Trouble for Zohran Mamdani?

If I didn’t know better, I’d think self-proclaimed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani doesn’t actually want to win his race for New York City mayor. It’s certainly an unconventional campaign strategy, posing for a picture with a co-conspirator of a deadly terrorist attack against the very city in which he hopes to be mayor.

Nevertheless, Mamdani posed for a picture with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the “unindicted conspirators” behind the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. And he then posted the photo on social media, calling the meeting a “pleasure” and alleged terrorist a “pillar of the . . . community.”

I live in Nashville, so it’s not my city, not my race. But it’s as if Mamdani can’t give New Yorkers enough reasons NOT to vote for him. And yet he’s the leading candidate.

As the New York Post reported:

The Democratic frontrunner to become the city’s next mayor was seen laughing and grinning while standing arm-in-arm with Siraj Wahhaj at the imam’s Bedford-Stuyvesant mosque in a photo the socialist posted to X a day after the first mayoral debate. . . .

Wahhaj, 75, who also heads the Muslim Alliance in North America, was fingered by prosecutors as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the 1993 WTC bombing, which left six people dead, and has publicly defended the plotters of the attack against the FBI and CIA, whom he at the time dubbed the “real terrorists.”

Mamdani has been a controversial figure in the New York mayoral race from the beginning, but smiling for the camera with a man who may have helped kill six innocent Americans and hurt more than a thousand others takes it to another level.

And Mamdani is practically flaunting his affiliation with Wahhaj. He isn’t backing down. This wasn’t an old picture that resurfaced in some “gotcha” moment. Mamdani posted it himself. Even his opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, had harsh words for Mamdani: “When people tell you who they are, you should believe them — and Zohran, wipe that smile off your face.”

ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo joined us on the broadcast to share his reaction to Mamdani, an American political candidate, glad-handing a man with direct terrorist ties and involvement:

This is actually a really bad thing for the American political process and a terrible thing for the city of New York. It’s clear that Mamdani believes that he’s got this thing won – it’s in his pocket. He is willing to go to the fringiest of the fringe to make the case and lock in his space, which is where he thinks he’ll win this election.

I hope there’s enough people in New York City who see this and just say, I may agree with some of his economic stuff, but this is a bridge too far. And common sense prevails. He will be a disaster for the city, but to be rallying with someone who was an “unindicted co-conspirator” from the attacks on human lives there in New York City is beyond the pale.

I’m not surprised that he did it. We’ve seen him engage in this; I’ll call it antisemitic pandering. That’s the kind of thing I think I can say about it. So I guess I’m unsurprised. I hope the city of New York, when they do go vote, will not do what the polls are showing, but instead, common sense and wisdom will prevail.

My co-host, Sekulow Executive Producer Will Haynes, pointed out how in the beginning of his campaign, Mamdani seemed to be much more middle-of-the-road, pandering to the “Free Palestine,” pro-Palestine crowds but also managing to avoid the questions about some of the more incendiary, antisemitic rhetoric. Now he’s intentionally pulling up to this controversial, infamous fringe mosque in New York for a photo op with a man who quite possibly has innocent American – New Yorker – blood on his hands. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t somewhat alarming.

We asked Secretary Pompeo if it should be even more alarming that Mamdani feels completely comfortable releasing such a photo this close to the election:

Yeah, I think you’ve got it. Two things really, it seems to me. One, it seems he is enormously confident. He is unworried about any blowback. He’s unworried about even Democrats who are Jewish. He’s unworried about Democrats who actually care about the protection of human life. He has just decided, I’ve got this thing won, and I’m going to virtue signal to the people on the far Left to say, Trust me, I may have had to say a few things on this campaign that bothered you, but I am with you.

And then I think the second thing it says is this is what he really believes. This is actually who he is. In the final days of campaigns, you often see this, candidates will revert to the norm. They revert to actually who they are. Especially when a candidate believes that they’ve got an insurmountable lead and the clock has been run. And so I suspect that Mr. Mamdani was by actually, in being with that man, was conveying a message that is deeply consistent with who he is as a human being and how he’ll govern as mayor if he’s elected.

For now, I guess all we do is wait and see if there is any backlash to Mamdani’s campaign, and will he be able to overcome it? Or worse, in these strange times we live, will it boost him across the finish line?

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more discussion of Mamdani’s controversial photo op. We also gave you an update on a major pro-life initiative we’re conducting in Washington, D.C., to defend the rights of lifesaving pro-life pregnancy centers.

Watch the full broadcast below: