Criticism grows over Zohran Mamdani's ethnicity
He confirmed writing 'Ugandan' in a space that allowed for additional background, adding, 'I wanted my college application to reflect who I was.' The Ivy League institution ended up rejecting Mamdani even though his father - Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani - has worked there since 1999. But several on social media - and the hosts of Fox & Friends - accused Mamdani of filling out the form as he did to gain an upper hand in the admissions process.
At the time, Columbia considered race in its admissions process, a system designed to boost the chances of underrepresented minorities. 'Mamdani just baldly lying on every one of his college applications that he was "racially Black" in order to exploit an utterly corrupt & unjust system for his own selfish advancement,' wrote UNC School for Civic Life & Leadership Associate Dean David Decosimo on X. '[M]ay be the most authentically communist thing he has ever done.'
Prominent progressive Chris Cillizza got it on the action as well, re-sharing a portion of the report that discussed the discrepancies between Mamdani's current Muslim immigrant identity and the labels unveiled in the leak. 'Oops!' the former legacy journalist wrote, as another called Mamdani's application 'The latest in a long list of frauds from the Democrat Party.' Over on the Fox & Friends sofa, the outrage was similarly swift, with Fourth of July fill-in hosts Charlie Hurt, Griff Jenkins, and Katie Pavlich airing suspicions about Mamdani's motivations as well.
'Democrats' new nominee to be the mayor of New York City, Mr. Mamdani, clearly despises America and everything that we stand for,' said Hurt to start the segment, calling Mamdani a 'full-blown communist.' 'Also a racist, by the way,' he added. 'It turns out that he had-, when he applied for Columbia University, he described himself as being Black and African-American because his parents happened to be in Uganda when he was born.' Pavlich compared the case to the controversy the one that's plagued Elizabeth Warren, while joking about Mamdani still not being accepted after the fact.
'He said his answers on the college application were an attempt to represent his complex background given the limited choices before him, and not to gain an upper hand in the admissions process,' she said. 'Maybe he should call Elizabeth Warren and see how this worked out for her, but she did use it to get ahead. So, you know, maybe there's a difference there.' Others compared it to the controversy surrounding Warren's Native American heritage as well, years after it resurfaced when Donald Trump referred to the Democratic senator as 'Pocahontas' during a 2017 ceremony at the White House.
Warren's ancestry came into question in 2012, when she was a candidate trying to unseat then-Sen. Scott Brown. At the time, the former Harvard professor claimed to be part Cherokee and Delaware Indian - without a shred of evidence. Brown - and many others - subsequently accused her of claiming to be a descendant of American Indians to advance her career in academia. Warren denied it. 'Let me be clear. I never asked for, never got any benefit because of my heritage,' Warren said in a 2012 TV rebuttal ad at the time.
When pressed by the Times, he said that aside from those forms, he could not recall another time where he identified as black or African-American. He also said he doesn't identify as either race he checked, and that he sees himself as 'an American who was born in Africa.' The information comes from a leaked database of past Columbia applications laid uncovered in a recent hack.
It also comes as Mamdani is set to face off with incumbent Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Silwa, and reportedly Andrew Cuomo - this time as an independent - in November, following a whirlwind campaign that saw him upset the latter last month. His promises to freeze rents, streamline transportation, and strengthen the city's social services has been panned by some as realistic.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
27 minutes ago
- Sky News
'It's a war': Meet the volunteers leading the fight against Trump's immigration raids
It's 5.30am, but the car park outside a laundrette in south central Los Angeles is already bustling. A woman is setting up a stand selling tacos on the pavement and the sun is beginning to rise behind the palm trees. A group of seven women and two men are gathered in a circle, most wearing khaki green T-shirts. The leader, a man named Francisco "Chavo" Romero, begins by asking how everyone is feeling. "Angry," a few of them respond. "Proud of the community for pushing back," says another. Ron, a high school history teacher, issues a rallying cry. "This is like Vietnam," he says. "We're taking losses, but in the end we're going to win. It's a war." This is what the resistance against Donald Trump's immigration policy looks like here. In the past month, immigration and customs enforcement agents - known as ICE - have intensified their raids on homes and workplaces across Los Angeles. Since the beginning of June, nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the city, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The previous monthly high was just over 850 arrests in May this year. Videos have circulated online of people being tackled to the ground in the car park of DIY shops, in car washes and outside homes. The videos have prompted outrage, protests and a fightback. "Chavo" and Ron belong to a group of organised volunteers called Union del Barrio. Every morning, a group of them meet, mostly in areas which have high immigrant populations. The day I meet them, they're in an area of LA which is heavily Latino. Armed with walkie talkies to communicate with each other, megaphones to warn the community and leaflets to raise awareness they set out in cars in different directions. They're looking for cars used by ICE agents to monitor "targets". "That vehicle looks a little suspicious," says Ron, pointing out a white SUV with blacked-out windows, "but there's nobody in it". An elderly Latino man is standing on a street corner, cutting fruit to sell at his stall. "He's the exact target that they're looking for," Ron says. "That's what they're doing now. The low-hanging fruit, the easy victim. And so that is proving to be more successful for their quotas." In the end, it turns out to be a quiet morning in this part of LA, no brewing immigration operations. But elsewhere in the city, dawn raids are happening. ICE agents are under pressure from the White House to boost their deportation numbers in line with Donald Trump's campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration. 2:18 Maria's husband Javier was one of those arrested in LA. He came to the United States from Mexico when he was 19 and is now 58. The couple have three grown-up children and two grandchildren. But Javier's work permit expired two years ago, according to Maria and so he was living here illegally. She shows me a video taken last month when Javier was at work at a car wash in Pomona, an area of LA. He is being handcuffed and arrested by armed and masked ICE agents, forced into a car. He is now being held at a detention centre two hours away. "I know they're doing their job," she says, "but it's like, 'you don't have to do it like that.' Getting them and, you know, forcing people and pushing them down on the ground. They're not animals." 0:58 Maria wipes away tears as she explains the impact of his absence for the past four weeks. "It's been so hard without him," she says. "You feel alone when you get used to somebody and he's not there any more. We've never been apart for as long as this." The family have a lawyer who is appealing for him to remain in the US, but Maria fears Javier will be sent back to Mexico or even a third country. "I don't know what to say to my grandkids because the oldest one, who is five was very attached to his papas, as he calls him. And he's asking me, 'When is papa coming home?' and I don't know what to say. He's not a criminal." The fear in immigrant communities can be measured by the empty restaurant booths and streets that are far quieter than usual. I meet Soledad at the Mexican restaurant she owns in Hollywood. When I arrive, she's watching the local news on the TV as yet another raid unfolds at a nearby farm. She's shaking her head as ICE agents face off with protesters and military helicopters hover overhead. "I am scared. I am very scared," she says. All of her eight employees are undocumented, and four of them are too scared to come into work, she says, in case they get arrested. The process to get papers, she says, is too long and too expensive. "They call me and tell me they are too afraid to come in because immigration is around," she says. "I have to work double shifts to be able to make up for their hours, and yes, I am very desperate, and sometimes I cry... We have no sales, and no money to pay their wages." There is just one woman eating fajitas at a booth, where there would usually be a lunchtime rush. People are chilled by the raids. Soledad says she plans to hide her illegal workers if immigration officials arrive. "I've told them, get inside the fridge, hide behind the stove, climb up where we have a space to store boxes, do not run because they will hunt you down." The White House says they're protecting the country from criminals. ICE agents have been shot at while carrying out operations, their work becoming more dangerous by the day. The tension here is ratcheting up. Deportation numbers are rising too. But the order from Donald Trump is to arrest even more people living here illegally.
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Who is Dan Bongino? FBI deputy at center of Maga fallout over Epstein files
The future of the deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino, is unclear after he stormed out of a meeting with Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and told friends he was considering quitting over the controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Bongino, a former New York police officer and Secret Service agent who helped protect George W Bush and Barack Obama, appears on course to be the Trump administration's first casualty of the Epstein fallout, which is threatening to split the 'Make America great again' (Maga) movement Having failed to appear for work on Friday and reportedly considering his future, it was unclear whether the former rightwing podcaster was at his desk in the bureau's Washington DC headquarters on Monday. CNN reported that JD Vance had spent the weekend mediating an increasingly bitter feud involving Bondi, Bongino, Kash Patel, the FBI director – and many others. It is not the first time Bongino has appeared unhappy in his work. In May he cried during a live appearance on Fox & Friends, lamenting that he 'gave up everything' to take the FBI role. There is currently no word on whether Bongino would follow through on his threat to resign, although insiders suggested his position had become untenable given that Donald Trump had publicly thrown his support behind Bondi and made clear his displeasure over the public squabbling among his supporters over Epstein. The disgraced financier was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 after being arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking minors. It is the lingering aftermath of this case that has put Bongino – by many measurements, an unlikely and controversial choice to be FBI deputy director – in the spotlight. As a rightwing podcaster and media personality, Bongino was in the vanguard of pushing conspiracy theories about Epstein, suggesting that he had been murdered, rather than having taken his own life, and that he had a list of powerful clients who feared being unmasked as pedophiles. Bondi, too, fueled the widespread Maga belief in the existence of a high profile client list when she told Fox News that it was 'sitting on my desk right now'. But both were accused of having oversold the story when a Department of Justice (DoJ) memo was published this month concluding that Epstein had indeed committed suicide and the storied client list did not, in fact, exist. It was against this backdrop that the pair clashed last Wednesday, leaving Bongino 'out of control furious' in a meeting also attended by Patel, Susie Wiles, the powerful White House chief of staff, and deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich. Far before the fallout, critics warned that Bongino was unqualified for the post. His appointment marked the the first time in the FBI's 117-year history that the second-in-command position had not been held by one of the bureau's former agents. It was also seen as reinforcing fears already ignited by the prior appointment of Patel – that Trump intended to use the bureau as an instrument of revenge against his enemies. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Donald Trump just named far-right MAGA podcaster Dan Bongino, a notorious conspiracy theorist who promoted the lie that the 2020 election was 'stolen,' to serve as Deputy Director of the FBI. God help us all,' the Republicans Against Trump group posted on X at the time of his nomination in February.. Bongino, a former Fox News host who has written books about the supposed existence of the anti-Trump 'deep state', famously said in 2018 that 'my entire life right now is about owning the libs'. Despite siding with Bondi, Trump told reporters over the weekend that Bongino was 'a very good guy … He sounded terrific, actually … I think he's in good shape.' Bongino has one powerful advocate in Laura Loomer, the far-right social media influencer who is often credited with having Trump's ear and who broke the news of his unhappiness last week. 'I'm told Kash and Bongino are furious with Blondi and the blowback she has caused them with her lack of transparency,' she posted. 'Kash Patel and Dan Bongino should call for Blondi's public resignation today to save themselves and to also push for full transparency into the Epstein files. Someone needs to be fired for this. Giving Blondi courtesy to resign is more than she deserves.'
BBC News
38 minutes ago
- BBC News
I'm disappointed but not done with Putin, Trump tells BBC
Donald Trump has said that he is disappointed but not done with Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive phone call with the US president was pressed on whether he trusts the Russian leader, and replied: "I trust almost no-one." Trump was speaking hours after he announced plans to send weapons to Ukraine and warned of severe tariffs on Russia if there was no ceasefire deal in 50 days. In a wide-ranging interview from the Oval Office, the president also endorsed Nato, having once described it as obsolete, and affirmed his support for the organisation's common defence principle. The president made the phone call, which lasted 20 minutes, to the BBC after conversations about a potential interview to mark one year on since the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Asked about whether surviving the assassination attempt had changed him, Trump said he liked to think about it as little as possible. "I don't like to think about if it did change me," Trump said. Dwelling on it, he added, "could be life-changing". Having just met with Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, however, the president spent a significant portion of the interview expanding on his disappointment with the Russian leader. Trump said that he had thought a deal was on the cards with Russia four different times. When asked by the BBC if he was done with Putin, the president replied: "I'm disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him. But I'm disappointed in him." Pressed on how Trump would get Putin to "stop the bloodshed" the US president said: "We're working it, Gary.""We'll have a great conversation. I'll say: 'That's good, I'll think we're close to getting it done,' and then he'll knock down a building in Kyiv." The conversation moved onto Nato, which Trump has previously criticised as "obsolete". Asked if he still thought this was the case, he said: "No. I think Nato is now becoming the opposite of that" because the alliance was "paying their own bills". He said he still believed in collective defence, because it meant smaller countries could defend themselves against larger ones. President Trump was also asked about the UK's future in the world and said he thought it was a "great place - you know I own property there".He spoke about how he was looking forward to an unprecedented second state visit to the UK in September this year. On what he wanted to achieve during the visit, Trump said: "Have a good time and respect King Charles, because he's a great gentleman."
