Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic frontrunner in the race for New York City mayor, said Monday he would not participate in an upcoming town hall on WABC-TV, citing ABC’s decision to pre-empt “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Mamdani’s announcement came hours before the Walt Disney Company said Kimmel will return to air as of Tuesday.
CBS News New York has reached out to the Mamdani campaign to see if Kimmel’s return will prompt the Queens assemblyman to revisit participating in the town hall.
Kimmel was taken off the air last week after he suggested in a monologue that President Trump’s allies were trying to use Charlie Kirk’s assassination for political gain. ABC announced it would “indefinitely” pre-empt the show after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said the network should “take action” over the comments. Station owners Nexstar — which needs the FCC to approve a deal to purchase rival Tegna — and Sinclair both said they’d pull the show indefinitely before ABC followed suit.
“I am withdrawing from an ABC town hall that was scheduled to take place this Thursday,” Mamdani said when he made his announcement earlier Monday. “It’s not the government’s job to bully talk show hosts off of the air. It is not the government’s decision to tell us what we can and cannot talk about.”
A spokesperson for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo blasted Mamdani’s decision to not participate in the town hall.
“ABC suspending Kimmel was a big mistake, but refusing to talk to local reporters because of the actions of their parent company shouldn’t pass anyone’s smell test and the press shouldn’t continue to give him a pass,” the spokesperson said. “Since the primary, Mamdani has been running from reporters and refusing to answer direct questions on his past campaign pledge to decriminalize prostitution, his refusal to apologize for calling the NYPD racist and his vow to seize the means of production — i.e. abolish private property — among other deeply held beliefs that he is trying to keep a lid on before election day. He can’t word salad his way out of this one.”
amNewYork was first to report Mamdani’s plan to pull out of Thursday’s town hall.
Rallies were held in support of free speech Monday. In California, members of local Hollywood unions and local lawmakers gathered to highlight the impact of the show’s suspension on crew members. Over the weekend, people gathered in Times Square for a free speech rally to denounce ABC’s suspension of Kimmel.
President Trump last week also floated revoking TV broadcast licenses for networks that cover him negatively.
“They give me only bad publicity or press,” Mr. Trump said while returning from his recent state visit to the United Kingdom. “I mean, they’re getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It will be up to Brendan Carr.”
Kathryn Watson
contributed to this report.
Jesse Zanger
