TIMELINE: Evolution of Mamdani's defunding police rhetoric to this week's 'damage control'

New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani made headlines this week when he attempted to walk back his long track record dating back to 2020 of criticizing the New York Police Department and calling for it to be defunded.

On Wednesday, Mamdani told reporters after the death of an NYPD officer in midtown Manhattan that he is "not running to defund the police" and is "a candidate who is not fixed in time, one that learns and one that leads, and part of that means admitting, as I have grown, and part of that means focusing on the people who deserve to be focused about."

Mamdani added that his past calls to defund the police had been made out of "frustration" over the death of George Floyd. 

Fox News Digital reviewed his comments on positions on police dating back to the days after Floyd’s death.

MAMDANI BLASTED BY GOP OPPONENT FOR 'SANCTIMONIOUS HYPOCRISY' ON POLICE STANCE: 'ABSOLUTE INSANITY'

June 5, 2020

"Two cops knocked a harmless old man to the ground and let him bleed out on the pavement," Mamdani posted on X. "All that’s happened to them is a suspension without pay - and their colleagues think even that’s too much. There’s no reforming this system. Defund the police."

June 28, 2020

"We don’t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti‑queer & a major threat to public safety," Mamdani posted on X. "What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your compromise uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts – defund the police."

July 3, 2020: 

"We need a socialist city council to defund the police," Mamdani posted on X.

November 6, 2020

"Queer liberation means defund the police," Mamdani posted on X. 

November 7, 2020

"Nature is healing," Mandani posted on X in response to a user mocking and laughing at seeing a police officer "crying inside his car."

December 7, 2020

"City Council tried to make the NYPD reduce its overtime budget by half," Mamdani posted on X. "They simply refused. There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt. Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence."

MAMDANI REVEALS IN RESURFACED VIDEO HOW ONE OF HIS 'GREATEST VICTORIES' BENEFITTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

June 5, 2021

In an interview with SAAG interactive, Mamdani again pushed the idea of defunding the police while suggesting the department for investing in "apartheid" by working with Israel’s IDF. 

December 19, 2024

 "As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights," Mamdani posted on X, pledging to disband the New York Police Department’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), a unit that was first on the scene responding to the deadly midtown Manhattan shooting that left an NYPD officer and several others dead last month.

Mamdani’s long history of anti-police rhetoric has resulted in heavy skepticism from many that his Wednesday press conference truly represents an abandonment of a desire to defund or hamstring police.

"Zohran ‘Nature Is Healing’ Mamdani’s Wednesday presser struck me as a cynical and transparent attempt at damage control in response to an incident that served as a violent and somber reminder to New Yorkers of the enormous daily risks taken on their behalf by the men and women of the NYPD," Rafael Mangual, senior fellow and head of research for policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, told Fox News Digital this week. 

"But even under the tragic circumstances in which the press conference was held, Mamdani balked at multiple opportunities to explicitly retract or apologize for his long and sordid history of anti-police statements."