{"id":203643,"date":"2025-10-10T21:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/203643\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T21:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T21:45:07","slug":"zohran-mamdani-says-colberts-late-show-pitched-a-game-about-gaza-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/203643\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani Says Colbert’s Late Show Pitched a Game About Gaza Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA profile of Zohran Mamdani<\/a> in the New Yorker<\/a> alleges that the New York City mayoral candidate was asked by a producer of \u201cThe Late Show<\/a> With Stephen Colbert<\/a>\u201d to play a \u201cgame\u201d surrounding his opinions about Israel\u2019s war on Gaza.<\/p>\n

\n\tMamdani appeared on \u201cThe Late Show\u201d alongside city comptroller Brad Lander in late June, shortly before the primary election that earned him the Democratic party\u2019s official nomination. In advance, he was briefed on the \u201cbasic political topics\u201d Colbert would bring up in their interview. But according to the New Yorker, producers proposed a new set of questions shortly before Lander and Mamdani went onstage because Colbert had received a letter that day from prominent pro-Israel figures demanding that Mamdani be pressed about his views of Israel.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the producers suggested a \u2018thumbs-up or thumbs-down\u2019 segment: \u2018Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state,’\u201d the story reads, citing \u201cpeople who were in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe what was happening,\u201d Mamdani told the New Yorker about the pitch. \u201cThat a genocide could be distilled into a late-night game.\u201d Mamdani\u2019s senior adviser Zara Rahim says she told the producer, \u201cYou have the first Muslim candidate for mayor in the history of New York. You don\u2019t want to ask him a question about that?\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tCBS declined Variety\u2018s request for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe game was not played on air. (Though games are a common interview style in late night, they are rare on \u201cThe Late Show.\u201d) Roughly six minutes of the 21-minute interview, which was shortened on CBS but posted in full on YouTube<\/a>, focused on Mamdani\u2019s opinions on Israel, the criticism he\u2019s received from pro-Israel New Yorkers and tensions between Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers. <\/p>\n

\n\tColbert began by asking both Lander and Mamdani whether they believe the state of Israel has a right to exist. \u201cYes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist and a responsibility, also, to uphold international law,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegarding the question of Israel\u2019s right to exist, the New Yorker story reads, \u201cMamdani got this question so many times during the campaign that he came to feel besieged by it. \u2018It\u2019s Islamophobia, the way it\u2019s posed and repeated,\u2019 a prominent Muslim leader in the city, who has talked to Mamdani about this, [said].\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a crisis of antisemitism,\u201d Mamdani said later in the interview, mentioning conversations he\u2019s had with Jewish New Yorkers. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why at the heart of my proposal for the Department of Community Safety is a commitment to increase funding for anti-hate crime programming by 800%. To your point, antisemitism is not simply something we should talk about. It\u2019s something that we have to tackle. We have to make clear there\u2019s no room for it in this city, in this country, in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tColbert responded by asking, \u201cAnd no justification for violence of any kind?\u201d Mamdani said no.<\/p>\n

\n\tSee Mamdani and Lander\u2019s full appearance on \u201cThe Late Show\u201d below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A profile of Zohran Mamdani in the New Yorker alleges that the New York City mayoral candidate was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,3668,18745,6713,348,5148],"class_list":{"0":"post-203643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-stephen-colbert","12":"tag-the-late-show","13":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}