Ayman Mohyeldin: ‘No Evidence’ Zohran Mamdani Ever Espoused Anything That Is Remotely Anti-Semitic

TRANSCRIPT:

MOHYELDIN: “The question that I have, I think to Antonia’s point, is the double standard that’s applied. You get a young politician of color, certainly of the Muslim faith, talks about his experience, and the reaction is he’s put through a purity test. He has to run through a purity test to convince everybody that he meets their standard of safety, when, in reality, there is no evidence whatsoever that he ever has espoused anything that is remotely anti-Semitic or even in any way, shape or form should be considered dangerous. And so we’ve kind of singularly focused on this issue. And I think about this point in the debate when they asked people, ‘Hey, where are you going to go visit as soon as you come out of this mayoral race?’ And everybody, without missing a beat, said, Israel, Israel, Israel.’ He said, ‘I’m here to fight for New Yorkers. I’m going to visit New Yorkers.’ I mean, put aside whether it should be Israel, whether it should be Dominican Republic, whether it should be Haiti, whether it should be any of the dozens of countries that have large populations. But the singular focus on trying to make and define the candidacy of this, you know, young politician who happens to be Muslim through the lens of a singular issue, I think is very disturbing for what it means for our national politics and how politicians all have to act and behave a certain way and expect to give certain answers to certain questions.”