Kirsten Artz / nyc.gov

The more serious side of Bloomberg's appearance on "The Daily Show," via a pool report distributed by the mayor's office:

The New York Times wrote about this mosque a year ago. Laura Ingram did a show about it, or mentioned it on one of her shows, and said she was in favor of it. This mosque has been operating for over a year. There is nothing new [here]. The difference is we’re in an election season. And this whole issue, I think, will go away right after the next election. This is plain and simple people trying to stir up things to get publicity and trying to polarize people so that they can get some votes. And I don’t think that most of these people who are yelling and screaming really care one way or another. The family members, they do care. And the family members that I’ve talked to, and I’m chairman of the board of The World Trade Center Memorial, 100% in favor of saying these people who want to build a mosque can build a mosque, that the lives of our loved ones were taken because the right to build a mosque or to say what you want to say was so threatening to people.