Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces trouble from group NYC Common Sense. Here's how.

Five months into New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's term, NYC Common Sense, a group of the city's more moderate power brokers, has announced plans to raise money, file lawsuits and work against the democratic socialist.

It's starting with name calling from the group's leader, former mayoral candidate Jim Walden.

Walden explains NYC Common Sense's mission

Walden, who suspended his independent mayoral campaign last year and urged others to do the same to stop the Mamdani juggernaut, touched off a controversy with his first social media post, claiming that a terrorist attack in New York City would be a problem for the city's first Muslim mayor because, "He'd be rooting for the terrorists."

When asked about the post by CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer on Wednesday, Walden said, "The post was, was a repost of an op-ed that I wrote during the campaign 10 months ago, and in that op-ed, I literally quoted his own social media posts."

Walden explained why NYC Common Sense is targeting Mamdani.

"We're in a very scary time in our country in terms of the radicalization of the far left and the far right," Walden said. "It's not a problem in one party. It's a problem in both parties. It has led to increased violence. It has led to increased hate, the inability to have a conversation, and the mayor is part of that."

Walden said NYC Common Sense has raised well over $1 million and that it would be filing lawsuits and running digital ads to support a more moderate agenda for the city and catalogue what it views as missteps.

He refused to disclose the list of donors.

"I think that's just despicable"

Mamdani responded Wednesday to Walden's post, saying "I think that's just despicable."

The mayor did not take issue with Walden's decision to lead NYC Common Sense, and defended his loyalty and commitment to the city he leads.

"It's New York City. There are 8.5 million people here. We should see 8.5 million opinions," Mamdani said. "But to besmirch me as the first Muslim mayor of this city, that I would ever be doing anything other than looking to support our city, to defend our city, I really don't have anything else to add. And I think it's a reflection of exactly what motivates that kind of opposition."