According to polls, the increased amount of support for New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is coming from people under the age of 35. 
Mamdani has never held a real job in his entire life. If you were looking for the definition of a career useless person, this would be the guy. 
You might say to yourself: How does a person with effectively no résumé, who worked for his mommy and was a rapper, wind up as the Democratic nominee in New York City?
But to misunderstand that is to misunderstand everything about Gen Z.
I&#8217;m not a politician, so I don&#8217;t have to pretend that the concerns of Gen Z are legitimate. I understand that if you&#8217;re a politician, then you have to placate people when they emotionally explain to you why their life is so difficult. Sometimes people do have difficult lives with real challenges in the world.
But when I hear from Gen Z that the American dream is dead to them, all I can think of is this: You have got to be kidding me.
I&#8217;ve read many pieces over the last couple of years now that Gen Z has it tougher than any generation in modern history. I thought to myself, “I&#8217;m going to vomit.”
How many serious wars have they had to live through? Zero. Zero serious terrorist attacks. They have lived in the most prosperous time in human history and the healthiest time in human history.
But because their rent is too high in New York City, while they concomitantly hold some sort of nonprofit jobs, they whine.
I don&#8217;t mean everyone in Gen Z complains without reason — there are many people who are suffering, who have a disease, who have health problems, who have been dealt a rough hand by life.
Those are not the people I&#8217;m talking about.
The generational complaint that somehow Gen Z has it worse than the millennials or Gen X or the boomers, or the Greatest Generation, ignores literally all of American history, all of it.
But if you&#8217;re a politician, you can make bank by pretending that these people have legitimate concerns and they&#8217;re not just being ungrateful and bratty. For these folks, Mamdani is an avatar.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2259-nyc-s-whiny-brats-pick-a-mayor?elementPosition=5&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
He has no resume. He grew up absolutely loaded with wealth, and currently is taking advantage of a rent-controlled apartment in New York City. He is currently living in a rent-stabilized apartment where the rent is $2,500 a month. The market rate would be $8,000 per month. He earns $147,000 a year and is campaigning on housing affordability in New York City.
You might think to yourself, “That&#8217;s crazy. How are all of these socialists in New York City supporting somebody who&#8217;s so clearly a hypocrite?”
But that misses the point: So many folks in America look to their politicians as aspirational figures. I think a lot of people who love President Trump view him as an aspirational figure, somebody who&#8217;s very wealthy and very powerful, somebody who&#8217;s made more of himself than otherwise he might have had at the beginning. Yes, he grew up rich, but he made himself into a brand name available all across the world for literally decades, and then became President of the United States twice.
It&#8217;s an aspirational thing.
But what if the Gen Z aspiration is to be a career loser who lives off of their parents’ income until they get some sort of cush government job living in a rent-stabilized apartment? What if that is the actual aspiration? What if people look up to Zohran Mamdani not in spite of the fact that he is a loser, but because he is a loser?
A lot of New Yorkers now have jobs and backgrounds very similar to Mamdani’s.
And this is the central point. 
Armin Rosen noted in <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/zohran-mamdanis-fantasy-island">Tablet Magazine</a>:
<blockquote>New York is thought of as the sink-or-swim epicenter of American capitalism, but that’s not true anymore. The city is home to more than 600,000 jobs in <a href="https://www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/critical-role-of-nonprofits-in-new-york.pdf">the nonprofit sector </a>and a roughly equal number of <a href="https://dol.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2025/08/new-york-city.pdf">jobs in government</a>. Nonprofits now employ nearly 17 percent of the city’s total private-sector workforce, compared to 10 percent nationally. Wage growth in the nonprofit sector healthily outpaced the rest of the private sector statewide in New York between 2017 and 2022, 29.3 to 25.3 percent.</blockquote>
Wage growth in New York City is healthy because it&#8217;s all done off of government grants.
All of those nonprofits are not independently raising their money. They&#8217;re getting money from the government. Thus, they&#8217;re effectively second-order government employees.
When you look at the stats in New York, you understand just why Mamdani is so successful. You have well over 50% of the population that is working for some sort of government-orchestrated, government-organized, or government-funded segment of the economy.
In other words, the people who are getting money from the government are not the people who are paying for the government. They&#8217;re all Zohran Mamdani types. They&#8217;re living off the largesse of government.
Meanwhile, all of the rent across New York City has been rent-stabilized. 50% of all of the units across New York City have been rent-stabilized. One million units have been rent-stabilized, which means that there&#8217;s an artificially low supply of new construction in New York City. That means the prices go up. 
Mamdani is complaining about “affordability.” It should be pointed out that it&#8217;s all left-wing policies that made things unaffordable. Additionally, of the people who are in New York City trying to afford those rent-controlled, rent-stabilized apartments, a huge number of them are on the government dole, so they are earning from both ends. The government is stabilizing their rent, and at the same time, the government is likely subsidizing their salary.
This is why I&#8217;m irritated when I hear from Gen Z about how tough things are in places like New York.
We should point out that there has been this mindset that has settled in among the American population that you are supposed to die where you were born. 
This is not a typically American idea. There are people on the Right who believe this. There are people on the Left who believe this. But it is not a traditional American idea. The traditional American idea, if you go back to the very beginning, was to cross an ocean with nothing to guarantee what was going to happen. People went into the wilderness, built a crappy house, and tried to start a business. And if that didn&#8217;t work, they would abandon that place and move further to the west, across mountain ranges, across rivers.
That was the original American idea.
Traditionally, when it was too expensive to live in a place, Americans went somewhere else.
But Americans are not doing that anymore. Instead, the reason so many New Yorkers seem warm on socialism is that many New Yorkers are already living a form of socialism. They are living the Zohran Mamdani lifestyle, where they are being supported by the government in a wide variety of ways, ranging from the regulatory to the actual subsidy.
So when they say things are so hard in New York City, and the answer is more redistribution from the people who are earning all of the income and paying all the taxes, the answer should be NO.
At some point, there&#8217;s going to have to be a call for some level of responsibility on the part of young people.
I grew up in a 1,100 square-foot house with one bathroom and shared a bedroom with my three sisters until I was eleven. I did have the ultimate privilege: a solid two-parent household.
And you know what? It was a fine life. I&#8217;m grateful for that life.
I&#8217;m telling this story because there is this dumb assumption that if you talk about mobility in America and the capacity of people to make smart decisions and to make the kinds of moves that will be necessary to achieve success, the immediate accusation is that it was only true for you, it&#8217;s not true for anybody else.
But it&#8217;s not only true for me. It is true for a huge majority of Americans. If you make smart decisions in America, and if you stop whining for five seconds, and if you go out and make better decisions for yourself, you can make a better life for yourself.
So many politicians make bank off this idea that America is dying, that the American dream is dying. Who does better because of that?
Politicians.
This is how they gain power, because every time they fail, they turn around and they say, “The system has failed. Give me more power.”
This is how you end up with Zohran Mamdani or Bernie Sanders.
It&#8217;s not going to work out for anyone who believes this garbage. It&#8217;s not going to work out for the city of New York. It&#8217;s not going to work out for the country.
The only person who can make your life better in the end is you. You are the person who makes your life better, not Mamdani, not Bernie Sanders.
Most Americans are not dreaming of a government job, making a decent salary, and living in a rent-stabilized apartment.
That is not the American dream.
It never was.

NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Holds Press Conf. On Political Opponents

NYC’s Whiny Brats Pick A Mayor

Ben Shapiro

Democratic Socialism

Democrats

Federal Government

Gen Z

Leftists

New York City

Opinion

Renters

Zohran Mamdani

New York City Mayor Eric Adams proposed a new law on Thursday that would make it easier to get drug addicts safely off the streets and into treatment.
The “Compassionate Interventions Act” <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/633-25/mayor-adams-new-proposal-further-support-new-yorkers-struggling-substance-use">would</a> allow doctors to involuntarily commit drug addicts in New York City.
If the law passes, a doctor would be able to bring someone &#8220;who appears to pose a danger to themselves or others due to substance use&#8221; to a hospital and allow a judge to mandate treatment if the person is unwilling to enter treatment voluntarily.
Public drug use on city streets &#8220;degrades quality of life and leaves a feeling of disorder among many city residents,&#8221; Adams&#8217; office said in a press release.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Today, we&#8217;re launching our &#8216;End Culture of Anything Goes&#8217; campaign to improve quality of life and support all those struggling on our streets.
We&#8217;ve made great strides to change the culture and laws preventing people with severe mental illness from getting the help they needed. <a href="https://t.co/bnuPywvBzd">pic.twitter.com/bnuPywvBzd</a>
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1954875741851537823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A total of 37 other states <a href="https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/research-studies/addiction-research/involuntary-commitment?utm_source=chatgpt.com">allow</a> drug addicts to be involuntarily committed.
&#8220;While we have made our system work better to address severe mental illness and homelessness, we often hear from New Yorkers that there are still too many people in need of help,&#8221; Adams said in a statement.
This week, Adams launched his &#8220;End Culture of Anything Goes&#8221; campaign aimed at cracking down on drugs and homelessness in the Big Apple.
<a class="c-link" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" data-sk="tooltip_parent">End of Summer Sale &#8211; Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
&#8220;Our administration refuses to turn our backs on New Yorkers in need, and with today’s announcement, we’re laying out a vision that will help get everyone the support they need. In the name of public safety, public health, and the public interest, we must rally to help those in crisis because ‘anything goes’ is worse than nothing at all,&#8221; the mayor said.
Also on Thursday, Adams announced he would invest another $27 million in substance abuse treatment, including more teams on the ground that engage with drug addicts and new programs to help people finish treatment once they start.
New York City struggles with pockets of drug addiction, such as &#8220;The Hub&#8221; in the Bronx.
The South Bronx area around Roberto Clemente Plaza is home to harrowing scenes of dozens of drug addicts shooting up in public, sometimes spilling blood onto the sidewalk, then tweaking and standing doubled over while drug dealers sell their wares brazenly in broad daylight nearby, all while trash and needles pile up.
A total of 366 &#8220;active substance users&#8221; were <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/us-news/bronxs-the-hub-is-drug-riddled-business-as-usual-after-post-exposes-junkie-wasteland/">recorded</a> last fall when the NYPD, sanitation workers, and health department workers teamed up to try to clean up &#8220;The Hub.&#8221;
The city teams arrested 35 people and put 47 people in homeless shelters, but the area remains a hot spot for public drug use to this day.

Homelessness On The Rise In New York

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Proposes Law To Involuntarily Commit Drug Addicts

Eric Adams Proposes Law To Involuntarily Commit Drug Addicts

Drugs

Eric Adams

Homelessness

New York

How is it possible that Jews in New York could support a mayoral candidate that labels Israel genocidal and calls for the “intifada to be globalized?”
The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/nyregion/zohran-mamdani-jewish-voters-gaza.html">New York Times</a> would have us believe that there are many such Jews. I have trouble believing anything the NYT prints on this subject given the overwhelming evidence that they lie, distort and manipulate when it comes to Jews and Israel, as proven by their recent story about starving children in Gaza based on an altered photo, and their infamous lie about a bombed hospital in October 2023. So, it’s no surprise that in their Mamdani story, two of the five Jews interviewed work for the Mamdani campaign.
Even without such distortion, however, it is true that some Jews voted for Mamdani in the Democrat primary, and will vote for him again in the general election. 
I am an Orthodox Jewish film director, author and influencer, which is to say, a visible Jew both on the street and online. So, I’ve been getting asked, “What’s the story with your fellow Jews? How could they vote for a man who hates Israel and hates the Jews?”
To understand this, you first need to know something about Jews, namely, that we’re all different. We’ve been around for so long, and lived in so many countries, and fallen into so many different categories, that there is no such thing as a typical Jew.
Non-Jews, whether they love us or hate us, tend to lump us all together. They’re not entirely wrong because we’re not primarily a religion or a nationality – we’re a family. Now, every family contains different types of and categories of people, but the family remains distinct because relatives resemble each other physically, intellectually, temperamentally and spiritually.
Jews are not only a family, but we are also uniquely bound to God through the Torah and its system of commandments, as well as our shared destiny and connection to the Holy Land of Israel. The question is, why would a Jew who inherits our unbroken wisdom tradition stretching back 3,700 years turn his back on it?
Some chafe at the demands of the commandments. Others simply think they have a better idea, be it a credo they dreamed up or an “ism” to which they subscribed. And some turn their backs on our family to fit in at work, school, cocktail parties or online.
In seeking to curry favor with the Jew-hating mob, these Jews do enormous harm.
They often open their statements about Israel with, “As a Jew…” and then they parrot lies about Israel fabricated by the Gaza Ministry of Health, an entity created by Hamas to serve as the media arm of their terrorist organization. One glance at a fact-based website like StandWithUs.com, or even at a simple map of the region renders the bulk of these lies comically inept. After all, how can one Jewish state among 56 Muslim countries – most of which were not Muslim before the sword brought Islam to their lands – be labeled the “colonizer?”
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale &#8211; Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a></h3>
Statistically, Jews are well-educated, high-achieving and score above average on IQ tests. Why then do some Jews fall for these obvious fabrications? One reason is that siding with Jew-haters against Israel makes them feel virtuous, and we must never underestimate the power of feeling virtuous. That feeling is so addictive that they indulge in it even at the cost of lives: when the As-a-Jews speak out against Israel and get quoted by the enemies of Israel, they strengthen the hearts of Hamas terrorists.
Senior Hamas official <a href="https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/08/03/palestinian-state-is-one-of-the-fruits-of-october-7-emboldened-hamas-credits-its-violence-for-gains-as-released-hostage-video-spurs-outcry/">Ghazi Hamad</a> said on Al Jazeera that the recent push by multiple nations to recognize Palestine as a state is the fruit of October 7. In other words, their plan is working. Why would any government reward a terrorist state for the murder and rape of Israeli civilians? Because Hamas claims, “Israel commits genocide, and even the Jews admit it.” And as long as that plan is working, Hamas will keep firing rockets from their children’s bedrooms so they can shriek with victim-glee when Israel inevitably counter strikes. This is how the Hamas death cult operates. This is the modern version of that ancient evil, child sacrifice.
And the murderous phase of the present cycle is lasting longer than it would otherwise because those As-a-Jews give cover to our enemies. Their virtue-signaling costs lives.
Now let us recall that despite our family resemblances, Jews are all different. Most Jews are not As-a-Jews.
In my <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/u-s-jews-connections-with-and-attitudes-toward-israel/">Orthodox community</a>, Jews are overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, even when they disagree with its government, and we also oppose communism, socialism, and any &#8220;ism&#8221; that privileges people based on their genes rather than merit. In this time of elevated danger to the Jewish people, we’re also profoundly grateful to live in a country that rejects antisemitism like every other racism, and to have allies who can see through Hamas/Iran lies about Israel. Increasingly, we’re also exercising our Second Amendment right to bear arms – with care and training – to protect our families. God forbid the Jew haters who daily chant violence against us come to kill us, we will not be a soft target.
The percentage of Jews who subscribe to these societal views drops significantly when we look at Jews in non-Orthodox denominations, collectively known as liberal Judaism. This term should not be confused with liberal politics, because there are many religiously liberal Jews who are politically conservative. It’s true that religiously liberal Jews do tend to be politically liberal but even so, they are not Mamdani Jews. If they’re affiliated with a synagogue, they tend to support Israel and feel a visceral connection to the Jewish people.
Mamdani Jews are usually those who’ve untethered themselves from Torah entirely. Either they’ve never been exposed to Judaism, or they’re actively against it. They’ll give many reasons why, but their disconnection allows them to generate their own system of morality, and to fit in with the Jew-haters who lionize them. At least for a while. Historically, such Jews get attacked in the end just like the rest of their family.
The Jew-haters offer new and different reasons for their hatred in every generation: we’re too stand-offish or we’re too assimilated, we’re too rich or we’re too poor, we’re stateless or we have a Jewish state. Perhaps the simplest reason is that we’ve lived in exile for so long, that we’ve learned how to arrive on a new shore, identify what success looks like in that culture, and attain it in one generation, even while retaining our ancient traditions and transmitting them to our children. Invariably, we succeed by contributing to the nation that hosts us.
The Mamdani Jews go awry because they jettison the guard rails of Torah and tradition while retaining otherwise positive Jewish qualities like studiousness, generosity of heart, and sympathy for the underdog. Without the Torah’s holistic system for living, these lovely traits can cause an individual’s moral system to skid off the rails and cause great harm.
This process is summed up by an old adage: one who is kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind. In this case, Mamdani Jews support the Hamas death cult because they’re moved by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-hamas-photo-propaganda-dupes-the-west-and-fuels-bds?author=Alyssa+Rosenheck&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=72&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=How+Hamas+Photo+Propaganda+Dupes+The+West+And+Fuels+BDS">pictures</a> of sickly children, and they shut their eyes to the evidence that the sickly child’s well-fed siblings have been cropped out by cynical terrorists and their willing accomplices in the media. The result is more innocent lives lost, not less.
We try desperately to open the eyes of our brethren to these facts, yet they remain clenched shut.
Perhaps they keep their eyes shut because if they were to absorb these facts, they would have to open their eyes to many more. They’d have to make an accounting of their choices in a life untethered from Torah and Jewish tradition – a fearless moral inventory – and such a process is not for the faint of heart.
I pray these Mamdani Jews will remember who they are, and the family they come from, before our enemies force them to remember with a globalized intifada. In the meantime, I hope the rest of the family will join our allies and vote against <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/zohran-mamdani-and-the-jews-14af43f4?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAiXzeTg6rT_DtLVtkWHw22Y7q0ybjI7ZcoEh0OYYjwlT5NyVSaIVojQJVPeQu0%3D&amp;gaa_ts=689cb022&amp;gaa_sig=lT5KNgm62Sfsp4Z8hzGOleVUIcosspzZlBFzbQN9sOr_1OBrZLQwnJiF8THoYFxy3dKjy7fyQE7t-62e3mVs5g%3D%3D">Mamdani</a> because he is an enemy of the Jews, meritocracy, Israel, and America.
* * *
Salvador Litvak is the director of &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnkqomKfd90">Guns &amp; Moses</a>,&#8221; coming back to theaters across America <a href="https://www.fathomentertainment.com/releases/guns-moses/">Sept. 7-11</a>, and the author of his bestselling book, &#8220;Let My People Laugh: Greatest Jewish Jokes of All Time!&#8221; Learn more at <a href="http://salvadorlitvak.com/">salvadorlitvak.com</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Holds News Conference

Why Would A Jew Vote For Mamdani?

Anti-Semitism

Intifada

Jewish

Mayor

Pro-Hamas

The last running hotel-turned-migrant shelter in New York City is set to close in April.
The Row Hotel, which was also the first to be <a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/asylum-seekers-migrants-immigration-nyc-migrant/12323493/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">converted</a> into a migrant shelter in 2022, is located a block away from Times Square. Housing migrants in the luxury property’s 1,300 units costs the city $5.13 million a month.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday that the city would not renew its contract with Rockpoint Group, which owns the establishment.
He called the closure a “major milestone in our administration’s recovery from this international humanitarian crisis,” in a statement to the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/3496193/major-new-york-hotel-migrant-shelter-ends-city-contract-eric-adams/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Examiner</a>.
“Three years ago, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers began streaming into our city every week — and the Adams administration stepped up.”
“We opened hundreds of emergency migrant shelters to ensure no family slept on the street. Since then, we have successfully helped more than 200,000 migrants leave our shelter system and take the next step toward self-sufficiency,” Adams continued.
At its <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/09/us-news/nyc-to-shut-down-last-migrant-hotel-after-shelling-out-170-million-to-crime-ridden-shelter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">peak</a>, New York City was running 220 migrant shelters. In 2024, 80% of its 193 operating shelters were former hotels.
“We have skillfully and humanely managed a national humanitarian crisis — and have done what no other city could do,” he added.
The Row has become a hotspot for crime and chaos, with numerous recorded <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/09/us-news/nyc-to-shut-down-last-migrant-hotel-after-shelling-out-170-million-to-crime-ridden-shelter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">incidents</a> of attacks against NYPD officers by residents who are members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
City residents are celebrating the closure and the end of mass sheltering.
“Hallelujah. I’m happy that it’s happening,” said a resident of The Camelot apartment complex across the street. “We pay a lot of money to live here, and it doesn’t seem fair.”
“There are people sitting here all day, littering, leaving food waste, water bottles,” the resident said. “A lot of them have children, and there are women sitting around here smoking weed all day, the children are just playing on the street, on the bike lanes.”
One security guard said he started wearing a wedding ring because he’s been propositioned twice by migrant prostitutes staying at the hotel.
The closures come as President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have reduced illegal border crossings by over <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/3411740/border-crisis-illegal-immigration-pete-flores-hearing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">99%</a>. CNN recently <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1952065321889902682" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicted</a> the United States will reach negative net migration in 2025, for the first time in 50 years.
The 3,400 current residents of the Row will be moved to the city’s traditional shelter system, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/10/nyregion/migrants-row-hotel-nyc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a>.
A spokesman for the mayor’s office noted that the city government has also “purchased more than 65,000 tickets to help migrants exit the shelter system and reach their preferred destinations.”
The mayor’s office also noted that of the migrants already in New York, 110,000 asylum applications have been processed so far, accounting for over 90% of those eligible.
That levels out to $3950 a unit, a few hundred dollars above the <a href="https://www.realtor.com/advice/rent/cheapest-new-york-city-roommate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">average</a> monthly rate for a single room in NYC.

US-MIGRANTS-NEWYORK

New York City To Close Last Remaining Hotel Migrant Shelter As Illegal Immigration Plummets

Donald Trump

Illegal Immigration

Migrants

I still see his face every time I think of Washington Square Park: a stranger who was unapologetically pro-Hamas and made clear that he cheered the October 7 massacre in Israel.
As an Olympian on Israel’s bobsled team — a team with both Jewish and Arab athletes — I decided to engage with the public following the horrific events of October 7, 2023.
So, on October 15, 2023, I spent eight hours in a folding chair in New York City’s Washington Square Park. I placed a table in front of me with a sign that called Hamas a brutal terror organization and Israel a force for good. “Change my mind,&#8221; the sign read. Passersby questioned Israel’s right to defend itself, some even denied the brutality of Hamas. I spent the day dismantling every excuse for terror. I met them all with history, with personal testimonies, and with the same grit I bring to my Olympic training. Almost no one came by to actually defend Hamas, but most were almost exclusively anti-Israel.
<div id="attachment_958343" style="width: 417px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-958343" class="wp-image-958343 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-407x576.jpg" alt="Credit: AJ Edleman" width="407" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-407x576.jpg 407w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-212x300.jpg 212w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-768x1086.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-1086x1536.jpg 1086w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-1448x2048.jpg 1448w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-29-PM-4687-scaled.jpg 1810w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" />Credit: AJ Edleman</div>
<div id="attachment_958345" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-958345" class="wp-image-958345 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-384x576.jpg" alt="Credit: AJ Edleman" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-1360x2040.jpg 1360w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-27-PM-7656-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Credit: AJ Edleman</div>
But then, as the day was coming to a close, a man and his girlfriend approached the table. He was hot. Mad. Angry. He didn’t plead with a nuanced argument or context. He didn&#8217;t come to debate over Israel, he came to both defend Hamas and justify the attacks on October 7. It was deserved, you see. The natural reaction to Israel&#8217;s actions.
For over a decade, I have debated with all kinds of people on the topic of Israel. And there are some occasions when the feeling you are left with is far more powerful than the words the person used. I have hosted over a dozen events just like this one. And after debating hundreds of individuals, I can say that while I may forget the talking points, I can usually remember the overall feeling. This was just such an occasion. I could feel his hatred. This man hated who I was. What I was.
<div id="attachment_958347" style="width: 417px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-958347" class="size-large wp-image-958347" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-407x576.jpg" alt="Credit: David Zimand" width="407" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-407x576.jpg 407w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-212x300.jpg 212w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-768x1086.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-1086x1536.jpg 1086w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-1448x2048.jpg 1448w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/MixCollage-07-Aug-2025-02-31-PM-4724-scaled.jpg 1810w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 407px) 100vw, 407px" />Credit: David Zimand</div>
It was only as his story at Columbia University broke into the news that a photographer-friend who had taken a picture of our encounter messaged me to ask if I realized who that was shouting at my face back in Washington Square Park: It was Mahmoud Khalil and his now-wife standing behind him as she nodded along with what he said.
And here’s what gets me: The media elevate voices like his because they somehow echo part of the cultural anger. We cut them slack, grant them platforms, then pat ourselves on the back for “honest debate.” But is shouting like a cheerleader for genocide really “honest”? Or is it moral abdication?
We treat his bloodlust as just another datapoint in a “heated discussion.” We ignore that he stands for rejoicing in the death of children. We gloss over the fact that someone who rationalizes cold-blooded massacre is someone we wouldn’t let babysit our own kids. Yet the legacy media puts them on a rhetorical pedestal and hands them the microphone.
Why do we give leeway to a man whose heart harbors hatred we’d recoil from in our personal lives? Because we in the West neutralize his crime into a “viewpoint” — and pretend there’s no difference between demanding justice and celebrating murder.
This is the hate-validation fallacy: assuming that any hatred we share is enough to legitimize the most extreme expressions of it. The media embrace the worst apologists for atrocity, then wonder why society feels more fractured than ever. Somehow, when it comes to Israel, this fallacy is dialed up to 11.
Are we so starved for certainty that we’ll champion the vilest among us just to prove we’re right? When did we decide that the loudest hate gets respect, while decency gets dismissed as propaganda?
Hamas stands for exulting in death — of Jews and their own people. There is no moral middle ground. And anyone who celebrates terror doesn’t have a “perspective” worth quoting — they’re a warning sign of how low discourse can sink.
That day in Washington Square Park, I saw his contempt up close. I saw how easily we can excuse the worst people when they confirm our biases. And I knew: if we don’t draw a line here, we lose more than a debate — we lose our humanity.
So, the next time you see a genocide apologist splashed across your feed, ask yourself: am I amplifying truth or validating hate? Because there’s a world of difference between making a point and aiding a monster.
We owe it to ourselves — and to every innocent life — to choose wisely. Reject the hate-validation fallacy. Refuse to give hate a stage. And remember: some voices deserve nothing but silence.
* * *
A.J. Edelman is an Israeli Olympian and captain of Israel’s Edelman Bobsled Team, a mixed Jewish/Druze team training for the 2026 Olympic Games, and in line to become Israel&#8217;s first ever multi-sport Olympian. When not sliding down mountains he is a writer and commentator.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Washington Square Park

The Day I Met Mahmoud Khalil In Washington Square Park

antisemitism

Hamas

Israel

Jews

Mahmoud Khalil

October 7

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic socialist nominee for mayor of New York City, promised on Thursday that his administration would be President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;worst nightmare.&#8221;
&#8220;My administration would be Donald Trump&#8217;s worst nightmare,&#8221; Mamdani said Thursday at a press conference.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve said that my approach to Washington will not be a reflexive one, it is one that will be in opposition to Donald Trump&#8217;s administration when it comes for New Yorkers, when it comes at the expense of the welfare of the people that I&#8217;m seeking to serve,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Commie Mamdani: “My administration would be Donald Trump&#8217;s worst nightmare.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/FfWkNL1LGW">pic.twitter.com/FfWkNL1LGW</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1953478303232254038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mamdani&#8217;s comments come as Trump is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/nyregion/trump-nyc-mayor-cuomo-adams-mamdani.html">reportedly</a> weighing getting involved in the Big Apple&#8217;s mayoral race to try and stop Mamdani from winning.
The New York state assemblyman representing parts of Queens won the Democratic primary in June in an upset that threw the New York City mayor&#8217;s race into chaos.
&#8220;What threatens the president so much about my campaign and our movement is the fact that it showcases the way in which he&#8217;s betrayed the very people that we are seeking to serve,&#8221; Mamdani said.
Mamdani said that Trump has not called him, and he accused his rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo, of working with Trump to defeat Mamdani.
&#8220;I will tell Donald Trump the same thing I&#8217;m telling you right now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what makes me different than Andrew Cuomo. Whatever I say on a sidewalk, I say in a press conference, I say in a board room, it&#8217;s the same agenda. It&#8217;s fighting for the same people. And I will make that case to everyone. What I will not do, however, is pick up the phone to call Donald Trump, to ask how we can work together to defeat the will of Democrats across this city. That&#8217;s what Andrew Cuomo did.&#8221;
Cuomo responded to the attack, saying Mamdani was &#8220;short on facts and long on nonsense.&#8221;
&#8220;And while I&#8217;m here, let&#8217;s be real- Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party,&#8221; Cuomo posted on X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
As usual, you&#8217;re short on facts and long on nonsense.
And while I’m here, let’s be real- Donald Trump would go through you like a hot knife through butter. You would be a dream come true to the Republican party <a href="https://t.co/f3152riFGC">https://t.co/f3152riFGC</a> <a href="https://t.co/MZY0CTXNJw">pic.twitter.com/MZY0CTXNJw</a>
— Andrew Cuomo (@andrewcuomo) <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewcuomo/status/1953229311147655530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You don&#8217;t need to take me at my word or take Andrew Cuomo at his,&#8221; Mamdani said at the press conference. &#8220;You need only look at the actions of the Trump administration since I won the Democratic primary. How else can you describe a president who has proposed denaturalizing the Democratic nominee of New York City? How else can you describe a president who has sought to entertain suggestions of deporting me, of arresting me, of taking control of the city over the will of New Yorkers? Those are the actions of a president who is afraid of the fact that I will actually deliver in a manner where he has simply betrayed.&#8221;
Mamdani has described himself as a Democratic socialist and has previously called for the &#8220;abolition of private property&#8221; and &#8220;seizing the means of production,&#8221; key Marxist concepts.
He is running on a litany of controversial and expensive policies, including government-run grocery stores, free buses, free childcare, a rent freeze for more than two million New Yorkers living in rent-subsidized housing, and deploying mental health professionals rather than police in crises. Mamdani also wants to raise both income and corporate taxes.

US-CRIME-SHOOTING-MAMDANI

Mamdani Promises To Be Trump’s ‘Worst Nightmare’

Mamdani Promises To Be Trump’s 'Worst Nightmare'

Apparently, there’s not enough crime in New York City. There’s not enough disorder, not enough chaos in the streets. It’s not bad enough yet. That’s the only conclusion I can draw from the alarming rise of radical leftist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-socialist-mamdani-wont-recant-anti-nypd-remarks?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=News+and+Analysis&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=%E2%80%98A+Wolf+In+Sheep%E2%80%99s+Clothing%E2%80%99%3A+Socialist+Mamdani+Won%E2%80%99t+Recant+Anti-NYPD+Remarks">Zohran Mamdani</a>, a man with zero executive experience and a well-documented history of anti-police, anti-Jewish rhetoric who is poised to become the next mayor of this great city.
Mamdani is a “defund the police” enthusiast who <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1277414510131916801">describes</a> the New York City Police Department as, “&#8230;racist, anti-queer &amp; a major threat to public safety.”
This privileged, clueless, rich kid with a serpent’s tongue and fake smile will push the city to a point where it will indeed become bad enough. How do I know? Because, as a retired member of the NYPD with over two decades of experience, I’ve seen this play before.
The original installment of this tragedy began in the early 1980s, starring Ed Koch as the lovable, liberal mayor of a crumbling, crime-plagued city from 1978 through 1989. His administration was paralyzed by corruption scandals and a crack cocaine epidemic that grabbed the city by the throat and would hold on for more than a decade, leaving tens of thousands of mostly minority murder victims dead in its wake. Homeless and mentally ill people turned the subways into zero-star hotels, using the passageways and stairwells as public toilets. The subways were filthy and painted with layers of graffiti that would have made the set designers for the movie “Escape From New York” blush. Chaos and crime reigned supreme. Businesses suffered, and tourism collapsed. The city was in a death spiral.
During Koch’s three terms, there were nearly 20,000 murders, along with tens of thousands of shooting incidents, and millions more became victims of violent crime. These were real people, tormented by the failed policies of liberal politicians.
Then, in 1989, a young, former federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani ran a tough-on-crime Republican campaign against David Dinkins, an unqualified, fiscally illiterate liberal Democrat, to replace Koch. Giuliani lost a very close race, however, and Dinkins became mayor in 1990. Apparently, 20,000 murders weren’t bad enough.
Over the next four years, another 8,000 New Yorkers would be murdered and hundreds of thousands more would become victims of violent crime. By 1993, 2,000 murders a year were the norm. Compare that number to last year, when, according to the New York Times, “…there were 377 homicides reported in 2024,” and you get an idea of how high that number really is.
Why was this allowed to happen? Because none of the Democrats running New York, the architects of failed liberal policies, lived in the inner city where the blood was being spilled. They never had to see it, but I did, along with the tens of thousands of brave cops I served with and the innocent civilians who lived there.
America’s largest city suffered under Mayor Dinkins. Along with a spike in crime came race riots and a general feeling of disorder and chaos in the streets. By 1993, it was finally bad enough for deep blue New York City to elect Rudy Giuliani as Mayor.
From 1994 through 2001, Giuliani made 2,000 murders a year a thing of the past. His crackdown on crime, corruption, and disorder was unprecedented. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Crime Strategist Jack Maple initiated strategies and policies that would reduce crime over the next two-plus decades to historic lows not seen since the 1950s. This was done by implementing a zero-tolerance policy targeting high-crime areas and violent criminals. With the full support of the mayor and the police commissioner, we took criminals and guns off the streets, saving thousands of lives. Morale among the police, city residents, and business owners was at an all-time high.
The transformation happened right before my eyes. By 2002, when I retired from the NYPD, playgrounds that had been filled with drug dealers and criminals were now filled with children and their parents. The sound of gunshots was replaced with the sound of children laughing and playing.
The homeless and mentally ill using graffiti-covered subways as campgrounds became a thing of the past. There was an atmosphere of safety, law, and order. Tens of thousands of lives were spared during those years. New York became the safest big city in the world because of the NYPD.
Then, after three successful terms of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, it all began to crumble. In 2014, Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor of New York, followed by the incompetent, corrupt Eric Adams eight years later. In twelve short years these, arrogant, unqualified imbeciles, along with leftist Governors Andrew Cuomo, dopey Kathy Hochul, Soros flunky Alvin Bragg, a radical leftist activist city council and New York State legislature, reversed the accomplishments of the previous two decades by implementing new laws and rules that have protected criminals and destroyed the ability of the NYPD to police effectively. This cabal of idiots has again driven the city to the brink of disaster.
Public safety is the number one responsibility of government. Once again, the city is rife with homelessness and the mentally ill. Since 2017, more than 40 convicted cop killers have been released back onto the streets along with thousands of violent criminals. Add to that an untold number of illegal aliens, and now the sense of lawlessness and disorder is palpable.
Candidate Mamdani’s proposed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/nyregion/zohran-mamdani-crime-plan.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">programs,</a> like unarmed “Mental Health Crisis Response Teams” responding to domestic disputes and incidents involving emotionally disturbed persons, would be laughable if they weren’t so dangerous. These are some of the most volatile situations police officers deal with.
People will die. And other programs, like a civilian-run Department of Community Safety, will cost taxpayers in New York billions more while stripping the NYPD of its responsibilities and authority. This is Mamdani’s way of defunding the police without calling it that. This, combined with the insane laws and rules that have been implemented in the last several years to neuter the police, will further erode the morale of the NYPD — which is already at an all-time low — with seasoned, experienced officers fleeing the department in droves.
The city is already bad enough. Electing Mamdani will surely make it worse. Don’t give him four years to prove it.
* * *
John Dove is a retired NYPD Detective Lieutenant and the former co-executive producer of “CSI-NY” starring Gary Sinise.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Residents Cast Ballots In New York City Mayoral Democratic Primary Election

New York Is Bad Enough. Don’t Let Mamdani Make It Worse.

Refusing to recant his previous statement from 2020 that called for defunding the police, New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gave an evasive answer when asked if he wished he hadn’t made such a comment.
Mamdani has been elusive about his “defunding the police” statements after a mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan left four people dead, including an NYPD officer. Earlier this week, he stated, “I am not running to defund the police.”
Yet when he was asked on Wednesday by a reporter at the leftist 32BJ Service Employees International Union headquarters, “Do you wish you hadn’t said some of those things a few years back?”, Mamdani replied, “My statements in 2020 were ones made amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers held at the murder of George Floyd and the inability to deliver on what Eric Adams, of all people, described as the right for all of us to be able to enjoy safety and justice, that we need not choose between the two.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Mamdani is asked point-blank if he wishes he hadn’t called to defund the police. 
He doesn’t say “yes.” 
That’s utterly disqualifying. <a href="https://t.co/Ylep2q2caI">pic.twitter.com/Ylep2q2caI</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1950637509316378885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As recently as last December, Mamdani tweeted, “Today the NYPD deployed the Strategic Response Group (SRG) to harass + arrest striking @teamsters. As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment (sic) rights.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today the NYPD deployed the Strategic Response Group (SRG) to harass + arrest striking <a href="https://twitter.com/Teamsters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@teamsters</a>. 
As Mayor, I will disband the SRG, which has cost taxpayers millions in lawsuit settlements + brutalized countless New Yorkers exercising their first amendment rights.
&mdash; Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1869848787201532169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The SRG is one of the NYPD’s special operations units, which, according to the force’s official website, specializes in disorder response, crime suppression and crowd control and ‘responds to citywide mobilizations, civil disorders, and major events with highly trained personnel and specialized equipment,’” <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/flashback-zohran-mamdani-pledged-disband-key-police-unit-handles-mass-shootings">Fox News</a> noted.
In 2020, Mamdani posted tweets calling for the defunding of police with <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/30/us-news/zohran-mamdani-doubles-down-on-disbanding-nypd-unit-that-responded-to-nyc-shooting-but-backs-off-unpopular-defund-stance/">these statements</a>:
<blockquote>
Our police: threatening the physical safety of politicians who oppose their agenda. Our prosecutors: turning their own offices into super-spreader event because of all their COVID truthers. The entire carceral system is an unreformable public health hazard. Defund and dismantle.
Together, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police &amp; build a socialist New York. Solidarity forever.
We don&#8217;t need an investigation to know that the NYPD is racist, anti-queer &amp; a major threat to public safety. What we need is to #DefundTheNYPD. But your deal with @NYCMayor uses budget tricks to keep as many cops as possible on the beat. NO to fake cuts &#8211; defund the police.
@NYCSpeakerCoJo: &#8220;The Mayor promised to spend the same amount on cops in schools, but pay for it with different money.&#8221;@NYCMayor spokesperson: &#8220;Actually we never even promised that!&#8221; None of these people are fit to lead. We need a socialist city council to defund the police.
</blockquote>
One police source commented, “People are fools to believe he will help the city. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Zohran Mamdani comments on mass shooting in New York

‘A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’: Socialist Mamdani Won’t Recant Anti-NYPD Remarks

Defund The Police

Elections

New York Police Department (NYPD)

NYPD

Politics

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

As news broke that a mass shooter with a high-powered rifle had opened fire on people in a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, CNN anchor Erin Burnett and CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller both speculated that the gunman was “possibly white,” catalyzing anger on social media.
Surveillance images quickly surfaced after the mass shooting, showing the dark-complexioned, mustachioed gunman walking into the building at 345 Park Avenue with a rifle, wearing sunglasses and dark clothes. The Daily Wire is not publishing the gunman’s name due to a company policy against contributing to the unintentional glorification of mass shooters.
“People don&#8217;t walk around with guns like that. But was his face visible? I mean, do they — they have any idea at this point who he is?” Burnett asked Miller.
“They do not know who he is,” Miller stated. “They know he is a male, possibly white. He&#8217;s wearing sunglasses. He appears to have a mustache. And that picture has been distributed to every police officer in New York City particularly, has been sent to the phones of the search teams inside that building because whenever they encounter a group of people, the first thing they have to figure out is, is that individual among these people hiding among victims or pretending to be an office worker, because one thing you don&#8217;t want to have happen is to have this kind of cordon where you&#8217;re trying to evacuate people in groups as you can get them to a safe corridor and have this person slip out with them.&#8221;
“Male, possibly white, mustache, sunglasses in that building,” Burnett repeated. Later. She repeated, “There were a few things that really stood out there among them that they did get. They do know what he looks like. Sunglasses, mustache, male, possibly white &#8230;”
Ironically, later in the broadcast Miller stated, “One of the cautions here, as you know, from having done so many of these, Erin, unfortunately, is that we always have to be mindful of the idea that between people who are watching, listening information that&#8217;s being sent over social media, that we have to be a little bit guarded on specifics.”
“You share what you can from your sources. Some of it obviously, you must protect,” Burnett stated.
Social media slammed Burnett. One post stated, “CNN anchor Erin Burnett stated live on the air that the obviously not white man, quote, was ‘possibly white.’ Embarrassing attempt to politicize this tragedy.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A devastating shooting occurred in New York City, leaving 4 dead, including a police officer.
CNN anchor Erin Burnett stated live on the air that the obviously not white man, quote, was “possibly white.” Embarrassing attempt to politicize this tragedy. <a href="https://t.co/3T2dGA08ud">pic.twitter.com/3T2dGA08ud</a>
&mdash; Armstrong Williams 🇺🇸 (@Arightside) <a href="https://twitter.com/Arightside/status/1950138865412411758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Another post stated, “@ErinBurnett  knows exactly what she’s doing here. Incredible misinformation and irresponsible, purposeful race-baiting. If you don’t know for sure, you don’t say it. Unless, of course your job is to mislead, stir-up confusion, obfuscation and to bury facts.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/ErinBurnett?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ErinBurnett</a> knows exactly what she’s doing here. Incredible misinformation and irresponsible, purposeful race-baiting. If you don’t know for sure, you don’t say it. Unless, of course your job is to mislead, stir-up confusion, obfuscation and to bury facts. <a href="https://t.co/JMRDxTg7qJ">pic.twitter.com/JMRDxTg7qJ</a>
&mdash; Ross Dyer (@RossDyerTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/RossDyerTV/status/1949984927706931566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pqJdFP-etb0?si=eEmJ9lIDY7nkpol7" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
One month before the 2024 election, Burnett remained silent when her guest Democratic strategist guest, Aisha Mills, bridled, “As a black lesbian who Donald Trump doesn’t believe has genes as good as his, is he going to attempt to exterminate me?” and railed to CNN senior political commentator David Urban, “I’m not going to be lectured by some white man who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Urban responded, “Shame on you, Aisha,” prompting Burnett to state, “Let me just say I appreciate — OK, I appreciate both of you, I know it&#8217;s obviously getting heated. I think — I think what people appreciate about both of you is you mean what you say and you say what you mean. You&#8217;re both very genuine people.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
CNN guest: “I’m not going to be lectured by some white man…”
The blatant racism isn’t the most noteworthy part, it’s Erin Burnett refusing to condemn it on her own show. 
 <a href="https://t.co/lQmsYxdB2P">pic.twitter.com/lQmsYxdB2P</a>
&mdash; Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) <a href="https://twitter.com/cabot_phillips/status/1844188406181777895?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2014 Concordia Summit – Day 1

‘Purposeful Race-Baiting’: CNN’s Burnett Slammed For Saying NYC Mass Shooter Was ‘Possibly White’

Erin Burnett

Manhattan

Mass Shooting

Media

Racism

Shooting

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that law enforcement believed that the gunman who shot and killed four people and injured another on Monday at a New York City office building might have been targeting the National Football League. 
Adams <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/29/nyregion/nyc-shooting-manhattan">said</a> that investigators “have reason to believe” that the gunman who attacked the 345 Park Avenue office tower in Manhattan was “focused on the NFL.” The NFL is headquartered in the building, and one of its employees was wounded during the incident. 
Adams said that the shooter had attempted to go to the floor where the NFL was located, but instead went to the 33rd floor, where Rudin, a property management company, is based. 
A three-page note was found in the wallet of the gunman, who died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, claiming that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a degenerative brain condition often associated with football players caused by frequent head trauma. 
The Daily Wire is not publishing the gunman&#8217;s name due to a company policy against contributing to the unintentional glorification of mass shooters.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a Monday press conference that the shooter, who played high school football, had a history of mental health issues. 
“Terry Long football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze,” the gunman wrote in a note, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/29/us-news/nyc-gunman-shane-tamura-reportedly-found-with-note-hinting-at-possible-motive-for-park-ave-skyscraper-shooting-sources/">according</a> to the New York Post. Long was a former player for the Pittsburgh Steelers <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=2307003">who</a> committed suicide by drinking antifreeze after a history of brain injuries. 
“You can’t go against the NFL, they’ll squash you,” the gunman  reportedly wrote, adding, “Study my brain please I’m sorry Tell Rick I’m sorry for everything.”
Alluding to the note, Adams said that “it appears as though he was going after the employees of the NFL.”
“We’re still going through the suicide note to zero in on the exact reason but at this time it appears as if it’s something attached to his belief he experienced CTE from the NFL,” he added. 
The NFL employee who was injured during the attack is currently in the hospital, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45848952/nfl-employee-seriously-injured-deadly-shooting-tower-housing-league-hq">said</a>. 
&#8220;As has been widely reported, a gunman committed an unspeakable act of violence in our building at 345 Park Avenue. One of our employees was seriously injured in this attack,&#8221; Goodell said. &#8220;He is currently in the hospital and in stable condition. NFL staff are at the hospital and we are supporting his family.
Two other victims killed in the attack have been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nypd-officer-among-two-victims-identified-in-deadly-nyc-mass-shooting">identified</a> as 36-year-old NYPD officer Didarul Islam and Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he had been briefed on the shooting and offered his condolences. 
“I have been briefed on the tragic shooting that took place in Manhattan, a place that I know and love,” he posted on Truth Social. “I trust our Law Enforcement Agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence. My heart is with the families of the four people who were killed, including the NYPD Officer, who made the ultimate sacrifice. God Bless the New York Police Department, and God Bless New York!”

US-NEWS-NYC-SHOOTING-19-NY

Investigators ‘Have Reason To Believe’ NYC Mass Shooter Intended To Target NFL, Mayor Says

Cop-Killer

Crime

Roger Goodell

U.S.

The police officer killed on Monday night in a mass shooting at a New York City office building has been identified as a 36-year-old immigrant with two children and a pregnant wife. 
The officer, Didarul Islam, and three others were fatally shot when a gunman opened fire at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Another man was seriously injured. Islam was an immigrant from Bangladesh and had been with the NYPD for more than three years. 
“He was doing what he does best, and all members of the police department carry out, he was saving lives, he was protecting New Yorkers. He’s an immigrant from Bangladesh and he loved this city,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said. “He embodies what this city is all about, he’s a true blue New Yorker not only in the uniform he wore but in the spirit and energy of loving this city.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Police Officer Didarul Islam represented the very best of our department.
He was protecting New Yorkers from danger when his life was tragically cut short today.
We join in prayer during this time of incomprehensible pain. We will forever honor his legacy.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FidelisAdMortem?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FidelisAdMortem</a> <a href="https://t.co/vkBZetsz2N">pic.twitter.com/vkBZetsz2N</a>
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1950029976520052804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The shooter, identified as a 27-year-old man from Las Vegas, was found dead on the 33rd floor of the building from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Daily Wire is not publishing his name due to a company policy against contributing to the unintentional glorification of mass shooters.
Wesley LePatner, the CEO of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, was also identified as one of the deceased, the company confirmed. Blackstone is an investment management company with several offices in the building. 
“Wesley was a beloved member of the Blackstone family and will be sorely missed,” the company said in a statement. “She was brilliant, passionate, warm, generous, and deeply respected within our firm and beyond. She embodied the best of Blackstone. Our prayers are with her husband, children and family. We are also saddened by the loss of the other innocent victims as well, including brave security personnel and NYPD.”
An employee of the NFL, which was also headquartered in the building, was seriously injured in the attack. 
&#8220;One of our employees was seriously injured in this attack. He is currently in the hospital and in stable condition,&#8221; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45848952/nfl-employee-seriously-injured-deadly-shooting-tower-housing-league-hq">wrote</a> in a memo obtained by ESPN. &#8220;NFL staff are at the hospital and we are supporting his family. We believe that all of our employees are otherwise safe and accounted for, and the building has nearly been cleared.&#8221;
Multiple <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/29/us-news/nyc-gunman-shane-tamura-reportedly-found-with-note-hinting-at-possible-motive-for-park-ave-skyscraper-shooting-sources/">reports</a> indicate that the gunman left a note expressing grievances against the NFL, citing Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease often associated with repeated head injuries. Adams <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/29/nyregion/nyc-shooting-manhattan">said</a> in an interview on Tuesday morning that the shooter, who played football in high school, had intended to target the NFL offices, but mistakenly went to the wrong floor, which Rudin Management occupied. 
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said that the shooter arrived in Manhattan on Monday after spending multiple days driving across the country from Nevada. He then entered the office building armed with a rifle and opened fire on Officer Islam before shooting a woman hiding behind a pillar in the lobby. He then went to the elevator bank and shot a security guard before spraying gunfire throughout the entire lobby. He went to the elevators and allowed one woman to go past him before he went up to the 33rd floor, where he shot one other person before killing himself. 
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Monday that the FBI was aiding in the investigation.

4 Dead In Midtown Manhattan Shooting

NYPD Officer Among Two Victims Identified In Deadly NYC Mass Shooting

A gunman shot multiple people in a New York City office building on Monday before turning the gun on himself.
The gunman killed at least one police officer and injured another. Four people inside the office building, a skyscraper in midtown Manhattan, were killed, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/active-shooter-report-prompts-massive-police-response-midtown-manhattan-business-district">Fox News</a>. The gunman reportedly died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that the gunman is dead, <a href="https://x.com/NYPDPC/status/1949981438842941663">posting</a> on X that &#8220;the scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralized.&#8221;
Officials have tentatively identified the shooter as a 27-year-old from Las Vegas, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/new-york-city-midtown-manhattan-shooting-07-28-25#cmdnsyogl001o3b6nhh3p0qqa">CNN</a>.
Security camera footage from the office building appears to have caught images of the shooter as he was walking inside. The gunman appeared to be carrying a rifle.
He began shooting in the lobby of the building before traveling to another floor and shooting again. He eventually made his way to the 33rd floor of the building where he fatally shot himself, sources told Fox News.
Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan theorized that the gunman had some connection to one of the businesses operating inside the skyscraper. &#8220;He knew exactly where he wanted to be and where he wanted to go,&#8221; Kaplan <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1949985849522721153">said</a>.
The office building the gunman entered houses Blackstone and the NFL headquarters. New York City police and FBI agents swarmed the area on Monday afternoon amid reports of an active shooter.
Local and federal officials began posting updates as videos from the response rocketed across social media.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams posted a <a href="https://x.com/nycmayor/status/1949971560330059818">warning</a> to social media: “New Yorkers: there is an active shooter investigation taking place in Midtown right now. Please take proper safety precautions if you are in vicinity (sic) and do not go outside if you are near Park Avenue and East 51st Street.”
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted to X that the FBI joined the law enforcement response.
“FBI New York Field Office management personnel and agents are responding to provide support at the active crime scene in Manhattan,” Bongino <a href="https://x.com/FBIDDBongino/status/1949970080294449243">said</a>.

Officer Dead, Multiple Injured After Gunman Storms Manhattan Office Building

Menu