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This story is part of Fox News Digital's investigative series “Campus Radicals.” Get the full episode here.
Controversy surrounding the father of a socialist New York City mayoral candidate from Columbia University Zoran Mamdani resurfaced on social media when a video of him claiming Adolf Hitler was inspired by President Abraham Lincoln went viral ahead of Tuesday's election.
“Zohran Mamdani's father: America is the root of all evil and was the inspiration for the Nazis,” online video editor MAZE wrote on X over the weekend, along with a clip of Mahmoud Mamdani that has been viewed more than 10 million times.
MAMDANI FACES CRIMINAL CONDITIONS FOR ALLEGED FOREIGN DONATIONS TO NEW YORK MAYOR'S CAMPAIGN
Mira Nair, New York City mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani, Rama Duvaji and Mahmoud Mamdani celebrate on stage during an election night rally at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025 in the Long Island City section of Queens in New York City. (Getty)
“Hitler learned genocide from Abraham Lincoln. Although I'm sure Zoran loves America. Good job, New York.”
The video is based on a 2022 panel discussion hosted by the Asia Society, where Mahmoud Mamdani stated that America was “the genesis of what we call settler colonialism” around the world. Fox News Digital reported the news in July.
“During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln summed up the problem of reservations: they forced American Indians into separate territories,” said Mamdani, the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University. “For the Nazis, this was a source of inspiration – Hitler realized two things: first, that genocide was possible. Genocide is possible, that's what Hitler understood. The second thing Hitler realized was that you don’t have to have a common citizenship.”
The video sparked a strong reaction from conservatives on social media.
MAMDANI’S MOTHER IN THE “DISCENT 2013” INTERVIEW: “HE’S NOT AMERICAN AT ALL”
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani accepts an endorsement from United Bodegas of America in the Bronx, New York on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Deirdre Heavey)
“This is one of the craziest things I've ever heard, and I say this as someone who used to work for the Young Turks,” political commentator Dave Rubin. published on X.
“Like father, like son,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham. published on X.
“What a joke – why are we importing people who hate America?” Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis published on X.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Mamdani's father and Mamdani's campaign for comment.
Many have criticized Mamdani Jr. for some of the views shared by his father over the years, including quotes from a book the professor wrote and dedicated to “Zohran and His Comrades.”
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New York City mayoral candidate State Rep. Zohran Mamdani stands with her mother Mira Nair and father Mahmoud Mamdani during celebrations during an election night gathering at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025 in the Long Island City section of Queens in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“Suicide bombing should be understood as a symptom of modern political violence and not stigmatized as a sign of barbarism,” the elder Mamdani wrote in his 2004 book “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror.” Fox News Digital previously reported this.
“We must recognize the suicide bomber, first of all, as a category of soldier.”
In addition, Mahmoud Mamdani sits on the advisory board of the anti-Israel organization Gaza Tribunal, which supports boycotts and sanctions against Israel and regularly accuses the Israeli government of committing “genocide.”
The founder and members of the Gaza Tribunal have deep ties to anti-Israel movements, at least one of whom was deported from the United States due to links to terrorism.
“He’s his own man,” Mahmoud Mamdani told The New York Times in an interview. interview earlier this year under the title “The Parents Who Helped Shape Zokhran Mamdani's Politics.”
Mahmoud Mamdani added: “Of course, what we do as his parents is part of the environment in which he grew up, and he could not help but be involved in it. It doesn’t mean that anything reflects on us.”
“I don't agree!” – Nair intervened in the interview. “Of course, the world we live in, what we write, film and think about, is a world that Zoran has absorbed very much.”
In a 2020 interview, Mamdani suggested in his own words that his parents influenced him politically.” – Fox News Digital. was reported earlier this year.
“To be honest, I think I grew up in the family that I grew up in, and from a very early age I was quite open to what could be considered radical,” Mamdani said on “The Far Left Show.”
“I mean, from the very beginning, my identity was already considered radical by many in mainstream American political thought. So being Muslim or being an immigrant are things that already sort of put you in the box of “others.” And it's not that big of a leap, because whenever you… stand up to speak out for the rights of others who share the same identity as you, then you're a radical, right? Very often people in this country are considered radicals if they speak out for the human rights of Palestinians.”
