Rahm Emanuel Says He Confronted Mamdani To His Face. Top Staffer Hits Back

Former Chicago Mayor and Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said he confronted Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his anti-Israel views in a heated exchange. Mamdani’s communications director later said it never happened.

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Emanuel made the claim in a Wednesday clip from the “Unholy Podcast,” with the tagline “Two Jews on the News,” where the hosts asked the former mayor what he had discussed with Mamdani during a 90-minute meeting. (RELATED: Mamdani’s Tax Cash Grab Doxes Thousands Of New York City Homeowners)

Emanuel spent the majority of the time discussing what it was like to be mayor. The other 15 minutes, Emanuel said, were spent calling out Mamdani for focusing much of his time as a mayor on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“When you’re mayor, time goes faster, and you’ve got to make choices: what’s an ‘A,’ what’s a ‘B,’” Emanuel said he told Mamdani as the conversation shifted to the Middle East.

“‘Look, you are your father’s son. I’m my father’s son,’” he allegedly told the first-generation immigrant from Uganda and Shia Muslim mayor. “’You chant ‘a river to the sea,’ that means there will never be a Jewish homeland for Jews who had faced the Holocaust.’”

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“‘I want you to hear this,’” Emanuel said he told Mamdani. “’Over my dead body.’”

Mamdani has been very critical of Israel and especially of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the mayor has previously called for his arrest, labeling him a “war criminal.” Mamdani would later walk back the threat after apparently learning he did not have the legal authority to do so.

Replying to the clip Wednesday, Mamdani’s communications director, Anna Bahr, said that the exchange did not happen, implying Emanuel is lying. She did not provide any additional information.

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Emanuel did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.