Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani has clarified that his public apology for calling NYPD cops racists was more about the “language” he used at the time.
The Democratic socialist, who recently offered an apology of sorts for his past harsh criticism of New York’s Finest, addressed the controversial remarks in an interview with “The Daily” podcast that aired Thursday.
“What I’m apologizing is for the language that I’ve used,” Mamdani said when asked to clarify whether he was expressing regret over “the language” or “the thinking” behind his prior attacks on cops, in which he labeled them “racist” and “a major threat to public safety.”
Zohran Mamdani with an NYPD cop on August 5, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA
The front page of the New York Post on July 12, 2025.
“The issuing of it is to reckon with the fact that it’s language that I’m applying to officers, when in fact what I’m speaking about are specific practices,” he went on, appearing to admit he believes that the way cops carry out their duties is racist.
“And when I’ve met officers, not only over the course of being an Assembly person but also running for mayor, understanding that behind every caricature, behind every headline is a New Yorker trying to do their best.”
Zohran Mamdani shakes NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s hand on June 29, 2025. ZUMAPRESS.comWhen pressed further on whether he thinks police officers are actually racist, the Queens state assemblyman responded, “No.”
Still, it came after he opined about police brutality against black people in the US.
“Reading about Michael Brown and then, in 2020, in the year the tweet is written, the murder of George Floyd. And feeling like this chasm was at the largest I’d seen it in my own life. And I was struggling with how far apart it felt,” the far-left mayoral contender said.
Mamdani’s mealy-mouthed explanation also came after he offered a long-promised public apology to NYPD officers Wednesday.
Zohran Mamdani is the front-runner in the NYC mayoral race. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post“I’ll apologize to police officers right here because this is the apology that I’ve been sharing with many rank-and-file officers,” he said during an interview on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCullum.”
“And I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers.”
His history of cop-bashing has proven to be a thorn in his side amid the general election campaign for mayor.
Zohran Mamdani’s 2020 tweet on the NYPD. ZohranKMamdani/XHe admitted in a New York Times interview last month that he owed the city’s nearly 34,000 officers an apology for his past remarks.
Prior to this week’s apology, Mamdani spent several weeks insisting he was making the rounds in private to apologize.
