![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0ac3f5bc5b5021d5fd40b5ae5b5153d4cf-mamdani-colbert.rsquare.w330.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Mamdani and Colbert.
\n Photo: CBS via Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
Turns out there could\u2019ve been more discourse around Zohran Mamdani\u2019s<\/a> appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a>. Before the mayoral candidate went onstage for the June 24 episode, Late Show producers reportedly asked if he\u2019d like to do a \u201cthumbs-up, thumbs-down\u201d segment. Prompts included \u201cThumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas\u201d and \u201cThumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state,\u201d Mamdani and those who were in the room told The New Yorker<\/a>. Needless to say, it was a pass.<\/p>\n \u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe what was happening,\u201d Mamdani recalled. \u201cThat a genocide could be distilled into a late-night game.\u201d Mamdani adviser Zara Rahim reportedly told the Late Show team, \u201cYou have the first Muslim candidate for mayor in the history of New York. You don\u2019t want to ask him a question about that?\u201d That same day, Colbert received a letter from a group of \u201cprominent Jewish figures,\u201d including Elisha Wiesel, son of Night writer Elie Wiesel. According to The New Yorker, they all asked the show to \u201cgrill\u201d Mamdani about his views on Israel.<\/p>\n During Mamdani\u2019s appearance alongside former candidate Brad Lander, Colbert asked Mamdani if he believes Israel has a right to exist \u2014 a question that repeatedly frustrated Mamdani supporters throughout the campaign but allowed the candidate to express a more thoughtful answer than thumbs-up or -down. \u201cYes. Like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a responsibility, also, to uphold international law.\u201d<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mamdani and Colbert. Photo: CBS via Getty Images Turns out there could\u2019ve been more discourse around Zohran Mamdani\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[70339,18,117,19,17,8057,969,5,70338,790,4951,8055,128,47005],"class_list":{"0":"post-113984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-brad-lander","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-late-night","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-nyc-mayoral-race","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-stephen-colbert","19":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","20":"tag-tv","21":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}