In March 2008, revelations surfaced of past anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric by Barack Obama’s longtime pastor and friend Rev. Jeremiah Wright, including Wright’s accusation that the U.S.’s own terrorism helped motivate al-Qaida’s 9/11 attack. Knowing his political credibility depended on it, Obama abruptly severed ties with Wright. Post-inauguration, Wright blamed “them Jews” for Obama’s continuing frostiness.
Seventeen years on, Zohran Mamdani, newly-elected Democratic contender for New York’s upcoming mayoralty race, appears to have (correctly) calculated that public allyship with an imam who lionizes Hamas, reviles Jews and Christians, and encourages anti-American pedagogy would not be a political liability in America’s most Jewish city.
