NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “she’s just a private person” defense of his wife just went up in flames — and it’s his own side that lit the match.
Rama Duwaji, New York City’s first lady, was already under fire after Jewish Insider and The Free Press revealed that she spent October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas slaughtered over 1,200 Israelis — hitting the “like” button on Instagram posts celebrating the attack. But the story just got worse.
She Liked a Post Calling October 7 Rapes a “Hoax”
According to reporting by The Free Press journalist Olivia Reingold, Duwaji didn’t just like posts showing Hamas militants breaching the Israeli border with text reading “Breaking the walls of apartheid and occupation.” She also liked a February 2024 post claiming the New York Times’ investigation into sexual violence during the October 7 attack was “fabricated” — effectively calling the mass rapes a hoax.
Let that sink in. The first lady of America’s largest city liked a post denying that Israeli women were raped by Hamas terrorists. This isn’t some ambiguous “liked the wrong thing” situation. It’s a deliberate endorsement of atrocity denial.
Mamdani’s “Private Person” Defense Collapses
When confronted, Mamdani trotted out a line that was insulting even by politician standards:
“My wife is the love of my life, and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my city hall.”
Sounds reasonable — until you read the New York Magazine profile of Duwaji published just weeks earlier, where she was described as “the de facto adviser” to Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral campaign.
According to the piece in The Cut, Duwaji was “strategizing over morning chai and shaping the look and feel of the campaign” — coaching Mamdani on his Arabic pronunciations for a viral campaign video, designing the campaign graphics, and personally shaping the visual identity of his run for mayor.
“Speaking out about Palestine, Syria, Sudan — all these things are really important to me. Everything is political; it’s the thing that I talk about with Z and my friends, the thing that I’m up to date with every morning.”
That’s Duwaji in her own words. This is not a “private person” who just happens to be married to the mayor. This is a political operative who shaped the campaign from the inside and is now being shielded from accountability for her own public social media activity.
Dr. Phil Drops the Hammer
Even Dr. Phil weighed in, calling out the hypocrisy on his podcast “The Real Story” this week:
“When you’re the spouse of the mayor of the largest city in America, and you’re supporting the murder of hundreds of innocent Jews, trust me, that’s not private, that’s public. Mayor Mamdani, hear this clearly: when terror is excused, silence isn’t neutrality. It’s complicity.”
He’s right. And here’s the double standard that makes this even more infuriating: when conservative Supreme Court Justices’ wives express political opinions, the media treats it as a constitutional crisis. When the wife of a socialist mayor likes posts celebrating a terrorist massacre and denying rape? She’s a “private person.” Move along, nothing to see.
Meanwhile, an ISIS-Inspired Attack at Gracie Mansion
All of this is unfolding against the backdrop of an attempted IED attack near Gracie Mansion — the official mayoral residence — this past Saturday. Two suspects on the pro-Mamdani side of dueling protests, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested for what DOJ Attorney General Pam Bondi called an “ISIS-inspired attack of terrorism.”
And Mamdani’s response? He condemned… white supremacy. Not Islamism. Not the actual ideology that motivated the attack. White supremacy.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The Bottom Line
The mayor of New York City is married to a woman who celebrated October 7, denied the rapes of Israeli women, and served as his de facto campaign strategist. He’s hiding behind the “private person” shield while she shaped his political identity from day one.
The mainstream media is giving her a pass that would never — not in a million years — be extended to the wife of a conservative politician. And New Yorkers are supposed to just accept this.
New York, you got exactly what you voted for.
Providence watches over the bold.
About The Author
