REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
(New York, NY) — A second aide to the newly minted Mayor Zohran Mamadani finds themselves defending old offensive social media posts. Cea Weaver is the newly appointed director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. The 37-year-old has a background steeped in tenant advocacy, and like the mayor is a Democratic Socialist. Weaver was by the mayor’s side during his first day in office last week when he traveled to a Brooklyn apartment building riddled with problems. Mamdani promised he and Weaver would help New Yorkers across the city who find themselves stuck in buildings with bad news landlords.
Days after that very high profile press event, Mayor Mamdani finds himself trying to defend Weaver after some of her old social media posts have come back to haunt here. In one post in 2019, Weaver called home ownership “a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.” Internet sleuths also uncovered an X post from 2020, during the George Floyd riots that said “The Police Are Just People The State Sanctions To Murder W[ith] Immunity. There were other tweets deemed offensive.
The posts have enraged landlord groups, some politicians and New Yorkers who did not vote for Mamdani. Weaver found herself surrounded by some reporters when she walked out of her Crown Heights, Brooklyn apartment this week. They peppered the tenants rights leaders with questions about the tweets and her own family background. Specifically a $1.6 million home owned by her mother in Nashville, Tennessee. Weaver got emotional, and began wiping tears away before retreating back inside her building.
Mayor Mamdani was asked about Weaver’s tweets, and side stepped them and instead defended his appointee as the right person for the job. Insiders say the administration was surprised by the unearthed social media posts. Mamdani said Weaver would stay on as Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
Weaver took to NY1 for an interview, where she acknowledged that her past statements were outdated and “regretful,” and not who she is today.
In late December, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, the newly appointed Director of Appointments for New York resigned just a day after her selection, when some old antisemitic social media posts she authored were uncovered.
