On Wednesday’s CNN This Morning, Audie Cornish took up the cause of Zohran Mamdani's latest socialist stunt: his plan to force Amazon to convert its delivery drivers from independent contractors into full-blown employees.
“This economy is fast being built on gig workers’ backs,” Cornish declared, channeling her inner Bernie Sanders. Those poor gig workers, toiling away for the millionaires and billionaires! Surely they long to be hired as regular employees with fixed schedules and all the joys of punching a clock.
Except . . . most of them don’t!
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Contingent Work Supplement, 80.3% of independent contractors preferred their current arrangement over traditional W-2 employment. Only 8.3% said they’d rather be regular employees. The BLS conclusion [emphasis added]:
"As in prior surveys, independent contractors overwhelmingly preferred their work arrangement."
And just in case anyone was preparing to dismiss the study as a Trump-ordered gift to the billionaire class, the data came from 2023 and was released in 2024 — during the Biden administration.
Cornish: Economy Built 'On Backs' of Gig Workers [But Great Majority Prefer It!] pic.twitter.com/68UgVBFO7t
— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) August 26, 2026
CNN’s segment never mentioned any of this. Instead, it rolled Mamdani campaign video accusing Amazon of using subcontractors to “shield them from responsibility,” followed by supportive TikTok voices. Although the Delivery Protection Act technically covers other last-mile operators, Mamdani has made Amazon the star of the show. Nothing says “fighting the oligarchy” quite like targeting the company associated with Jeff Bezos.
Cornish did float one practical concern: What if Amazon simply packs up and moves its operations across the river to New Jersey? A panelist waved it away, confidently declaring, “I don’t think anyone is going to be mad at him for taking on this fight.”
Actually, many people will be. Gig workers who like the flexibility to set their own hours or hold other jobs would lose the arrangement they chose. New York customers would likely see higher prices and slower deliveries. And those idling-emissions fines Cornish tut-tutted about? Reclassifying the drivers as Amazon employees does not magically stop vans from idling in Manhattan traffic.
The segment treated forced employee status as pure virtue and worker preference as irrelevant. The result was a tidy morality play: Mamdani the champion of the oppressed, Amazon the villain, and the actual views of the overwhelming majority of gig workers left on the cutting-room floor.
You might say that Mamdani is callously staging his stunt . . . on the backs of gig workers!
The transcript is below:
CNN This Morning
8/26/26
6:11 am EDT
AUDIE CORNISH: Next: Zohran Mamdani, taking on Amazon. The New York City mayor is pushing the Delivery Protection Act.
So, this is a proposal that would force Amazon to directly hire thousands of subcontracted delivery drivers.
Mamdani's office posted this video two weeks ago.
MAMDANI VIDEO: The workers' routes and hours are set by Amazon. So why isn't Amazon responsible for these vans? Because Amazon and other corporations have built a vast network of subcontractors that shield them from responsibility.
ZOHRAN MAMDANI: This is why I'm proud to support the Delivery Protection Act.
Because if Amazon is delivering your packages, they should follow the same rules of every other delivery man.
CORNISH: Oof, Group Chat is back.
I need to talk about this, because this economy is fast being built on gig workers' backs. Which means they aren't official employees, which means the companies getting certain benefits from that.
But in New York, Amazon, there's a lot here I think that's tough to take on.
TAMARA KEITH: Yeah, well, people just driving up in their own cars and dropping packages.
CORNISH: I've seen that. Someone pulls up and I'm like, "Wait a second, it's not an official van, like, what are we doing?" And it's some person just, yeah --
KEITH: -- just trying to get by.
CORNISH: Can I just throw this out here? They have collected nine million in fines for idling violations, which, this is where I'm gonna get my, my urban, wrinkled nose on. It's annoying! Not just in New York but everywhere: cars just idling as they're making their [inaudible.] It's not like a UPS or something like this.
And here's what people are saying on TikTok. I wanna play this for you, 'cause these are the people who are both using the product and, in this case, being the deliverers.
TIKTOK VOICE 1: So what they've done, is they've created these LLCs, these small delivery companies, right? That basically they subcontract their deliveries to. These other entities have their own insurance and they're also not under the umbrella of Amazon.
TIKTOK VOICE 2: Once you're an employee, now you gotta pay them benefits, now they get sick time, now they get time off. But now, if you subcontract them [other voice] like Uber, correct, now if you subcontract them out, they get a 1099. Now they don't have the protections.
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT: I think this is more about Zohran fighting for working class, making certain they have basic benefits, healthcare, and be able to enjoy a decent quality life.
I also think --
CORNISH: But if they relocate out of the city, right? If Amazon says, "You know what? Then we don't wanna deal and we leave," does that hurt the same people he's trying to support?
SEAWRIGHT: Could be, but I also think there's a bigger political narrative here. He prides himself on his side of the movement, prides himself on taking on the millionaire-billionaire class. And think about who owns Amazon, and think about the broader fight and discussion we're having with certain wings within our party, and I think it feeds into that.
So I think there are many things at play, but at the end of the day, I don't think anyone is going to be mad at him for taking on this fight.
