Erin Burnett Forces Zohran Mamdani to Awkwardly Watch His Old Rap Video Live on CNN

CNN host Erin Burnett made New York City Democratic mayoral presumptive nominee Zohran Mamdani awkwardly watch an old rap music video he made under the name “Mr. Cardamom” on Thursday.

During an interview with Mamdani on Erin Burnett OutFront, Burnett played several clips of the 33-year-old democratic socialist, including a speech where he spoke about being born in Uganda and a clip where he spoke about receiving his American citizenship in New York.

“He’s been in the New York Assembly for four years, and before that, he was an aspiring rapper under the name ‘Mr. Cardamom.’ Listen,” said Burnett, before playing a 2019 music video of Mamdani rapping shirtless, wearing just an apron in a Halal food truck.

As Mamdani watched the video, Burnett mocked, “Once you do it, it’s out there. It never comes back, it’s there.”

“Didn’t think it would be on CNN,” Mamdani shot back.

“It’s there and there it is,” Burnett replied. “So what do you say to people who look at your background and they wonder, they say, ‘Okay, rising star you may be, but this is the largest city in America, $112 billion budget, 8 million people, and a hell of a lot of problems,’ and they say, ‘Okay, whatever the future may be, you’re not ready now?'”

Mamdani answered, “I would say that a campaign offers a glimpse of what an administration would look like, and we built a campaign the likes of which the city has not seen in a long time. We started with two full-time employees and now are managing 50,000 volunteers.”

Watch above via CNN.