As Legal Insurrection reported at the time, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was none too pleased to learn that just days into his administration, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was forcibly removed from power by the U.S. military.
In part because Maduro was a socialist comrade and in part because displays of United States power and dominance make him very uncomfortable, an outraged Mamdani issued a statement condemning the move. He made a rather odd claim in the process, stating he “was briefed” on the matter that morning:
I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City.
Mamdani’s remarks left many perplexed. Why on earth would the Trump administration, especially members of the national security team, “brief” Mamdani on anything of this nature, let alone a top secret foreign operation – and especially one that involved taking a fellow socialist into custody?
It sounded like a lie told by someone with a highly inflated sense of self-importance, and as it turns out, that’s exactly what it was, as Mamdani was forced to admit during a presser when asked about it a few days later:
“You don’t have federal security clearance yet, and has anyone from a federal agency reached out to you or members of your team to begin the vetting to get federal security clearance?” a reporter asked.”That briefing, yes, was conducted by my team,” Mamdani responded. “And the question of federal security clearance is one that’s [ongoing].”
The problem with Mamdani’s revised statement is that, because he is, in effect, a terrorist sympathizer with clear loyalties to the Hamas regime, it’s extremely doubtful that he would ever be given “federal security clearance” by the Trump administration.
But even if there was any chance of it happening, it likely evaporated earlier this week when it was revealed that Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, had hit the “love” button on dozens of Instagram posts after the 10/7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including one that called the allegations of rape a “mass rape hoax”:
NYC’s first lady liked a February 2024 Instagram post by an anonymous pro-Palestine influencer questioning the validity of a New York Times report about sexually violent attacks by Hamas on civilians, according to a screenshot shared on X Saturday by reporter Olivia Reingold of The Free Press.“If I told you that The New York Times hired a recently graduated college student with only a couple prior articles written on the subject of food and cooking to be their lead on the ground ‘reporter’ on the ‘mass rape’ hoax they fabricated, would you believe it? That’s Adam Sella,” said @zei_squirrel in the hateful post.[…][Other posts] include one where the first lady liked a post claiming Israel is waging a “vile land grab” and another claiming pro-Palestine protesters who took over a Columbia University building in 2024 are “on the right side of progress.”[…]The new report comes after The Jewish Insider reported Friday that Duwaji liked a celebratory Instagram post on the day of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 innocents.The inflammatory social media posts included images allegedly taken from livestreamed footage of the attack, showing a gleeful group riding on what appeared to be a commandeered Israel Defense Forces vehicle with the words “resisting apartheid since 1948,” the Jewish Insider reported.
There was also this:
Mamdani was fed a softball question about reports of his wife’s social media behavior on Friday. Here’s how he responded:
During an unrelated news conference in the Bronx, the question posed to Mamdani was not about the first lady’s pro-Palestinian views, which she regularly expresses in her artwork and posts on her Instagram account. But rather it focused on whether it was anybody’s business and if it is fair to ask Mamdani about it.”My wife is the love of my life and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall. I however was elected to represent all eight and a half million people in the city and I believe that it’s my responsibility because of that role to answer any questions about my thoughts and my policies and my decisions,” Mamdani said during the unrelated press conference.
Watch:
Laughably, the New York Times went to bat for Mamdani on the issue first by framing it this way:
… and then by making the following observations, as if the fact that they got married after she hit the love button on those hateful posts makes him look any better:
They were not married when she liked the posts; the couple wed in early 2025, and he did not enter the Democratic primary for mayor until October 2024.
Furthermore, no one can forget that Mamdani’s views mirror those of his wife. Undoubtedly, it was an issue that bonded them. This was his statement a day after the 10/7 attacks, while he was a New York Assemblyman:
And this was Mamdani two weeks before the 10/7 attacks:
And of course, we cannot forget this:
As noted earlier, the likelihood of Mamdani getting a federal security clearance at this point is slim to none. In fact, some are calling on him to resign or for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who endorsed Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, to remove him:
Not gonna happen. But I suspect that the 49% of voters who went to the polls and chose someone other than Mamdani for mayor would be among the first to applaud if it did.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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