NY Times published Mamdani college application story to avoid getting scooped by Christopher Rufo: Report

The New York Times pushed out its controversial report on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's Columbia University application to avoid being scooped, Semafor reported Sunday. 

Two people familiar with the Times' process told Semafor that the paper knew other journalists were working to publish the same story, specifically conservative activist Christopher Rufo.

The Times reported on Thursday that Mamdani, when asked his race on his 2009 college application to Columbia University, checked the boxes for "Asian" but also "Black or African American." 

Rufo responded to Semafor's report on X, saying "kudos" to the Times journalists who published the Mamdani report.

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The New York Times published a report on Thursday about Zohran Mamdani's Columbia University college application. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, NYT)

Mamdani's application was made available to the Times after a cyberattack on Columbia University in late June led to some of the school's sensitive information being exposed to the hackers. The paper then reached out to Mamdani directly, who confirmed the information. 

The NYC Democratic mayoral candidate told the Times that he considered himself "an American who was born in Africa."

"Most college applications don’t have a box for Indian-Ugandans, so I checked multiple boxes trying to capture the fullness of my background," he told the outlet. "Even though these boxes are constraining, I wanted my college application to reflect who I was."

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Zohran Mamdani identified as an African American and Asian on his Columbia University college application, according to a NYT report from Thursday. ((Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)(Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images))

The Times report was slammed by liberals, including one of the outlet's columnists, Jamelle Bouie, who slung personal insults at the reporters.

Responding to a Bluesky post slamming Times reporter Benjamin Ryan, Bouie said, "Everything I have seen about him screams a guy with little to no actual brain activity."

Bouie then deleted the posts because he said they violated The New York Times' social media standards. 

"The fact that this story engendered all the conversation and debate that it has feels like all the evidence you need that this was a legit line of reporting," a senior Times reporter told Semafor. 

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Building of the New York Times newspaper publishing house.  (Photo: Alexandra Schuler/dpa (Photo by Alexandra Schuler/picture alliance via Getty Images))

The backlash led to the Times' assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust, Patrick Healy, issuing a statement on X Friday. 

"Our reporters obtained information about Mr. Mamdani’s Columbia college application and went to the Mamdani campaign with it. When we hear anything of news value, we try to confirm it through direct sources. Mr. Mamdani confirmed this information in an interview with The Times," he wrote.

Healy stated that although the outlet received the information after it was stolen in a cyberattack, "The Times does not solely rely on nor make a decision to publish information from such a source," and verified the application with Mamdani himself before publishing the story.

A New York Times spokesperson told Fox News Digital: "We publish stories once newsworthy information is confirmed and our reporters and editors have completed their work. That was the case with this story; we went to Mr. Mamdani, he confirmed our information as true, and our colleagues had done thorough reporting. We don't hit publish because others may be working on a story."

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Fox News' Marc Tomasco contributed to this report.