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Zohran Mamdani
The Democratic nominee for New York City mayor no longer wants to defund the police.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani publicly apologized to New York police for past comments calling the force “racist” and “anti-queer.”
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In a highly publicized interview with Fox News, the Democratic nominee made a broad apology for remarks about the New York Police Department that date back to 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum pressed him to make an apology on national television. “Police officers that I spoke to, they don’t want a behind-closed-doors apology,” MacCallum said.
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“Absolutely, I’ll apologize to police officers right here,” Mamdani said, “because this is the apology that I’ve been sharing with many rank-and-file officers. I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers. And I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day.”
In a direct appeal to prior supporters of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, a former political nemesis who has argued voters can seek social justice and public safety, Mamdani said a properly funded police force can protect and represent all New Yorkers.
“What I know, having represented 100,000 people in western Queens, is that to deliver that justice you have to also deliver that safety,” Mamdani said. “That means representing the men and women in the NYPD. It means representing the Black and brown New Yorkers who have been victims of police brutality. It means representing the Muslim New Yorkers in my district who were surveilled on the basis of their faith.”
In 2020, when Mamdani served in the New York Assembly, the progressive politician used the rhetoric of the time, calling to “defund the police.”
“We don't need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” he posted on Twitter, now X, in June 2020. “What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD… NO to fake cuts - defund the police.”
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