Leading New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was left shocked after a producer for Stephen Colbert’s late-night TV show suggested a game segment that would ask him to rate Hamas and Palestine, according to a new report.
Mamdani appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in June alongside New York City comptroller and fellow mayoral candidate Brad Lander. That day, Colbert had received a letter from prominent Jewish figures calling on him to ask Mamdani about Israel, The New Yorker reports.
Israel has been a flashpoint in the mayoral race, with many of Mamdani’s political opponents attacking him over his criticism of the state and its war with Hamas in Gaza. In response, Mamdani has said that he believes that the state of Israel should exist and has denounced antisemitism.
Moments before the candidates went on stage, Colbert’s producers told Mamdani they wanted to go over some additional questions with him, The New Yorker reports. A producer then pitched a thumbs-up thumbs-down segment about Hamas and Palestine.
“Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas,” the producer suggested, according to The New Yorker. “Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state.”
Mamdani told the magazine: “I just couldn’t believe what was happening. That a genocide could be distilled into a late-night game.”
Zara Rahim, a senior adviser for Mamdani, reportedly 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?”
The Independent has contacted CBS for comment. The network did not provide comment to The New Yorker.
The thumbs-up thumbs-down segment didn’t happen, but Colbert did ask Mamdani: “Does the state of Israel have the right to exist?”
“Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist, and a responsibility also to uphold international law,” Mamdani replied.
Mamdani also touched on the issue earlier this week, when he released a statement on the second anniversary of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage. Israel then launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip, devastating the region and killing more than 67,000 Palestinians over the last two years, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Mamdani’s statement criticized Hamas’s “horrific war crime” and accused the Israeli government of launching a “genocidal war.” The mayoral candidate also called for “peace” and an end to “the occupation and apartheid.”
The statement came just days before President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed on a first phase of a ceasefire deal. The agreement will involve the release of hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some areas in Gaza.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is the current front-runner for New York City mayor, with some polls putting him more than 10 points ahead of his closest challenger, Andrew Cuomo. New York City voters will elect their next mayor on November 4.
