{"id":41764,"date":"2025-11-17T01:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41764\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T01:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T01:03:10","slug":"exclusive-bigwig-on-zohran-mamdanis-transition-team-railed-against-jews-questioned-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/41764\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | Bigwig on Zohran Mamdani’s transition team railed against Jews, questioned gay rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bigwig on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transition <\/a>team spewed hatred against Jews and Israel and questioned gay rights in a series of hateful social media posts from a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Hassaan Chaudhary, who identifies himself as newly appointed political director for Mamdani\u2019s transition and inaugural committee on LinkedIn, used the word \u201cJew\u201d as a slur, and even praised former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who infamously said Israel is \u201ca cancer which will be eliminated soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaudhary, who was the director of Muslim engagement for the Mamdani campaign, also described Israel as a \u201cbloody country\u201d and a \u201cbarbaric nation\u201d in the posts \u2014 some of which date back to when he was 18 years old.<\/p>\n

Hassaan Chaudhary, who claims to be a political director for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transition team, railed against Jews and Israel in social media posts from a decade ago. Hassaan Chaudhary\/X<\/p>\n

A representative for Mamdani\u2019s transition team condemned Chaudhary\u2019s remarks, and said he is a Muslim outreach director for the mayor-elect, not the political director for the transition team. Michael Brochstein\/ZUMA Press Wire \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

More recently, Chaudhary <\/a>reshared a post on X in December 2024 aimed at pro-Israel Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is Jewish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Luigi [Mangione] had shot a Gazan toddler instead, Josh Shapiro would have given him a medal,\u201d the original post said.<\/p>\n

Responding to Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi on February 9, 2012, Chaudhary said, \u201cHitler..why dont you face our Pakistani people? Your daughter works at WSJ [the Wall Street Journal].\u201d<\/p>\n

He then invokes an urdu phrase, saying, \u201coh forgot that Jew hoga tera baap\u201d \u2014 which loosely means \u201cJew will be your father.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another post, a thrilled Chaudhury also lauded Ahmadinejad and called him \u201cfearless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaudhary shared a post on X taking aim at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Hassaan Chaudhary\/X<\/p>\n

\u201cThis banda [person] is fearless RT \u201c@murtazasolangi President Ahmedinejad has declared Israel as cancer which will be eliminated very soon,\u201d Chaudhury wrote in an X post to Pakistani official Murtaza Solangi.<\/p>\n

He spewed venom toward Israel in other posts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a barbaric nation who\u2019s killing indigents and innocent Palestinians called ISRAEL. TALK about it. #stupid media,\u201d Chaudhury said in a November 2012 post to a Pakistani journalist.<\/p>\n

In another post, he called Israel a \u201cbloody country\u201d for claiming a pro-Palestian resolution was undermining peace instead of promoting it.<\/p>\n

In one November 2012 tweet, he questioned gay rights.<\/p>\n

\u201c@SaifsDen I too read a piece on Gay rights. To be honest, it is purely claptrap. Doesn\u2019t make sense. Boundary line should be drawn somewhere,\u201d Chaudhury, now 31, said.<\/p>\n

Chaudhary apologized for the comments in a statement to The Post on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize for my tweets, as they do not reflect my current views, or represent who I am today,\u201d he said. \u201cThose comments from over a decade ago are not in line with how I see the world, and I look back at that rhetoric and mindset with deep regret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish activists said Chaudhary\u2019s statements reek of antisemitism and that he doesn\u2019t belong in a Mamdani administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Adolf Hitler language. It\u2019s antisemitic. It\u2019s a horror show,\u201d said Dov Hikind, a former Brooklyn assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism.<\/p>\n

He blamed Mamdani \u2014 who supports the controversial boycott, divestment and sanctions movement<\/a> against Israel \u2014 for setting the example.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe fish stinks from the head. Mamdani sets the tone. It\u2019s a hate-filled administration,\u201d Hikind said.<\/p>\n

Veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf railed that \u201cwords matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis advisor to the mayor is clearly by his own words a Jew hater,\u201d said Sheinkopf, who is Jewish and a rabbi. \u201cThe only issue: it always begins with the Jews but never ends with the Jews. Who\u2019s next on the list?\u201d<\/p>\n

A representative for Mamdani\u2019s transition team condemned Chaudhary\u2019s remarks, and said he is a Muslim outreach director for the mayor-elect, not the political director for the transition team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese comments from over a decade ago are reprehensible and in no way reflect the views of the Mayor-elect or this transition. The mayor elect has made this clear internally and consistently during the campaign and transition,\u201d said Mamdani transition spokesperson Dora Pekec.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson did not indicate that Chaudhury would be fired for the old, venomous remarks. <\/p>\n

Chaudhury previously worked as a senior community organizer for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and a digital organizer for the Working Families Party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bigwig on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s transition team spewed hatred against Jews and Israel and questioned gay rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3862,24003,57,9,11,10,563,87,58,82],"class_list":["post-41764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-antisemitism","tag-homophobia","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","tag-politics","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}