According to a profile by Zoran Mamdani in The New Yorker, the New York mayoral candidate was asked by the producers of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” to play a “game” about his opinion on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mamdani appeared on “The Late Show” with City Comptroller Brad Lander in late June, just before the primary election in which he won the Democratic Party’s nomination. Colbert was briefed in advance on the “basic political topics” he would cover in the interview. However, the New Yorker reported that producers suggested a new question just before Lander and Mamdani took the stage that day, after Colbert received letters from pro-Israel celebrities asking him to question Mamdani about his views on Israel.
“One of the producers suggested a ‘yes or no’ corner called ‘Yes or no: Hamas. Yes or no: Palestinian state,'” the story says, citing “people who were there.”
“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Mamdani told The New Yorker about the pitch. “To think that genocide could be condensed into a late-night game,” Zara Rahim, a senior adviser to Mr. Mamdani, reportedly told producers. “You have the first Muslim mayoral candidate in the history of New York City. Don’t you want to question him about that?”
CBS declined Variety’s request for comment.
The match was not played on air. (Games are common in late-night interviews, but rare on “The Late Show.”) About six minutes of the 21-minute interview, which was shortened by CBS but posted in full on YouTube, focused on Mamdani’s opinions on Israel, the criticism she received from pro-Israel New Yorkers, and tensions between Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers.
Mr. Colbert first asked Mr. Lander and Mr. Mamdani whether they believed the state of Israel had the right to exist. “Yes, like all countries, I believe that states have the right to exist and also have a responsibility to uphold international law,” Mamdani said.
Regarding the issue of Israel’s right to exist, the New Yorker article said, “Mamdani was asked this question many times during the campaign and became troubled by it. ‘The way it was raised and repeated was Islamophobic,’ a prominent Muslim leader in the city told Mamdani about this,” the New Yorker article said.
“We are witnessing a crisis of anti-Semitism,” Mamdani said later in the interview, referring to conversations he had with Jewish New Yorkers. “That’s why at the heart of my proposal to the Department of Life Safety is a commitment to increase funding for anti-hate crime programs by 800 percent. As you point out, anti-Semitism isn’t just something we have to talk about. It’s something we have to deal with. We have to make it clear that anti-Semitism has no place in this city, in this country, in this world.”
Colbert asked, “So any kind of violence is not justified?” Mamdani says no.
Watch Mamdani and Lander’s full appearance on “The Late Show” below.
