Actor James Woods calls Mamdani win a ‘dangerous’ turning point

Actor James Woods said the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City marks a perilous turning point in the modern American era, delivering an extended, religiously charged warning during a Monday appearance on conservative host Benny Johnson’s podcast, “The Benny Show,” according to Mediaite. 

“I think the election of Mamdani was the most dangerous event to happen in the country” in modern history, the actor said.

Mr. Woods, a longtime outspoken conservative voice in Hollywood, told Mr. Johnson that Mr. Mamdani’s win as a Democratic Socialist represented what he called the country’s gravest modern crisis, framing it within a broader warning about rising Islam in the United States.

Referencing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the World Trade Center site, Mr. Woods questioned, “How you could ever allow this Muslim invasion and cancer? And [people] say, ‘Well, what are you? Are you prejudiced?’ Well, yes. I’m sorry to say it.”

“I’m prejudiced against a religion that’s really a political jihad — that actually has, in its revered text, that you will kill every non-believer,” Mr. Woods continued. “I’m a Catholic. I believe certain things. I don’t think certain other religions share my view, but they have a right to do it; this is America. And I’d say you have a right to do it anyway.”

Mr. Johnson, during the exchange, noted that some families of Sept. 11 victims have pushed back on the idea of Mr. Mamdani appearing at this year’s 25th-anniversary commemoration. That tension has already surfaced publicly: a petition signed by relatives of roughly 300 of the victims is circulating calling for Mr. Mamdani to be barred from the ceremony, citing his perceived reluctance to condemn certain rhetoric and his father’s past writings on political violence, according to the Times of Israel. One widow whose husband died in the attacks told the outlet Mr. Mamdani’s attendance would feel “like an unwelcome guest at a deeply personal ceremony.” Mr. Mamdani’s office has said he intends to attend the commemoration.

This year’s anniversary will mark 25 years since nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks on New York, the deadliest foreign strike on American soil since the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.