Danger Close with Brian O'Leary

Danger Close with Brian O'Leary

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Danger Close with Brian O'Leary
Danger Close with Brian O'Leary
Why is He Still Here?

Why is He Still Here?

Mahmoud Khalil has been running his mouth again.

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Brian O'Leary
Aug 09, 2025
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Danger Close with Brian O'Leary
Danger Close with Brian O'Leary
Why is He Still Here?
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Anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil celebrates his release from immigration detention, June 22, 2025, in New York.

Remember last week when I told you that Democratic-Socialist NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani had quite recently attended a comedy show at the Beacon Theatre with Mahmoud Khalil, the leader of last year’s anti-Israel protests at Columbia University?

Sure, you remember Mahmoud.

Three days after the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, the campus group to which Khalil belonged, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), called the attacks “a moral, military and political victory.”

“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” CUAD said in a statement.

A year later, Khalil’s group commemorated the one-year anniversary of the massacre with a mock-up of a New York Times headline declaring “REVOLUTION UNTIL VICTORY!”

“The Palestinian resistance is moving their struggle to a new phase of escalation, and it is our duty to meet them there,” the group wrote on Telegram that day. “It is our duty to fight for our freedom!”

Our duty, our freedom? Who wrote that, a Hamas member or some snot-nosed, ignorant Columbia student?

Well, CUAD’s former leader, Mahmoud Khalil, resurfaced earlier this week for a podcast interview with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein.

To be honest, were it not for his having renewed his membership in the fair-game club, by way of his association with the anti-Israel mayoral wannabe, I probably wouldn't have bothered writing about it, but the two are clearly simpatico, and Khalil did say some pretty idiotic things this week, so here goes.

On Tuesday, Khalil appeared on the Ezra Klein Show, where he dropped a few particularly notable lines.

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