{"id":2455953,"date":"2025-07-05T14:29:02","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T18:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/adams-and-cuomo-rip-mamdani-for-identifying-as-african-american-on-college-application-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T14:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T18:30:10","slug":"adams-and-cuomo-rip-mamdani-for-identifying-as-african-american-on-college-application-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/adams-and-cuomo-rip-mamdani-for-identifying-as-african-american-on-college-application-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Adams and Cuomo rip Mamdani for identifying as African American on college application &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fadams-and-cuomo-rip-mamdani-for-identifying-as-african-american-on-college-application-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2455953&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor andrew Cuomo are calling for an inquiry into Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic mayoral nominee, due to his decision to identify as &#8220;Black or African American&#8221; on a leaked college application despite being of South Asian descent. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda but has South Asian roots, stated that he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/outrage-erupts-after-hacked-data-shows-mamdani-identified-as-black-or-african-american-on-college-application\/\" title=\"Outrage Erupts After Hacked Data Shows ... as &#039;Black or ...&#039; on ...\">checked multiple boxes<\/a> to represent his diverse heritage even though he no longer identifies as Black. Adams criticized Mamdani&#8217;s actions as offensive and urged the release of his college admission records,suggesting that it undermines the integrity of the admissions process. Cuomo&#8217;s spokesperson indicated that the situation coudl warrant further investigation,implying potential misconduct. Despite the controversy, Mamdani recently won the Democratic primary, though he faces competition from Adams and Cuomo in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-bidens-envoy-threatens-brazil-not-to-question-electronic-vote\/\" title=\"Report: Biden\u2019s envoy threatens Brazil not to question electronic vote\">upcoming general election<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Adams and Cuomo rip Mamdani for identifying as African American on college application<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2165463\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>New York City Mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/eric-adams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Eric Adams<\/a> and former Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/andrew-cuomo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Andrew Cuomo<\/a> are calling for an investigation into Democratic nominee for mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/zohran-mamdani\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Zohran Mamdani <\/a>for identifying as racially &ldquo;Black or African American&rdquo; on a leaked college application despite being South Asian.<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani identified as &ldquo;Black or African American&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;Asian&rdquo; in his 2009 application to Columbia University. He said he no longer considers himself to be black or African-American and says he is &ldquo;an American who was born in Africa.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3463393\/incredulous-obama-biden-running-again-your-campaign-is-a-mess\/\">&#8216;Your campaign is a mess&#8217;: What &#8216;incredulous&#8217; Obama thought of Biden running again<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/3463362\/dallas-mayor-declares-sanctuary-city-from-socialism-after-nyc-zohran-mamdani-win\/\">GOP mayor declares Dallas &#8216;sanctuary city from socialism&#8217; after Mamdani&#8217;s NYC win<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/3463260\/steve-bannon-savages-buffoon-elon-musk-america-party\/\">Steve Bannon savages &#8216;buffoon&#8217; Elon Musk for wanting to start an &#8216;America Party&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rep-malliotakis-aoc-should-have-called-for-investigation-into-gov-cuomo-sooner\/\" title=\"Rep. Malliotakis: AOC should have called for investigation into Gov. Cuomo sooner\">mayoral candidate<\/a> was born in Uganda but is of South Asian origin, though his father&rsquo;s family came to Africa more than 100 years ago, he said. He justified his choices on the application by saying he wanted to capture the &ldquo;fullness&rdquo; of his background &mdash; despite the question asking for his race and not his nationality.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/college\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">college<\/a> applications don&rsquo;t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background,&rdquo; Mamdani said.<\/p>\n<p>Columbia used an <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >affirmative action admissions program<\/a> at the time and marking the &ldquo;Black or African American&rdquo; box could have given him an advantage.<\/p>\n<p>Adams said his actions were &ldquo;an insult to every student who got into college the right way,&rdquo; and called for his admission records to be released and to investigate whether university policies had been violated. Mamdani was denied admission at the university, though his father taught there.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The African American identity is not a check-box of convenience,&rdquo; he said in a statement. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a history, a struggle and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/Fox-News\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Fox News<\/a> that an investigation could be warranted.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This should come as no surprise as Mamdani &mdash; his proposals, his funding, and his background &mdash; received absolutely no scrutiny,&rdquo; Azzopardi said. &ldquo;This issue must be fully investigated because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani officially won the Democratic primary over Cuomo by 12 points, 56% to 44%, in a win few saw coming. Cuomo had been the front-runner for most of the race, even though Mamdani had continually built momentum.<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo is not an official candidate in the general election for mayor, but is considering reentering the race. Adams is currently running for reelection, but is highly unpopular among residents of the city.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, chose to not criticize Mamdani for his college application.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/3459679\/zohran-mamdani-nyc-democratic-mayoral-primary-winner-official\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>MAMDANI&rsquo;S NYC DEMOCRATIC MAYORAL PRIMARY WIN BECOMES OFFICIAL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s so much we can criticize Zohran for &hellip; to me, what are we doing here?&rdquo; Sliwa told Fox News Digital. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re making him a martyr. We&rsquo;re victimizing Zohran and getting away from the issues of why his election would be a threat to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/new-york-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York City<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani is a favorite to win the general election in November as the Democratic nominee, despite having Adams, Cuomo, and Sliwa run against him in the general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2165463\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2165463\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adams and Cuomo criticize Mamdani for claiming African American identity on college application<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2455954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AP25183590286745.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7749,58481,58482,3714,56552],"class_list":["post-2455953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-adams","tag-african-american-2","tag-college-application","tag-cuomo","tag-mamdani"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AP25183590286745.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455953"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2455957,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455953\/revisions\/2455957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}