There have been some disturbing reports coming out of Gracie Mansion, the stately home of New York City mayors since 1942 (with the exception of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who didn’t want to downsize). The current occupants are Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, both of whom have been making news for all the wrong reasons.
We begin with the First Lady, who was born in Texas to very wealthy Syrian Muslim parents and spent part of her childhood in the Middle East. After the wicked slaughter of Jews on October 7, 2023, Duwaji came across social media posts celebrating the massacre. One post called the mass rape a hoax that had been ‘fabricated,’ another accused Israel of a ‘vile land grab.’ The stylish, designer-clad Duwaji moved her manicured fingers and consciously hit ‘like’ to these and many other vile posts.
She was already in a relationship with also-wealthy Zohran Mamdani, a failed rapper and member of the New York Assembly. Asked about his wife’s hate-filled history last week, Mayor Mamdani brushed it off by saying she is a ‘private person’ and holds no official office. One might reasonably wonder what might have ensued had Mayor Giuliani’s wife had ‘liked’ social media posts applauding the Oklahoma City bombing.
The perpetually smiling Mr. Mayor has also raised some eyebrows with his own words and deeds. Last weekend, two teenage terrorists tossed homemade bombs during a protest near Gracie Mansion. The young men admired ISIS and expressed a wish to kill dozens, but the mayor found a way to note that the initial protest was ‘rooted in white supremacy.’ Mamdani frequently claims he is not an anti-Semite, but his actions hint otherwise. He has enthusiastically supported boycotts of Israel, which he accuses of ‘genocide,’ and is reluctant to denounce the loaded term ‘globalize the intifada.’
Mamdani let the mask slip a couple of years ago when he blamed the Israeli army for police brutality in New York City. ‘When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck,’ he proclaimed, ‘it’s been laced by the IDF.’ Just last weekend, there was another ‘oops, I did it again’ moment at Gracie Mansion. The Mayor and First Lady celebrated Ramadan with notorious Israel-hater Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University student whose arrest by ICE sparked violent protests. Mamdani heaped praise on Khalil, saying he had endured a year of ‘profound hardship.’
Long before he was elected mayor, Zohran Mamdani sent out the same boilerplate message every year on September 11th. He paid lip service to the 3,000 who died and the first responders, but focused on the wars and deaths that followed in Afghanistan and Iraq. He recently told a dubious story about an aunt who was supposedly afraid to wear a hijab on the subway in the days after the terror attacks, as if she were as much a victim as those who perished.
Which brings us to this: Six months from now, there will be a landmark celebration in New York City, the 25th anniversary of the horrors of 9/11, when Muslim terrorists destroyed the twin towers that soared over lower Manhattan. As mayor, Zohran Mamdani will play a major role in the ceremonies that Friday morning. Will he place blame squarely on Islamic extremism, where it belongs? Will his ultra-chic and ultra-radical wife, Rama Duwaji, be at his side? It remains a most solemn day for most New Yorkers and most Americans, who will be watching intently to see what New York City’s first Muslim mayor has to say. And, equally important, what he doesn’t say.
