By Anthony Izaguirre
Associated Press
NEW YORK — New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani publicly apologized on Fox News for language he has used in the past to criticize the New York Police Department, saying Wednesday that he is “looking to work with these officers” if he is elected.
The state Assemblymember and self-described democratic socialist has been dogged on the campaign trail by comments he made in 2020 in which he called to “Defund this rogue agency” when referencing the city’s police department. His stance came during the national uproar over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. He described the NYPD as “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.”
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Since then, Mamdani has distanced himself from those positions, arguing that they do not represent his current agenda. He’s now pledging to maintain the police department’s staffing levels, while creating a “Department of Community Safety” that would deploy mental health care teams to handle certain calls.
Asked about his previous comments, Mamdani, 33, has said he has worked to make amends with officers in private, though his comments Wednesday on Fox’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum” represented his most public attempt to repair his relationship with the department.
Mamdani told MacCallum that he had apologized privately to a group of officers “for the language that I used.” She then asked if he would also apologize publicly.
“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. And 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.”
He went on to explain his prior comments: “In 2020, the year all of these tweets are referring to, it was the year George Floyd was killed and it felt like safety and justice had never been further apart.”
Pressed repeatedly during the interview about his past criticisms of Israel, Mamdani said he was primarily focused on issues that matter to New Yorkers, but maintained his pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he steps foot in the city.
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AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this story
