Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday finally offered his long-promised public apology to NYPD officers – but didn’t actually say he was sorry for his past criticism of cops, including calling them “racist” and “a major threat to public safety.”
“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 when prompted by host Martha MacCullum during a Fox News interview.
“And I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers.”
The slippery, arguably self-serving mea culpa came more than a month after Mamdani confessed he owed the city’s nearly 34,000 finest an apology over his past comments.
The Queens state assemblyman called the department “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety” in a tweet shot off at the height of tensions amid the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
The post and others has proved to be a thorn in Mamdani’s side during the general mayoral election campaign as the Democratic nominee tries to move to the political center and walk back his anti-police stances.
The proud Democratic Socialists of America member repeatedly dodged questions over the last several weeks about how he would offer up his apology.
Mamdani instead repeatedly suggested that he was making his way around to each and every member of the force — a seemingly excruciatingly long task — to say he was sorry.
When pressed by MacCullum, Mamdani finally apologized but didn’t address the meat of his offensive remarks.
“I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day,” he said.
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