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NYPD Investigating Racist Threats Against Zohran Mamdani [1]
['Nia Prater', 'Intelligencer Staff Writer', 'Who Covers New York Politics']
Date: 2025-06-20 10:28:43.692000-04:00
State assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a candidate for mayor of New York City, speaks to reporters after casting his ballot in early primary voting in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens on Thursday, June 19, 2025. Photo: Shuran Huang/The New York Times/Redux
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force has launched an investigation into a series of racist threats made against Zohran Mamdani just days before the end of the mayoral primary.
The New York Daily News reports that the department is looking into several voice-mails seemingly left by the same unknown man at Mamdani’s office. In one message, the man called him a “terrorist piece of s—” and said he should be wary of starting any cars, appearing to allude to a car bomb.
In another, the man appears to reference Israel’s targeted attacks against members of Hezbollah last year that made use of pagers secretly lined with explosives. “Nobody wants your terrorist ways here. And check your beeper, too, you terrorist f–k. Beep beep,” he said, according the New York Post. The NYPD said that it is investigating “threatening anti-Muslim statements” made by an unknown suspect and that no arrests have been made, per CBS News.
In a statement, the Mamdani campaign confirmed that his office was participating in the investigation and suggested that the threats stem from the frequently inflammatory comments made throughout the mayoral race. “While Zohran does not own a car, the violent and specific language of what appears to be a repeat caller is alarming and we are taking every precaution. While this is a sad reality, it is not surprising after millions of dollars have been spent on dehumanizing, Islamophobic rhetoric designed to stoke division and hate,” the statement read. Mamdani, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born in Uganda to Indian parents and is Muslim.
Mamdani’s team appeared to allude to recent actions taken by Fix the City, a super-PAC supporting Andrew Cuomo. The PAC released a multimillion-dollar-backed negative ad that painted Mamdani as a radical who would defund the police, showing pictures of the typically suit-and-tie-wearing lawmaker in a kurta. The campaign also denounced a proposed mailer design from the same PAC that Mamdani accused of being altered to make his beard appear darker and thicker. A spokesperson for Fix the City said the design was put forward by a vendor and was “immediately rejected.”
During an unrelated press conference on Wednesday, Mamdani grew emotional while speaking about the hateful messages he’s received.
“I get messages that say, ‘The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.’ I get threats on my life, on the people that I love. And I try not to talk about it because the function of racism, as Toni Morrison said, is distraction. My focus has always been on making this a city that’s affordable, on making this a city that every New Yorker sees themselves in.”
Many of Mamdani’s fellow Democratic candidates condemned the threats against him. On Friday, Comptroller Brad Lander, who recently engaged in a cross-endorsement with Mamdani, said Cuomo should push for the PAC to take down its anti-Mamdani ads.
“Andrew Cuomo has no decency, and has shown he is willing to risk others’ safety if it means he gets closer to power,” Lander said in a statement. “Cuomo should immediately urge his Super PAC to take down these hateful ads. These threats on Assemblyman Mamdani’s life are the disgusting result of the false, hateful ads and mailers sent on behalf of Andrew Cuomo’s ruthless quest for power.”
In his own statement, Cuomo called the voice-mails an “atrocious threat of political violence.”
“It is unacceptable — I strongly condemn these threats and any others like them. This has no place in our politics or our society,” he said.
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