Mamdani Guantanamo demand from Tuberville follows Netanyahu arrest row
Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Zohran Mamdani should be cuffed and sent to Gitmo after the mayor’s Netanyahu warrant remarks.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
The Mamdani Guantanamo fight erupted after Sen. Tommy Tuberville said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani should eventually be arrested and sent to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, according to remarks amplified in a video posted on X by conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, called Mamdani a “thug” and said that “sooner or later” the mayor would “do something more stupid than what he’s done” and officials would say, “enough is enough,” put “the handcuffs on him” and “send him to Gitmo.” Rolling Stone reported the comments Wednesday.
The comments came after Mamdani publicly addressed whether New York City could act on an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits the city for the United Nations General Assembly in September.
What did Mamdani say about Netanyahu?
In a video released by the mayor’s office earlier this week, Mamdani said his administration had completed a legal review and concluded New York City lacked the authority to enforce the ICC warrant against Netanyahu.
“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant,” Mamdani said in the video. He added that the federal government does have that authority and called on Washington to “join the International Criminal Court” and execute the warrant.
Mamdani also said Netanyahu was “not welcome in New York City,” and added that “any other war criminal at large” was not welcome either. Rolling Stone reported that Mamdani had said during his campaign that he would seek to act on the ICC warrant if Netanyahu came to New York.
The United States is not officially a member of the ICC. The Trump administration is not expected to arrest Netanyahu and transfer him to the court, according to Rolling Stone.
How did other politicians respond?
Tuberville was not the only lawmaker to attack Mamdani over the Netanyahu comments. Rep. Randy Fine, a Florida Republican, called Mamdani, who is Muslim, an “apologist for terrorists” and said that “makes him a terrorist,” according to a post cited by Rolling Stone.
Fine also called for Mamdani to be stripped of citizenship and deported, Rolling Stone reported. The outlet said similar threats have followed Mamdani through his campaign and early time in office. Mamdani was born in Uganda and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2012, according to the report.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, told Piers Morgan that Jewish voters who supported Mamdani were “self loathing,” and suggested the mayor was complicit in the “murder” and “rape” of American women and girls by “illegal aliens,” according to Rolling Stone.
Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told Fox News that Mamdani was angry at Netanyahu because the Israeli leader “killed a lot of people” Mamdani “admired,” a remark Rolling Stone described as suggesting support for terrorist networks.
What did Trump say?
President Donald Trump responded on Truth Social by writing that Netanyahu “will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America.”
Trump said Netanyahu is “fighting against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and wrote that “the only ones that should be arrested” are the people who led Iran into what he called a “spiral of death and destruction.”
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.