Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner said she “100 percent” questioned Jewish politicians’ “commitment to Judaism” if they endorsed progressive New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, all while her co-host Emily Compagno falsely accused Mamdani of not condemning the Holocaust or speaking out on antisemitism.
Meanwhile, the remarks from Faulkner – who herself is not Jewish, though her husband is – sparked pushback from liberal Fox News pundit Marie Harf, prompting the daytime anchor to double down on policing the religious devotion of Jewish Democrats.
“The same way I would question Chuck Schumer, who works against the interests of his own people at times for the politics,” she exclaimed, adding: “And that’s what they’re doing here.”
Since his upset victory in the Democratic primary last week, Mamdani – a 33-year-old democratic socialist who energized young voters with his campaign focused on affordability – has been the target of Islamophobic attacks from conservatives due to his Muslim faith.
President Donald Trump has suggested that he would defund New York City if Mamdani is elected, all while claiming “New York City has fallen” and falsely labeling him a “communist.”
At the same time, Mamdani’s been relentlessly criticized over his positions on Israel amid the brutal war in Gaza, which has seen centrist Democrats and the mainstream news focus on his support for the BDS movement and his stance on the pro-Palestine slogan “globalize the intifada,” which has been used to describe Palestinian uprising against Israel.
This resulted in NBC News anchor Kristen Welker pushing Mamdani to denounce the phrase multiple times on Sunday’s broadcast of Meet the Press, leading him to explain why he was declining to do so.
“That’s not language that I use,” he said. “The language that I use and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights.”
Adding that he’s “heard those fears” from Jewish New Yorkers who feel the phrase is a call to violence against Jews, Mamdani stated that he doesn’t “believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech in the manner” before noting that he’ll need to “not only talk about something but to tackle it and to make clear that there's no room for antisemitism in this city.”
During Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News midday roundtable show Outnumbered, the largely conservative panel took turns blasting the mayoral hopeful for “refusing to condemn” the phrase while outright painting him as a hateful antisemite.
Harf, the lone liberal voice on the couch, pointed out that a number of prominent Jewish Democrats have come out in support of Mamdani’s campaign after he defeated scandal-plagued former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and is now slated to face unpopular incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent.
“He has repeatedly said that he abhors antisemitism. Increasing anti-hate crime funding by 800 percent – that’s real. That will help in New York,” she noted. “And don’t take my word for it. Prominent Jewish New Yorkers – Jerry Nadler, Brad Lander – they have said they have endorsed him.”
Cutting Harf off, Faulkner insisted that Nadler and Lander were merely taking a pro-party position because Mamdani was now the Democratic candidate, leading to an eye-opening exchange between the two.
“Are you questioning Jerry Nadler and Brad Lander’s commitment to Judaism?” Harf wondered aloud.
“100 percent! Yes,” Faulkner boldly declared.
“Wow. I wouldn’t question anyone’s commitment to their faith,” Harf retorted, causing the Fox News star to seemingly invoke Trump’s repeated swipes at Schumer, the Jewish Senate minority leader who has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades but has expressed criticism for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“The same way I would question Chuck Schumer, who works against the interests of his own people at times for the politics,” Faulkner huffed, adding: “And that’s what they’re doing here.”
While Harf continued to explain that Mamdani has gained a significant portion of New York’s Jewish voting base, prompting Faulkner to say she’s “not discounting their feelings,” Compagno leveled sweeping allegations against the New York assemblyman.
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“I will be candid, I find this person frightening,” she asserted. “I find him blatantly antisemitic. I find it horrifying that he won’t condemn the Holocaust, that he won’t condemn that language, that he’s fine with hyperbolic language when he said the president puts people in jail for writing op-eds but all of a sudden becomes a ballet dancer with words when it has to do with globalize the intifada.”
Despite Compagno essentially accusing Mamdani of Holocaust denial, which appears to be based on the candidate not co-sponsoring a New York state assembly resolution condemning the Holocaust, he has repeatedly and publicly commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day and has supported additional funding for Holocaust survivors.
“I have condemned the Holocaust every year,” Mamdani said at a press conference last month. “This is something that is very clear to me and every New Yorker, and is something that I’ve made clear mostly in public statements, which is where most New Yorkers are actually engaging with their politics.”
Compagno would also brush off Mamdani’s commitment to increase funding to fight hate crimes, insisting that the additional spending wouldn’t be needed if he “tamped down on the rhetoric” and would “come out and say directly ‘I abhor antisemitism.’”
When Harf noted he’d actually done that multiple times, the Fox News host shot back: “No, he didn’t!”
The Independent has reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment.
