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Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Alabama) has called for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be imprisoned in the notorious Guantanámo Bay torture camp, labelling the Muslim politician a “thug” amid a rise in racist and Islamophobic attacks against him ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attack.

In an interview with far right podcaster Benny Johnson, Tuberville falsely labeled Mamdani a communist, repeating a debunked falsehood favored by Republicans that Mamdani lied about his being a communist on his naturalization form.

The senator did not offer any other allegations of illegal activity by Mamdani, but still said that he should be sent to Guantánamo Bay, the prison camp established to house Muslims accused of being “terrorists” during the start of the Global War on Terror.

“Sooner or later he will do something more stupid than what he’s done, to where we’ll finally say, ‘enough’s enough. Go put the handcuffs on him and get him the hell out of here,’” said Tuberville. “Send him to Gitmo. Because this guy hates this country. He wants to change it. And it’s not going to happen.”

He went on to say that people with “socialism, communism syndrome” have “infiltrated” the U.S.’s intelligence agencies, and that those people should be thrown into Guantánamo Bay. This should be done without giving people due process, Tuberville says, because “they do not deserve” to be “even on trial in this country,” he said.

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Last week, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also called for Mamdani to be arrested for supposedly........

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