NYC mayor’s wife gets media pass after liking controversial Oct. 7 posts

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife has received approval from much of the media following reports that she liked social media posts celebrating Hamas’ October 7 massacre of Israel.

Houston-born illustrator Rama Duwaji, who identifies as Syrian and married Mamdani in early 2025, liked several posts criticizing Israel in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Jewish Insider was first reported. Duwaji also liked a February 2024 Instagram post claiming that the New York Times investigation into sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack was “fabricated.” Free Press.

The reports sparked an immediate and intense backlash against the socialist mayor from conservatives and pro-Israel accounts on social media, but much of the mainstream media downplayed the situation.

THE NEWS THAT HIS WIFE LIKED HIS POSTS ON OCTOBER 7 PRO PUBLISHED MAMDANI ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ‘THEY AND THESE’

NBC 4 New York report stressful He said this occurred “almost a year and a half before he married Mamdani” and that “nearly 35,000 other accounts also liked the same post.” Vanity Fair made sure to note in parentheses that he was “not” a Hamas sympathizer right after realizing Many people claimed that Duwaji sympathized with the terrorist group.

According to a transcript search using Grabien Media, MS NOW has not mentioned Rama Duwaji by name since the Jewish Insider report was published between Friday and Monday afternoon. CNN mentioned his name only once during the same period, for an unrelated story.

New York Times He covered the story with the headline “After Social Media Scrutiny, Mamdani Says Wife Is ‘Special Person’,” which was widely criticized by the right.

“The mayor said his wife’s views should not be subject to broad public scrutiny. They were not married when his wife liked the posts; the couple married in early 2025, and he did not enter the Democratic mayoral primary until October 2024,” the Times reported. After a short statement, “Duwaji liked posts supporting the Palestinian cause on Instagram immediately after the attacks,” according to the Times report.

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New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji at a press conference at Gracie Mansion in New York, USA, on Monday, January 12, 2026. (John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Times later compared Duwaji’s actions to that of Rep. Dan Goldman’s (DY) wife.

“Public officials have faced questions about the political activities or other actions of a spouse or partner, most recently earlier this week. The Times reported that Corinne Levy Goldman, wife of New York Rep. Daniel Goldman, liked or reposted social media posts from many right-wing accounts that some viewed as hateful or insensitive toward Palestinians and Black people,” the Times reported.

To further downplay Duwaji’s actions, the Times brought in Sophie Ellman-Golan, communications director for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, which the Times calls “a progressive organizing group for the Jewish left.”

“Ellman-Golan said it was unfair to equate Ms. Duwaji’s social media likes with Ms. Goldman’s, in part because Mr. Goldman’s wife served as his campaign treasurer, while Ms. Duwaji had no official role in Mr. Mamdani’s mayoral campaign,” the Times reported.

Many of the posts Duwaji liked were not typical social media messages critical of Israel; Rather, they were messages that, according to Jewish Insider, “openly celebrated the terrorist attack that resulted in the killing of nearly 1,200 Israeli and foreign workers, the wounding of thousands, the kidnapping of 251 civilians and military personnel, and numerous incidents of sexual assault.” According to the publication, one of the posts included live-streamed footage of the terrorist attack and the words “tearing down the walls of apartheid and military occupation,” while others included the slogan “from the river to the sea,” which is often used as a rallying cry for the complete elimination of Israel.

Status, a media outlet run by former CNN employees, used the fact that CBS News had covered the story to shine a harsh light on pro-Israel editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

“The report, which focused on the mayor’s wife (who does not hold public office) on social media use more than two years ago, struck many as odd, something that might have appeared on Bari Weiss’s anti-woke and fiercely pro-Israel opinion site The Free Press,” Status said.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stands on stage with his wife, Rama Duwaji, after being ceremonially sworn in at City Hall as the 112th mayor of New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Some CBS employees who spoke to Status on condition of anonymity expressed growing concern that Weiss, an outspoken supporter of Israel, was making editorial decisions more in line with the type of content published by the Free Press, blurring the ideological lines between the two and fundamentally changing the DNA of CBS News in the process.

Ben Rhodes, an Obama staffer, author and podcaster, followed a similar tack, quoting CBS News’ report on Duwaji’s actions along with his own commentary on Weiss.

“There’s war, there’s high prices, there’s job losses, AI has been unleashed, and it keeps going. But Bari Weiss’ CBS is interested in the likes of the New York City Mayor’s wife from years ago. WTF goes on,” Rhodes said.

When asked about the reports, Mamdani did not deny that her husband had liked the posts, but maintained that she was a “private person”.

“My wife is the love of my life and is also a private person who has no official role in my campaign or at City Hall,” Mamdani said. “But I was elected to represent all 8.5 million people in the city, and in that role I believe it is my responsibility to answer any questions about my thoughts, policies and decisions.”

“Mayor Mamdani was clear and consistent: Hamas is a terrorist organization, October 7 was a terrible war crime, and he unequivocally condemned this violence,” a municipal spokesperson told Jewish Insider.

CNN, MS NOW, New York Times, NBC4 New York, Vanity Fair, Status and Crooked Media did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.