Democratic New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani did not give a clear answer Friday when CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed him on whether President Donald Trump deserves credit for brokering the Middle East ceasefire.
Trump said Wednesday that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a U.S.-backed peace deal involving an Israeli troop pullback and the release of hostages. During a segment on “The Source With Kaitlan Collins,” Mamdani was asked if Trump deserves credit for brokering the ceasefire. He avoided giving a direct answer and instead shifted the focus to the human cost of the conflict.
“You know I’ll say that the news of a ceasefire leaves me with hope, the images of children celebrating, and I pray that it is lasting. I pray that it delivers peace. And I think that the question of praise should come in the enforcement of this ceasefire,” Mamdani told Collins. “Because what this agreement can never do is erase what the last few years of tragedy have been for so many, whether it be Hamas’s horrific war crime of October 7 or the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians since.”
Mamdani acknowledged the ceasefire as a hopeful development but said that no agreement could undo the devastation already inflicted.
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“And what we are talking about is no agreement can bring back the rubble or make it whole. It can’t bring back entire bloodlines that have been erased. It can’t bring back hostages that died in captivity. And so we continue to both mourn and remember what has occurred and hope that the future will look far different than it,” Mamdani said. “If the genocide ends then I think that’s something worthy to be praised.”
Collins followed up by asking if sustained peace and the return of hostages might change his view to give Trump credit. Mamdani said that if the ceasefire holds and the hostages come home then it would be a step forward.
“I think if it sustains, yes, and the fact of the matter is that the hostage families themselves said everyone for everyone. They reminded us of the universality of what a resolution could look like,” Mamdani said.
Hamas said last week it was willing to release the remaining hostages and step down from power under Trump’s proposed ceasefire, provided other Palestinian factions and regional partners backed the plan. The group said it needed further negotiations before agreeing to final terms.
Under the deal, Hamas would release all hostages at once and transfer control of Gaza to an “International Stabilization Force” that Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would lead. Palestinian experts would help form the transitional governing body.
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