New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani revealed in an interview this week that CBS producers at Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” asked him to participate in a this-or-that “game” centered on his thoughts about the Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“I just couldn’t believe what was happening,” Mamdani shared with the New Yorker in a profile published on Thursday. “That a genocide could be distilled into a late night game.”
The incident, according to Mamdani, happened in the “Late Show” green room on June 23, just before he was due to go onstage. It marked a change in expectation. Just a few days before, producers held a prep call with Mamdani and ran through sample questions covering “political topics, such as the meaning of democratic socialism,” according to The New Yorker.
But on the day of the taping, several Jewish figures, including Elisha Wiesel, son of writer Elie Wiesel, sent a letter to Colbert insisting that Mamdani be questioned about his views on the Gaza conflict. The New Yorker reports that one of the producers pitched a “thumbs-up or thumbs-down” segment.
“Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state,” individuals who were in the room told the magazine.
Mamdani’s senior adviser Zara Rahim interjected at the producers’ request, asking, “You have the first Muslim candidate for mayor in the history of New York. You don’t want to ask him a question about that?”
The interview went along as planned, and the suggestion to gamify a discussion about Gaza was nixed. During his sit-down, Mamdani, who was joined by fellow mayoral candidate Brad Lander, addressed whether the state of Israel has the right to exist.
“Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist and a responsibility, also, to uphold international law,” Mamdani answered.
On Tuesday, the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel that led to the war in Gaza, Mamdani again called for peace.
“This must end. The occupation and apartheid must end. Peace must be pursued through diplomacy, not war crimes, and our government must act to end these atrocities and hold those responsible to account,” he said.
Watch the mayoral candidate’s “Late Show” interview with Colbert below:
