Last week, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from seeking to deport anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Columbia University student protester Moshen Mahdawi and ordered his release from prison. His arrest sparked a slew of liberal media attention, particularly on CBS’s lead shows, CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News.
On the latter’s Monday edition (and then the former on Tuesday), correspondent Lila Luciano reunited with this kindred spirt on the far-left for another sympathetic sit-down.
CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson solemnly set the table:
A Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was detained and ordered deported by the Trump administration tells us he plans to continue to speak out against the war in Gaza. Our Lilia Luciano spoke with Mohsen Mahdawi, hours before he was taken into custody in Vermont last month. Now she has his first TV interview since his release.
Of course, Luciano never said a word about how, along with saying he felt sympathy for Hamas’s animalistic attacks on October 7, 2023, he’s previously said he “used to build…submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine.”
Mahdawi said his “freedom signals a light of hope” and, after being asked what he “felt” when he learned he’d be released, added he “was reassured in my heart of the belief that justice will prevail and the justice system is functioning.”
Give him the Nobel Peace Prize must have been Luciano’s implicit argument with this framing (click “expand”):
LUCIANO: After 16 days in detention, he walked out of the courthouse and spoke to a group of supporters. He had a message for President Trump.
MAHDAWI: I am not afraid of you.
LUCIANO: Why was it important for you to speak directly to Donald Trump as you were walking out free?
MAHDAWI: There is this philosophy of intimidation, of punitive justice. So, I wanted to share to them that you can do whatever you want. You will not silence me. We stand tall.
She gave the failing newscast’s paltry viewership a brief recap, lamenting he “led student protests against the war in Gaza” and “was arrested last month while attending his final citizenship test.”
“Masked agents, loaded with guns, separated me, isolated me from my lawyer, did not allow for any conversation of like -- let me see the order that you have or what’s happening – and I said, I am a peaceful man,” he complained.
Luciano left aside other rhetoric such as a letter by the group he led at Columbia that seemed to endorse the October 7 atrocities: “If every political avenue available to Palestinians is blocked, we should not be surprised when resistance and violence breaks out.”
Having left things like that on the cutting room floor, Luciano allowed Mahdawi to combat a strawman and insist he himself is the person “advocating for justice and peace” (click “expand”):
LUCIANO: We were there as federal agents took him away on orders by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alleging the Columbia University protests were anti-Semitic. [TO MAHDAWI] He accuses you of potentially undermining the peace process underway in the Middle East.
MAHDAWI: It’s laughable. A person who has been vocally advocating for justice and peace is undermining U.S. policy?
LUCIANO: Despite his imprisonment, Mahdawi says he will continue to protest.
MAHDAWI: I wasn’t afraid when they detained me. I was not afraid when I get out of detention, and I am not afraid to share my voice.
It made sense in further validating the prediction by our Jorge Bonilla that Mahdawi was seen by some in the liberal media as a far-more-compelling hero/victim of mass deportations compared to the man they’ve tried to paint as father of the year, El Salvador’s Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
With more establishment sites like Axios and USA Today opening the door to Garcia being a bad hombre, it was time they flocked to someone else.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from May 5, click “expand.”
CBS Evening News
May 5, 2025
6:33 p.m. EasternJOHN DICKERSON: A Palestinian activist at Columbia University who was detained and ordered deported by the Trump administration tells us he plans to continue to speak out against the war in Gaza. Our Lilia Luciano spoke with Mohsen Mahdawi, hours before he was taken into custody in Vermont last month. Now she has his first TV interview since his release.
MOHSEN MAHDAWI: My freedom signals a light of hope.
LILIA LUCIANO: Mohsen Mahdawi says he was hopeful but surprised when a federal judge ordered his release last week. [TO MAHDAWI] Do you remember what you felt at that moment?
MAHDAWI: I was reassured in my heart of the belief that justice will prevail and the justice system is functioning.
LUCIANO: After 16 days in detention, he walked out of the courthouse and spoke to a group of supporters. He had a message for President Trump.
MAHDAWI: I am not afraid of you.
LUCIANO: Why was it important for you to speak directly to Donald Trump as you were walking out free?
MAHDAWI: There is this philosophy of intimidation, of punitive justice. So, I wanted to share to them that you can do whatever you want. You will not silence me. We stand tall.
LUCIANO: Mahdawi, a Palestinian green card holder, led student protests against the war in Gaza. He was arrested last month while attending his final citizenship test.
MAHDAWI: Masked agents, loaded with guns, separated me, isolated me from my lawyer, did not allow for any conversation of like – let me see the order that you have or what’s happening – and I said, I am a peaceful man.
LUCIANO: We were there as federal agents took him away on orders by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, alleging the Columbia University protests were anti-Semitic. [TO MAHDAWI] He accuses you of potentially undermining the peace process underway in the Middle East.
MAHDAWI: It’s laughable. A person who has been vocally advocating for justice and peace is undermining U.S. policy?
LUCIANO: Despite his imprisonment, Mahdawi says he will continue to protest.
MAHDAWI: I wasn’t afraid when they detained me. I was not afraid when I get out of detention, and I am not afraid to share my voice.
DICKERSON: That was Lilia Luciano reporting from Vermont.
