark, with Katz later saying the comment was joke.
“Only a perverted freak would say that,” wildly popular conservative X account “Libs of TikTok,” which is operated by Chaya Raichik, posted to X in March.
“Morris Katz’s musings about exposing himself to ten-year-olds are absolutely disgusting,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee said of Katz back in March as news of the footnote spread.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.