By Gloria Pazmino, CNN

(CNN) — In the final days of New York City’s mayoral race, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has faced pushback over a story he told about his aunt being afraid to wear her hijab while riding the subway after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

National Republicans including Vice President JD Vance mocked Mamdani’s story, which the nominee told during a Friday speech criticizing his rival Andrew Cuomo for appearing to laugh along with a radio host who suggested Mamdani would cheer another 9/11.

Accounts on X flagged a LinkedIn profile belonging to Mamdani’s father’s sister in which she is not wearing a head covering.

Mamdani told reporters Monday that he was speaking about “Zehra fuhi, my father’s cousin, who passed away a few years ago.” (Fuhi is a term in Urdu and Hindi that means paternal aunt. Mamdani was born in Uganda to parents of Indian origin.)

That led to a New York Post headline referring to Mamdani’s “aunt” in quotation marks – and sharp questioning during a Tuesday morning radio interview.

“My question is, how can you, Zohran Mamdani, convince New Yorkers to go and vote for you when you just said you lied?” said Carlos Molina, one of the hosts on Latino radio station La Mega 97.9’s “El Vacilón de la Mañana.”

“It’s not a lie,” Mamdani responded. “My father’s cousin is my aunt. That is how I referred to her all my life.”

The argument over what constitutes a family member underscored both the sensitivity of the 9/11 attacks in New York City 24 years on as well as how Mamdani has leaned into discussing his Muslim faith and upbringing during the campaign. The 34-year-old is vying to become the city’s first South Asian and Muslim mayor.

Mamdani has accused right-wing media and his opponents of trying to discredit his story instead of focusing on Cuomo’s attacks on his faith and the suggestions that Mamdani would be soft on terrorism or crime.

“It just shows the idea of a Muslim woman wearing a hijab and feeling uncomfortable after 9/11 is so foreign to the right wing in this city and this country that the only answer to them is that it must be a lie,” Mamdani said.

Still, the hosts Tuesday morning weren’t ready to back down.

“The reason I am being so hard on you is because you’re going to be the mayor of the biggest city in the United States and we need to know that our politicians that we are electing (are) truthful,” Molina said.

Mamdani responded by saying he understood New Yorkers who read the New York Post, one of the city’s daily newspapers that has long been critical of him, would be confused. He then ended the interaction by teasing Molina for pressing him about the type of mayor he would be even though the host doesn’t live in New York and was not sitting in the studio to question him in person. Molina lives in Florida.

“I don’t even take this as you coming at me hard – these are the questions you should be asking, I understand if you’re opening up the New York Post and this is what you read, many New Yorkers will say well how am I supposed to feel about it, so you’re giving the opportunity to tell the truth and correct the record,” Mamdani said.

“I’m trying to be a mayor so honest that you come back to New York City, my brother,” Mamdani said to laughs.

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