House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) chose silence over accountability this weekend, dodging mounting controversy surrounding leading New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s questionable self-identification on his 2009 Columbia University application.

Appearing on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation with Rev. Al Sharpton, Jeffries completely avoided addressing explosive allegations that Mamdani—an outspoken democratic socialist—identified as both “Black or African American” and “Asian” on his college forms, despite being born to Indian parents in Uganda.

Jeffries, who has previously criticized Mamdani’s radical anti-Israel rhetoric as “unacceptable,” pivoted sharply when asked directly about the college application revelations. Rather than weigh in on the integrity or implications of Mamdani’s ethnic claims, Jeffries delivered a carefully rehearsed talking point on “affordability” in New York City.

“I think to me, you know, the issue that we have to deal with in New York City... is affordability,” Jeffries said, sidestepping entirely. “Whoever’s going to be the next mayor... really needs to articulate a concrete plan for making sure that working-class communities... can still have a place in our great city.”

Jeffries’ dodge comes amid intense scrutiny of Mamdani’s application, which resurfaced after The New York Times published a Thursday report based on hacked documents. According to the paper, Mamdani checked both “Black or African American” and “Asian” on his Columbia application. When pressed in an interview, Mamdani backtracked: “he did not consider himself either Black or African American, but rather ‘an American who was born in Africa.’”

He further claimed that his answer was meant to “represent his complex background given the limited choices,” not to game the system.

Yet a viral video from earlier this year paints a different picture. In it, a performance artist known as “Crackhead Barney” directly asked Mamdani whether he claimed “African-American status like Elon Musk.”

“No, I would not claim that status,” Mamdani responded.

Pressed further, Mamdani conceded: “I’m proud to be Ugandan, but I think that that is misleading.”

The blowback has been fierce—and bipartisan. Current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is African-American, issued a forceful rebuke of Mamdani’s application claims, calling them “an insult to every student who got into college the right way.”

“The African American identity is not a check-box of convenience,” Adams said in a statement. “It’s a history, a struggle, and a lived experience. For someone to exploit that for personal gain is deeply offensive.”

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s team also weighed in. Through spokesman Rich Azzopardi, they slammed the lack of media scrutiny surrounding Mamdani: “This should come as no surprise as Mamdani, his proposals, his funding, and his background received absolutely no scrutiny from the press.”

“This issue must be fully investigated,” Azzopardi added, “because, if true, it could be fraud and just the tip of the iceberg.”

While even mainstream Democrats and former political opponents are demanding accountability, Jeffries chose to duck the issue entirely. His silence on Mamdani’s ethnic identity claims—paired with his party’s habitual avoidance of uncomfortable questions about race-based preferences and identity politics—reflects a deeper rot within today’s progressive left.

With Mamdani now the Democratic Party’s chosen candidate for one of the most powerful mayoral positions in the country, voters are being asked to ignore questions of honesty, character, and merit—all in the name of ideology.