Mayor Zohran Mamdani got the cold shoulder from Rep. Adriano Espaillat — as Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch forced a smile during an awkward press appearance Friday, body language experts said.
Espaillat — who lost the Democratic primary last month after Mamdani backed his far-left challenger — snubbed the mayor while taking the podium at an NYPD security briefing about the National Dominican Republic Day Parade.
“Thank you, commissioner,” Espaillat said, warmly acknowledging Tisch, who was spotted putting her hand on his shoulder and exchanging a look with the outgoing congressman before the news conference started.
“And thank you to the New York City Police Department. Chief Ramolez, Chief Rivera. I know them both, and I know the great work that they did both in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx,” Espaillat said — while failing to mention Mamdani.
“I started my public service career as president of the 34th precinct community council back in the ’80s, when crack ravaged northern Manhattan,” Espaillat, the first Dominican American politician in Congress, said.
“I know firsthand the great work that the police department has done, the men and women of the police department have done throughout the years.”
The 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor— who wasn’t yet alive in the 1980s — stood stiffly next to the 71-year-old five-term congressman with a strained smile.
Espaillat added that he was there to “express my full support to the police department,” which Mamdani sharply criticized before taking office.
As the two men crossed paths on stage, they did not make eye contact or acknowledge each other, experts said.
“Both are trying to avoid each other. Mamdani looks down. Espaillat doesn’t try to engage him either,” Body Language Expert and Behavior Analyst Traci Brown, who viewed footage of the interaction, told The Post.
Tisch, who has clashed with Mamdani over traditional policing measures, also stood awkwardly next to the mayor as he spoke at the briefing, experts said.
“She’s forcing her smile. It’s almost painful to watch,” Brown said. “And I think it’s unusual that she’d stand in front of him. Everything is a message. She’s trying not to connect [by] avoiding eye contact.”
Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist who also analyzed their interaction, said Mamdani’s mood appeared to grow negative when Tisch began to speak.
“When she started to give her speech, Mamdani’s mood changed … and then he zoned out in a frozen expression,” she said.
“He stood next to the podium with hands clasped,” she noted.
Last month, Espaillat lost the Democratic primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District to Democratic Socialists of America member Darializa Avila Chevalier, 32, who Mamdani had endorsed.
Mamdani called Chevalier “the champion we need for a city New Yorkers can actually afford.”
During the social justice protests of 2020, Mamdani criticized the NYPD on social media — calling the department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
He later dropped his stance on defunding the police and has avoided direct public criticism of the NYPD since taking office earlier this year.
The National Dominican Republic Day Parade is scheduled for Sunday with an increased police presence.
