A profile of Zohran Mamdani in the New Yorker alleges that the New York City mayoral candidate was asked by a producer of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” to play a “game” surrounding his opinions about Israel’s war on Gaza.
Mamdani appeared on “The Late Show” alongside city comptroller Brad Lander in late June, shortly before the primary election that earned him the Democratic party’s official nomination. In advance, he was briefed on the “basic political topics” Colbert would bring up in their interview. But according to the New Yorker, producers proposed a new set of questions shortly before Lander and Mamdani went onstage because Colbert had received a letter that day from prominent pro-Israel figures demanding that Mamdani be pressed about his views of Israel.
“One of the producers suggested a ‘thumbs-up or thumbs-down’ segment: ‘Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state,’” the story reads, citing “people who were in the room.”
“I just couldn’t believe what was happening,” Mamdani told the New Yorker about the pitch. “That a genocide could be distilled into a late-night game.” Mamdani’s senior adviser Zara Rahim says she told the producer, “You have the first Muslim candidate for mayor in the history of New York. You don’t want to ask him a question about that?”.
CBS declined Variety‘s request for comment.
The game was not played on air. (Though games are a common interview style in late night, they are rare on “The Late Show.”) Roughly six minutes of the 21-minute interview, which was shortened on CBS but posted in full on YouTube, focused on Mamdani’s opinions on Israel, the criticism he’s received from pro-Israel New Yorkers and tensions between Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers.
Colbert began by asking both Lander and Mamdani whether they believe the state of Israel has a right to exist. “Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist and a responsibility, also, to uphold international law,” Mamdani said.
Regarding the question of Israel’s right to exist, the New Yorker story reads, “Mamdani got this question so many times during the campaign that he came to feel besieged by it. ‘It’s Islamophobia, the way it’s posed and repeated,’ a prominent Muslim leader in the city, who has talked to Mamdani about this, [said].”
“We’re seeing a crisis of antisemitism,” Mamdani said later in the interview, mentioning conversations he’s had with Jewish New Yorkers. “And that’s why at the heart of my proposal for the Department of Community Safety is a commitment to increase funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800%. To your point, antisemitism is not simply something we should talk about. It’s something that we have to tackle. We have to make clear there’s no room for it in this city, in this country, in this world.”
Colbert responded by asking, “And no justification for violence of any kind?” Mamdani said no.
See Mamdani and Lander’s full appearance on “The Late Show” below.
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