They wouldn't do this when the better option for them is to make Mamdani's ambitions for New York as hard as possible to bring to fruition. Even if they only hinder him a bit, any inability at all from Mamdani to do every single thing he wants to do (and things they claim he wants to do) will see relentless coverage in the right wing media (and likely also some from liberal media) in order to paint it as a "failed project" and how "unrealistic socialism is." That serves them far better than just disappearing the guy
I see your point about how they will try and make Mamdani look as bad as possible in the meeting but he could withstand it far better than Zelenskyy, I reckon. Nothing wrong with Zelenskyy on that front, just it's obvious Mamdani would do better
I don't see this as upholding free speech. It's being painted in the media so far that this is simply about single sex toilets and "making women feel safe". Notice how they never say "cis women". Their choice of words speaks for itself. Should councillors have to listen to overt fascists give their views too? Seeing as they don't "feel safe" around non white people? We know full well these people wouldn't stop at single sex toilets, they just go on about that more than anything cos it's the only thing they can twist into making themselves seem the victim. They'd happily take free speech away from trans people. Underneath, most of them are similar to Graham Linehan