Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher gave New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani an earful over his “tone deaf” comments marking the third anniversary of the horrific October 7th massacre.
Maher used his monologue to rip into the self-described democratic socialist, who issued a statement that gave lip service to the suffering of Israeli civilians at the hands of Hamas terrorists from Gaza before blaming Israel directly for the broader conflict.
“Mayor Mamdani, not all that sympathetic to this stuff, but he did make some nice remarks about it,” Maher said during his Friday night HBO show. “But then he pivoted right to, ‘but Israel made them do it.'”
Maher jabbed at Mamdani’s attempts to make it as a rapper, adding, “You know, he used to be a rapper. His rap name was ‘Tone Deaf.'”
Mamdani actually performed under the stage names “Young Cardamom” and “Mr. Cardamom.”
Mamdani was broadly criticized for his comments on the October 7th massacre, in which he attributed the majority of the blame to Israel for the ongoing conflict in the region.
“This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss,” Mamdani wrote — and with that, he immediately pivoted to blame the Jewish state.
The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them—all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes.
Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment.
To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.
Mamdani also took heat from the antisemitic crowd when he appeared at an October 7th vigil in New York City. The event was disrupted by anti-Israel protesters who called the mayor a “traitor” and suggested that he could smooth things over by firing Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is Jewish.
.png)
.png)
