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The wife of the mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani has received a thumbs-up from much of the media after reports that he liked social media posts celebrating the October 7 massacre of Israelis carried out by Hamas.
Rama Duwaji, a Houston-born illustrator who identifies as Syrian and married Mamdani in early 2025, liked several posts immediately after the October 7, 2023 attack that criticized Israel. Jewish Insider reported for the first time. Duwaji also liked an Instagram post from February 2024 that claimed the New York Times investigation into sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack was “made up,” according to The free press.
The reports sparked an immediate and intense reaction toward the socialist mayor from conservatives and pro-Israel accounts in social networksbut much of the mainstream media has downplayed the situation.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji (right), received a thumbs-up from much of the media after reports that she liked social media posts celebrating the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas. (TIMOTHY A.CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
NBC 4 New York report stressed that it occurred “almost a year and a half before she married Mamdani” and that “approximately 35,000 other accounts also liked that same post.” Vanity Fair made sure to note in parentheses that she is “not” a Hamas sympathizer. immediately after noticing that many have claimed that Duwaji sympathizes with the terrorist group.
MS NOW did not mention Rama Duwaji by name from the time the Jewish Insider report was published on Friday to Monday afternoon, according to a search of transcripts by Grabien Media. CNN only mentioned his name once during the same period for an unrelated story.
He New York Times covered the story with a headline, “After social media scrutiny, Mamdani says his wife is a ‘private person,'” which was widely criticized by the right.
“The mayor said his wife’s views should not be subject to extensive public scrutiny. They were not married when she liked the posts; the couple married in early 2025 and he did not enter the Democratic primary for mayor until October 2024,” the Times reported after a letter mentioned that “Duwaji liked Instagram posts supporting the Palestinian cause immediately after the attacks” on October 7.
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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji during a press conference at Gracie Mansion in New York, U.S., Monday, January 12, 2026. (John Lamparski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Times then compared Duwaji’s actions to those of the representative’s wife. So GoldmanDN.Y.
“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, the wife of Rep. Daniel Goldman of New York, liked or reposted social media posts from several right-wing accounts that some considered hateful or insensitive toward Palestinians and Black people,” the Times noted.
The Times recruited Sophie Ellman-Golan, communications director for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, which the Times called “a progressive organizing group on the Jewish left,” to further downplay Duwaji’s actions.
“Ellman-Golan said it was unfair to equate Ms. Duwaji’s social media tastes with Ms. Goldman’s, in part because Mr. Goldman’s wife serves as campaign treasurer, while Ms. Duwaji had no official role in Mr. Mamdani’s campaign for mayor,” the Times reported.
Many of the posts Duwaji liked were not typical social media posts criticizing Israel, but rather posts that “unambiguously celebrated the terrorist attack, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis and foreign workers were killed, thousands injured, 251 civilians and military personnel kidnapped, and numerous episodes of sexual assault,” according to Jewish Insider. One of the posts featured live-streamed footage of the terrorist attack and the words “breaking the walls of apartheid and military occupation,” according to the post, while others featured the slogan “from the river to the sea,” which is often used as a rallying cry for the total elimination of Israel.
Status, a media newsletter run by former CNN employees, took advantage of the fact that CBS News covered the story to expose its pro-Israel editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
“The report focusing on the use of social media by the mayor’s wife, who holds no public office, more than two years ago struck many as peculiar, something that could have appeared on The Free Press, Bari Weiss’s anti-woke and vehemently pro-Israel opinion site,” Status reported.
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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani takes the stage with his wife Rama Duwaji after being ceremonially sworn in as the 112th mayor of New York City at City Hall. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“Some CBS employees who spoke to Status on condition of anonymity expressed growing concern that Weiss, who has been 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 altering the DNA of CBS News in the process,” the newsletter continued before quoting a “Mamdani confidant” who anonymously scolded Weiss for being biased.
Ben Rhodes, an Obama staffer turned writer and podcaster, took a similar tack, citing CBS News’ report on Duwaji’s actions with his own comment about Weiss.
“There’s a war, high prices, job losses, AI unleashed, and so on. But Bari Weiss’ CBS is on the case with the likes of the New York mayor’s wife from years ago. WTF is happening,” Rhodes posted.
When asked about the reports, Mamdani did not deny that his wife liked the posts, but argued that she is a “private person.”
“My wife is the love of my life and is also a private person who has not held any formal position in my campaign or on my City Council,” Mamdani said. “I, however, was elected to represent the city’s 8.5 million residents and I believe it is my responsibility, because of that role, to answer any questions about my thoughts, my policies and my decisions.”
“Mayor Mamdani has been clear and consistent: Hamas is a terrorist organization, October 7 was a horrible war crime, and he has condemned that violence unequivocally,” a City Hall 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.
