Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Friday criticized rival Andrew Cuomo’s response to the Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and green card holder, calling it weak.
Mamdani, a Muslim Assembly member representing part of western Queens, has raised concerns this week about Khalil, who was arrested last Saturday without charge and placed in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for deportation
The White House says it detained Khalil and is moving to revoke his permanent residency status, alleging that he promoted antisemitic rhetoric and supported the militant group Hamas during pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University last year.
The Trump administration’s actions have drawn widespread condemnation from local and national Democratic pols alike — who charge it is illegal and a violation of Khalil’s Freedom of Speech rights. Many also accuse Trump of using Khalil’s arrest as a pretext to suppress speech the administration opposes.
However, Mamdani took aim at Cuomo, arguing his initial statement on Khalil’s detainment Tuesday was weak. In the statement, Cuomo said Constitional rights are “preeminent,” facts and evidence “must be presented and weighed,” and there are “real questions” about the arrest, but did not explicitly condemn it or call for Khalil’s release.
Mamdani also criticized a statement from Cuomo on Wednesday, accusing the former governor of backtracking on his earlier remarks while still claiming that “antisemitic agitators” on college campuses have gone “unchecked for too long.”
Mamdani said Cuomo’s statements did not make it clear where he stands on Khalil’s detainment and shows that he would not stand up to Trump as mayor.
“It took him more than three days to say a word about the unlawful detention of a New Yorker, and then he issued the kind of statement that left all of us wondering whether or not he actually opposed this detention, only after to walk it back within 24 hours,” Mamdani said of Cuomo’s statements on Khalil. “That is what Andrew Cuomo has to offer in this moment, a moment when we need leadership that is willing to fight and stand up to Donald Trump.”
In response, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi insisted the former governor’s “statement was clear.” He also painted Mamdani, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and fiercely critical of Israel, as having radical views.
“As is his opponent’s fringe extreme left anti-Israel pro-DSA platform that is out of step with a vast majority of New Yorkers,” he said of Mamdani.
Azzopardi also refuted Mamdani’s contention that Cuomo’s second statement, made in a social media post, walked back his first.
The Assembly member also blasted Mayor Eric Adams’ reaction to Khalil’s detainment, in which he said immigration enforcement is the federal government’s responsibility and not his own.
Political observers say Cuomo’s comments on Khalil’s arrest appear aimed at not alienating the city’s religious Jewish voting blocks, whose support is key to his path to City Hall. The former governor has also long been a steadfast Israel supporter.
Additionally, Cuomo has also faced attacks from his critics over his posture toward Trump. In an interview with sportscaster Stephen A. Smith earlier this month, Cuomo expressed an openness to working with the president.
“I dealt with him as governor, he knows our situation, he knows the situation in New York City,” Cuomo said. “It is his hometown. I think that he wants New York City to appreciate him. I think he thinks there’s an opportunity for him to do good things in New York City. And really we have to see what he does, what posture President Trump takes.”
