Mayor Zorhan Mamdani defended his hosting of the divisive anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil at Gracie Mansion recently — saying he was simply standing up for First Amendment rights.
“As the mayor of New York City, I believe it is my responsibility to fight for the safety and for the rights of each and every New Yorker,” Hizzoner said Thursday. “[T]he only charge that was levied against him [Khalil] was the exercising of his First Amendment rights.
“And I have long maintained that he and any New Yorker should be able to exercise their First Amendment rights in this city without fear of the kind of punishment that was inflicted upon him.”
Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of the Big Apple, and his wife, Rama Duwaji, celebrated Iftar this week with the former Columbia University grad student who became the early poster boy for the left’s pushback against President Trump’s immigration ramp-up after he was detained by ICE.
The dinner sparked outrage from pro-Israel advocates and conservatives after the mayor posted about it on social media.
Lishi Baker, a Jewish Columbia University senior who previously headed the pro-Israel group Aryeh on campus, said skewered the mayor for hosting Khalil, who has been accused by the Trump administration of supporting Hamas.
“[Mamdani] is glorifying and lifting up this pro-Hamas, anti-American protester for a meal at Gracie Mansion,” Baker said.
Even the White House weighed in.
“No one should be feting the anti-American, pro-terrorist activities of Mahmoud Khalil, who made his name as a ringleader of violent anti-American and anti-Semitic university protests that harmed American foreign policy interests,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.