New York, New York - Democratic New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has been facing heavy criticism after details from a college application he put in years ago resurfaced.

On Thursday, the New York Times published an article revealing that in 2009, while Mamdani was in high school, he submitted an application to Columbia University in which he checked boxes identifying himself as both "Asian" and "Black or African American."

Mamdani, who is a Muslim immigrant of South Asian descent born in Uganda, told the outlet that he doesn't openly identify as either, but more preferably as "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 explained.

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Mamdani's defense was evidently not enough for his political opponents, who have taken the opportunity to use the scandal to attack him.

The campaign for current NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election, told Fox News, "The African American identity is not a checkbox of convenience," and described Mamdani's attempt to "exploit" it as "deeply offensive."

They went on to suggest that Mamdani committed fraudulent behavior that should be investigated.

The campaign for former NY state Governor Andrew Cuomo, who Mamdani defeated in the mayoral Democratic primaries, also called for an investigation, adding that this may be "just the tip of the iceberg."

Mamdani's primary win has sparked ruthless, and oftentimes racist, insults and criticism from the right over his progressive politics, his Muslim faith, and the fact that he was not born in the US. President Donald Trump has even gone as far as to threaten to arrest and deport him, and withhold federal funding from NYC if Mamdani doesn't fall in line with his MAGA agenda.

While Trump hasn't spoken out on the college application scandal, Fox News host Katie Pavlich criticized Mamdani during a recent episode of the show Fox & Friends according to The Daily Beast, comparing the situation to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren having listed her race as "American Indian" on a State Bar of Texas registration card in 1986.

"Maybe [Mamdani] should call Elizabeth Warren and see how this worked out for her," Pavlich said. "But she did use it to get ahead, so, you know, maybe there's a difference there."

Republican NYC mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, on the other hand, argued that such weak attacks are "galvanizing [Mamdani's] support," and urged others to "get back to the issues where there are clear differences."