Real Time host Bill Maher gave a scathing assessment of New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for campaigning ‘with a terrorist.’
Maher clashed with Kate Bedingfield, a guest on the show during Friday’s broadcast, over fellow candidate Andrew Cuomo’s attacks on Mamdani and his association with a ‘terrorist.’
Mamdani, who is currently leading in the mayoral race against Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa, was pictured with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, 75, an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that left six dead.
Bedingfield, CNN commentator and former White House communications director under former president Joe Biden, said that comments directed at Mamdani made by Cuomo were ‘ugly.’
‘I’m talking about what Cuomo’s doing, suggesting that Mamdani couldn’t be a leader in a terror situation if he were mayor of New York,’ Bedingfield said.
Cuomo had claimed, in agreement with a conservative radio host, that Mamdani would ‘cheer’ if he were mayor during the tragedy of the 9/11 terror attack.
Maher, however, jumped in and said, ‘Well, he did campaign with a terrorist this week,’ referring to the picture of Mamdani and Imam Wahhaj.
Bedingfield responded: ‘He did say it, well, but Cuomo was pretty clear. I thought he talked about that in a way that I thought was ugly.’
Real Time host Bill Maher jabbed at NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for campaigning ‘with a terrorist’
Mamdani is currently leading in the polls against Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa in the NYC mayoral race as early voting began this weekend
Last week, Mamdani posted a picture of himself with activist Yusef Abdus Salaam (left) and unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing Imam Siraj Wahhaj (right)
‘Well, he campaigned this week with a guy who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and served as a character witness for Omar Abdelrahman, the terrorist who organized it,’ Maher continued.
‘So Sarah Palin used to say, [Barack] Obama palled around the terrorists, which was bulls**t. I just don’t know if this is a great look for the party.’
Last week, Mamdani posted a picture of himself with activist Yusef Abdus Salaam and Imam Wahhaj.
Wahhaj was also said to have defended those who plotted the 1993 WTC attack against the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, whom he said were the ‘real terrorists’ at the time.
‘Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century,’ Mamdani captioned the image.
Cuomo jumped quickly to criticize Mamdani and queried to the New York Post if his opponent was ‘proud to be standing with an unindicted co-conspirator in the 93 World Trade Center terror attack that killed New Yorkers?’
‘The same person who preaches radical hate toward the LBGTQ community, just weeks after Mamdani was caught posing with a family-friend Ugandan politician who passed a law sentencing gay people to jail for life? When people tell you who they are, you should believe them — and Zohran, wipe that smile off your face,’ Cuomo continued.
A report obtained by the New York Post found that Wahhaj had made comments suggesting that queer people should be killed.
CNN commentator Kate Bedingfield debated with Maher over Mamdani’s association with Imam Wahhaj and Cuomo’s ‘ugly’ attacks on his mayoral opponent
Wahhaj was found to have made comments defending the plotters of the ’93 WTC attack, as well as calling for the deaths of men who engage in homosexual activity
Candidates, Cuomo, Zohran and Sliwa (left to right), during the second NYC mayoral debate on October 22
‘And you know, brothers and sisters, you know what the punishment is, if a man is found with another man?’ he preached in a 2017 sermon.
‘The Prophet Mohammad said the one who does it and the one to whom it is done to, kill them both.’
According to the outlet, the imam also told followers not to launch any attacks against the queer community.
‘For Zohran to think that he should be mayor of New York, the capital of acceptance and tolerance and diversity, the city and the state where the gay rights movement was birthed, the place that made history in passing same-sex marriage, the disconnect is so disturbing,’ Cuomo added.
Mamdani’s opponent’s comments were addressed by Maher as well, who pointed out the mayoral candidate’s dual citizenship.
‘You make it sound like he’s a little more mainstream than I think he is. I mean, the issue now that Andrew Cuomo is bringing up in New York is that he is a Ugandan citizen. Uganda’s a country where they kill homosexuals,’ Maher said to Bedingfield.
Bedingfield then queried to Maher if a person who holds dual citizenship couldn’t be mayor of New York, to which Maher said: ‘If I was a dual citizen with a country whose policy, government policy, was we kill homosexuals. Yeah, I would renounce that citizenship.’
‘I think that is buying into a fear framework that is not good for the country,’ Bedingfield snapped back.
Zohran’s dual citizenship in Uganda has also raised concerns, considering controversial laws held in the country of his birth
Sliwa said Mamdani’s association with Imam Wahhaj is ‘disqualifying’ and declared that NYC needs a mayor ‘who protects them from terrorism’
Despite fellow candidate Curtis Sliwa and Mamdani’s apparent allegiance in attacks against Cuomo, Sliwa also condemned Mamdani’s association with Imam Wahhaj.
‘The fact that Mamdani stands with this imam is disqualifying,’ Sliwa said.
‘New York needs a mayor who protects New Yorkers from terrorism, not embraces terrorists.’
Vice President JD Vance also quipped in a post on X that he had been ‘reliably informed that Democrats are opposed to any kind of political violence’ and that he was looking forward to them ‘universally condemning Zohran Mamdani for campaigning with an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist plot that killed 6 New Yorkers.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Mamdani and the Masjid At-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn for comment.
