Fox News on Monday continued its crusade against New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, promoting the bizarre Republican idea to have the Democrat deported.
At a White House press briefing, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked if President Donald Trump would be interested in deporting Mamdani. Instead of dismissing the premise of the question, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she hadn’t heard Trump call for that measure but that he “does not want this individual to be elected.”
Doocy explained Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles’ recently expressed the view that Mamdani should be deported over rap lyrics he wrote when pursuing a rap career nearly a decade ago.
Ogles wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking her to launch an investigation of Mamdani for the lyric “Free the Holy Land Five / My guys,” a reference to leaders of a Muslim charity who were convicted of funneling funds to Hamas.
Ogles’ letter makes the claim that the rap lyric demonstrates Mamdani’s supposed support for terrorism, which was not disclosed when Mamdani became a naturalized citizen in 2018. (He was born in Uganda.)
The rhetoric from Ogles is part of the fearmongering, demonization, and racism that the right has indulged in against Mamdani, particularly since he became the presumptive winner of the New York Democratic primary for mayor.
Fox News and the New York Post—both owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch—have been at the forefront of these racist efforts against Mamdani. Fox and the Post were unable to dissuade New York voters from backing Mamdani, and since his surprisingly strong performance, they have continued to go after him.
Trump has expressed his anger at Mamdani’s success and referred to him last week as a “100% Communist Lunatic,” a moniker that provoked laughter and derision from the Democrat. Over the weekend, Trump kept up the attacks, whining to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Mamdani is a “communist” and that his win is “very bad for New York.”
Trump went on to threaten New York City, telling the network, “Whoever’s mayor of New York is going to have to behave themselves, or the federal government is coming down very tough on them financially.”
Based on Mamdani’s current standing in the city, it seems unlikely he’s going to “behave” in a way that makes Trump or his allies at Fox happy any time soon.