A newly appointed senior aide to a New York City mayor-elect has been forced to resign just one day after her appointment, following the emergence of historic antisemitic social media posts.
Historic Social Media Posts Uncovered
Catherine Almonte Da Costa stepped down from her role as Director of Appointments for Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani on Thursday. Her resignation came after a series of offensive posts, made more than ten years ago, were revealed by a political newsletter.
The Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey publicly criticised the posts, stating on X that her social media footprint included content from over a decade ago that "echo classic antisemitic tropes and otherwise demean Jewish people."
Details of the Offensive Tweets
The tweets, originally uncovered by the Judge Street Journal Substack newsletter, date from between 2011 and 2012. In a January 2011 post from a now-deleted account, Da Costa wrote: 'Money hungry Jews smh.'
Later that year, in June, she posted: 'Woo! Promoted to the upstairs office today! Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps.' At that time, her LinkedIn profile indicates she was working as a receptionist and sales associate at Lens Lab Express in Astoria, Queens.
Further posts from July 2012 included a comment on Orthodox Jewish women's wigs, which she described as "strange," and a separate post referring to a "Far Rockaway train is the Jew train."
Swift Appointment and Resignation
The controversy erupted with remarkable speed. On Wednesday, the 34-year-old Mayor-Elect Mamdani proudly announced Da Costa's appointment via a now-deleted Instagram post, welcoming her to "A New Era" and praising her decade of public service experience.
Da Costa had previously worked her way up from an intern in March 2014 to Deputy Director of Scheduling in former Mayor Bill de Blasio's office. Her new role would have placed her in charge of selecting personnel for Mamdani's City Hall administration.
However, by Thursday, following the publication of the Judge Street Journal report, she had offered her resignation. The newsletter reported that Da Costa deleted the account containing the tweets after being approached for comment.
Apologies and Aftermath
In a statement, Da Costa expressed deep regret and apologised, saying, "As the mother of two Jewish children, I deeply regret and apologize for these tweets from well over a decade ago. These comments do not in any way, shape, or form reflect who I am or my views and beliefs today."
Her husband, Ricky Da Costa, who also worked in de Blasio's office, defended her, calling the old posts "dumb" and asserting she had grown since making them at age 19.
Mayor-Elect Mamdani accepted the resignation, telling the Judge Street Journal that Da Costa had expressed "deep remorse over her past statements." The Daily Mail approached both Mamdani and Da Costa for further comment, while the ADL declined to add to its earlier statement.
