New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's response to the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas terror attack was noticeably muted — and even HBO's Bill Maher noticed.
During his opening monologue on Friday's broadcast of "Real Time," Maher said Mamdani is "not all that sympathetic" to the anniversary of the October 7 attack, according to Breitbart. The comedian and host pointed to Mamdani's past statement on the massacre, in which the mayor suggested "Israel made them do it" — a framing that places blame on the Jewish state rather than on Hamas terrorists who murdered 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages.
Maher's monologue marks a rare moment of a mainstream-media figure directly confronting Mamdani's record on Israel. The mayor, who took office as the city's chief executive, has faced growing scrutiny over his rhetoric surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
Broadcast Networks Gave Mamdani a Pass
Fox News reported that the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks drew solemn coverage across the networks — but Mamdani's own extreme remarks on the massacre went largely unmentioned. Instead, Fox News noted, the networks gave Mamdani airtime to discuss his rage over ICE enforcement, while his October 7 comments were left on the cutting-room floor.
Fox News also took aim at the broader media treatment of the anniversary, calling out "CBS Mornings" anchor Gayle King for what the outlet described as moral equivalence. King framed the anniversary by highlighting Hamas's death toll figures — sourced from Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas — without noting that the terror group routinely embeds its fighters and weapons among civilians.
"The impression that leaves is that Israel is 60 times worse than Hamas," Fox News wrote. "The first problem here is using a terrorist group for your statistics."
ABC's "Good Morning America" devoted just 75 seconds to the anniversary, Fox News noted, much of it focused on allegations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warned in advance of the attack — a claim Fox News compared to partisan attacks on President George W. Bush after 9/11.
It is not yet known whether Mamdani has issued a formal statement marking the October 7 anniversary, nor whether his office responded to Maher's monologue. Requests for comment from the mayor's office were not immediately reported.
Who Is Zohran Mamdani?
Mamdani serves as Mayor of New York City. His past remarks on the October 7 attack — that "Israel made them do it" — have drawn criticism from pro-Israel advocates who argue the framing absolves Hamas of responsibility for its own atrocities.
The October 7, 2023 attack saw Hamas terrorists breach Israel's border, killing approximately 1,200 people — including dozens of Americans — and taking roughly 250 hostages into Gaza. It remains the deadliest single-day attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.
Our Take
Here's the thing about Zohran Mamdani: he's not subtle, and he's not sorry. The mayor of America's largest city looked at the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and decided the real story was what Israel did to provoke it. That's not a foreign-policy position. That's a moral surrender.
And the legacy media knows it. That's why they'll hand Mamdani a microphone to vent about ICE — a story that fits their anti-Trump template — while burying his words on Hamas's slaughter. Gayle King can cite Hamas's own casualty figures on-air, but Mamdani's "Israel made them do it" line gets memory-holed. That's not journalism. That's protection.
The fact that Bill Maher — no conservative, no friend of Trump — is the one calling this out tells you everything about how far the media has fallen. When a Hollywood comedian has more clarity on October 7 than the anchors of CBS and ABC, the credibility crisis isn't a right-wing talking point. It's the record.
Patriots, this is what happens when a city elects a mayor more comfortable lecturing Israel than confronting Hamas. New Yorkers deserve to know: does their mayor believe Israel had it coming? He's never clearly said otherwise. Until he does — plainly, without caveats, without blaming the victims — the question answers itself.
And the media that gave him the platform owe the American people an answer too: why was Mamdani's ICE rage worth airtime, but his October 7 remarks weren't?
