Randy Fine Escalates Attack on Zohran Mamdani, Reviving Calls to Strip His Citizenship
The political fight over Israel and Gaza has taken another sharp turn, this time placing a Florida congressman and New York City’s mayor at the center of an unusually personal confrontation.
Republican Rep. Randy Fine renewed his attacks on Mayor Zohran Mamdani after the mayor condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged the federal government to enforce an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him. Fine accused Mamdani of siding with terrorists and again raised questions about whether the mayor should retain his American citizenship.
However, Fine has presented no publicly verified evidence showing that Mamdani belongs to, works with, or provides material support to a terrorist organization. His comments remain political accusations, not legal findings.
Fine turns a policy dispute into a personal attack
During a July 22 interview with TMZ, Fine repeatedly described Mamdani as a “Muslim terrorist.” The Florida Republican argued that Mamdani’s criticism of Israel and his focus on Palestinian deaths amounted to support for Hamas.
Fine also claimed Mamdani had no business participating in events marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He accused the mayor of standing closer to the terrorists responsible for the attacks than to the Americans who were killed.
The remarks echoed Fine’s language from October 2025, when Mamdani was still running for mayor. At the time, Fine called him “little more than a Muslim terrorist” and said his citizenship should be stripped before he was deported to Uganda, the country where Mamdani was born. Fine’s congressional office later promoted an interview in which he discussed denaturalizing and deporting Mamdani.
That earlier attack followed a statement in which Mamdani condemned Hamas’ October 7, 2023, assault as a “horrific war crime.” Mamdani said more than 1,100 Israelis were killed and approximately 250 people were kidnapped. He also criticized the Israeli government’s subsequent military operation in Gaza.
The distinction matters. Condemning Israel’s actions, even in the strongest language, does not by itself establish support for Hamas or another designated terrorist organization.
Mamdani’s Netanyahu pledge hits a legal wall
Mamdani, who became New York City’s 112th mayor on January 1, 2026, has repeatedly described Netanyahu as a war criminal and Israel’s campaign in Gaza as genocide.
During his mayoral campaign, he pledged to have Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli leader visited New York. That promise rested on the ICC warrant issued against Netanyahu in November 2024.
The international court alleged that Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant bore responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to the Gaza conflict. The allegations include using starvation as a method of warfare. Netanyahu and the Israeli government reject the accusations and dispute the ICC’s jurisdiction.
After consulting New York City’s Law Department, Mamdani acknowledged that the city lacks the legal authority to execute the ICC warrant. He nevertheless urged the federal government to act, declaring that Netanyahu was “not welcome in New York City.”
That request also faces enormous legal obstacles. The United States is not a member of the ICC, and American law does not create a simple mechanism for local police officers to enforce its warrants. Diplomatic immunity and protections associated with United Nations visits could create additional barriers.
Mamdani’s demand is therefore largely a political and symbolic statement unless federal law or American policy toward the ICC changes.
Citizenship cannot be canceled over a political argument
Fine’s demand that Mamdani lose his citizenship raises a separate constitutional and legal question.
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, moved to New York as a child, and became a naturalized American citizen in 2018. Naturalized citizens generally possess the same constitutional protections as citizens born in the United States.
A member of Congress cannot simply order someone’s citizenship revoked. Denaturalization normally requires the federal government to bring a case in court and prove that citizenship was illegally obtained, often through fraud, concealment of a material fact or deliberate misrepresentation during the naturalization process.
Recent Justice Department denaturalization cases have involved allegations such as immigration fraud, concealed criminal conduct, identity fraud, war crimes, or hidden material support for terrorist organizations. The government still must prove its case before a federal judge.
No publicly confirmed court ruling has found that Mamdani committed naturalization fraud. Nor has Fine publicly produced evidence proving that Mamdani concealed terrorist ties when applying for citizenship.
Political speech can provoke outrage, protests and electoral consequences. But disagreement with American foreign policy, criticism of Israel or support for Palestinian rights is not automatically a legal basis for denaturalization.
The controversy now reaches beyond two politicians arguing about Gaza. It tests whether Americans will accept accusations of terrorism as ordinary political language and whether naturalized citizens can feel secure when their views anger powerful officials.
Fine sees Mamdani’s rhetoric as dangerous hostility toward Israel. Mamdani sees his position as a demand for accountability under international law. Between those competing arguments sits a basic democratic principle: serious accusations require serious evidence, especially when an elected official is calling for another citizen to be stripped of the rights that define American membership.
