‘I Won’t Require Everyone to Eat Halal Food’ as Mayor, Insists Zohran Mamdani on The Daily Show

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani insisted he would not “require everyone to eat halal food,” despite claims to the contrary, during an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Monday.

Asked about his efforts to win over skeptical voters who are concerned about the likelihood of him becoming the next mayor of New York City, Mamdani told Stewart:

I don’t begrudge New Yorkers who are skeptical because they’ve also lived through tens of millions of dollars of commercials telling them to fear me. You know, they have lived through waking up every morning and seeing a photo of me and just feeling, “Oh my God,” because the language that’s written around me is as if I am a threat to the city that they love. And so when I meet with them, just the mere fact that I don’t strangle them within 30 seconds is often a surprise, and then I think it’s an opportunity where, you know, I both can tell them the things that I will do and the things that I won’t do, right? I will freeze the rent, I won’t defund the police. I will make buses fast and free, I won’t decriminalize misdemeanors. I will deliver universal childcare, I won’t require everyone to eat halal food.

“You just made news,” mocked Stewart.

Mamdani responded, “This is literally in a push poll to New Yorkers saying that I’m going to make halal mandatory, and it’s like, if you do want to eat halal, like go to 34th Avenue and Steinway, go to Mahmouds, but I’m not gonna force you to go there.”

“You wouldn’t force them, but you would describe it in such delicious terms that people would have a hard time resisting that,” suggested Stewart, to which Mamdani concluded, “If they wanted chicken and rice, there would only be one place.”

Watch above via The Daily Show.