Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani announced Monday that he is canceling a televised town hall with WABC News planned for Sept. 25 after the network suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show last week.
The announcement came hours before Disney, ABC’s parent company, announced that it would reinstate Kimmel from his suspension. The comedian will return to his normal time slot on Tuesday.
Mamdani, his campaign first told amNewYork on Monday morning, made the move in defense of freedom of speech rights, which he says are under attack by President Trump. He bowed out of the ABC event specifically because the network shelved Kimmel’s show following threats from the Federal Communications Commission over comments the comedian made last week about the assassination of conservative figure Charlie Kirk.
“ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air after the FCC sought to pressure them,” Mamdani said on Monday. “The message that it sends to each and every American across this country is a message the First Amendment is no longer a right that can be counted on, but rather that it is government which will determine what should and should not be discussed, what can and cannot be spoken. And we cannot normalize these kinds of acts nor offenses. These must be the basis upon which we act.”
On Monday afternoon, Mamdani issued a social media statement applauding Kimmel’s return and noting that his campaign was reaching back out to WABC to reschedule the town hall.
“Last week, Disney/ABC caved to Trump administration pressure. Millions of Americans helped them find their backbone,” Mamdani wrote. “Whether you watch Jimmy Kimmel or not, today’s decision is a victory for free speech.”
Mamdani, a democratic socialist Assembly member, held a Monday morning news conference at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island to announce his initial decision to cancel the town hall. The lawmaker said he picked the location to evoke President Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, in which he listed freedom of speech and expression as one of the fundamental “Four Freedoms” of American democracy.
During the event, Mamdani — the frontrunner in the crowded Nov. 4 general election — emphasized that pulling out the WABC town hall was one way of fighting back against Trump’s attacks on dissenting viewpoints.
“I will use my power as the mayor to fight those who seek to divide us, those who seek to abuse their power, those who seek to take away our freedom,” Mamdani said. “Because it is not the government’s job to bully talk show hosts off of the air. It is not the government’s job to tell us what we can and cannot talk about.”
He also highlighted the potential impacts on the show’s production staff — including sound engineers, musicians, writers, and stage workers — who could lose their jobs if the show was permanently cancelled. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” films in Los Angeles.
Mamdani’s campaign said the event had been planned over the past few weeks and was due to begin being advertised this past weekend. He added that his campaign is “considering a number of town halls to come.”
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show following conservative backlash over comments he made during his monologue last Monday night about Trump’s supporters and Tyler Robinson, the man accused of shooting and killing Kirk during a Sept. 10 event at a Utah college campus. Kimmel called Trump supporters “the MAGA gang” and said they were “desperately trying to characterize Robinson as anything other than one of them,” comments that those on the right claim were offensive.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr then went on a right-wing podcast last Wednesday and threatened regulatory consequences for ABC, such as suspending its broadcast licenses, if it did not take punitive action against Kimmel. Nexstar, the owner of 32 ABC affiliates, announced it would stop airing Kimmel’s show indefinitely, leading ABC and Disney to do the same across the board.
Throughout his campaign, Mamdani has been a fierce critic of the Trump administration. He has cast himself as someone who will stand up to Trump — a widely unpopular figure in New York City — while casting his opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, as either favored or compromised by the Republican president.
On Monday, Mamdani took a similar shot at his two opponents. He said both are “so-called leaders” who are “showing cowardice.”
“They are looking to the White House for their path to their future ambitions,” Mamdani said.
Cuomo has denied reports that he has spoken to Trump about the mayor’s race, while Adams insists he did not engage in a quid pro quo with the Justice Department to drop his bribery case.
