Rudy Giuliani is sharply criticizing New York City politics and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, arguing that the city he once led is moving away from the reforms and identity he fought to build during his tenure as mayor.
Speaking in on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=840XLrUFcFA">&#8220;Pod Force One&#8221;</a>, Giuliani said his reaction to the current direction of the city is emotional and personal, describing it as “heartbroken” and rooted in decades of attachment to New York.
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💥NEW: Rudy Giuliani on Zohran Mamdani🤯💔
&#8220;My heart is broken.&#8221;
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t think it could get worse than de Blasio. I really didn&#8217;t. I thought, &#8216;Well, that&#8217;s it. Now we had the worst mayor.&#8217; WOW!&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/kEyUoIKnoe">pic.twitter.com/kEyUoIKnoe</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/2043348364981395456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
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“The situation with New York, in a pure way, was a love affair,” Giuliani said. “I love New York. I love the city. I love what I did as mayor. I put my whole heart and soul into it.”
He added that his connection to the city goes beyond politics. “A lot of people love New York, but nobody loves it more than I do,” he said, pointing to his lifelong identity as a fan of the Yankees, Knicks, and Rangers as part of that bond.
Giuliani, who served as mayor from 1994 to 2001 and is widely credited with a major drop in crime during that period, said he believes the city is now in decline under its current leadership.
“I just think New York is potentially the greatest city on Earth and has been,” he said. “And what he’s doing to it … I didn’t think it could get worse than de Blasio. I really didn’t. I thought, well, that’s it. Now he had the worst mayor. Wow.”
Giuliani then escalated his criticism, framing Mamdani’s politics as part of a broader ideological threat. “He combines two things that I have been studying and fighting against since I was a child,” Giuliani said. “He’s a communist and he’s a violent supporter of violent Muslim religion.”
He went on to reference his early academic study of comparative religion, saying he had examined Islamic texts from a young age and concluded that they promoted violence in ways he found deeply troubling. He also stressed that he believes most Muslims are peaceful, while warning against what he sees as silence from within the broader community.
“The vast majority of Muslims are good people … but Muslims don’t stand up,” he said. “That’s what happens … good men do nothing.”
Giuliani extended his criticism beyond New York, warning about what he sees as broader cultural and political shifts in Western cities, suggesting that similar dynamics are emerging in Europe as well. Joking about a comment he made to Piers Morgan, “Charles the Third is gonna become an Imam.”
At the center of his remarks was a broader warning about what he views as ideological extremism taking hold in urban leadership, and a call for renewed political opposition to it.
Giuliani closed by reiterating his deep personal connection to New York and his belief that the city’s future is at risk if current trends continue, framing his comments as both a political critique and a personal lament for a city he once led through crisis and rebuilding.

Rudy Giuliani

Giuliani Thought NYC Hit Rock Bottom With DeBlasio. Then Came Mamdani.

Bill de Blasio

New York City

Politics

Zohran Mamdani

A man armed with a machete stabbed three people inside Grand Central Terminal in New York City on Saturday morning before being shot and killed by police after a prolonged confrontation on one of the busiest transit platforms in the country.
Police identified the suspect as Anthony Griffin, 44, who allegedly carried out the attacks after entering the subway system in Queens and traveling into Midtown Manhattan.
According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the sequence of events began around 9:30 a.m., when Griffin entered the subway at the Vernon Boulevard station in Queens and boarded a 7 train bound for Grand Central. Once there, he launched his first attack on an 84-year-old man on the 7 train platform, inflicting what Tisch described as “significant lacerations to the head and the face.”
Griffin then moved upstairs to the 4, 5, and 6 train platforms, where the violence continued. A 65-year-old man suffered similar injuries along with an open skull fracture, while a 70-year-old woman was slashed in the shoulder.
All three victims were transported to Bellevue Hospital. Police said their injuries, while serious, are not believed to be life-threatening.
At approximately 9:40 a.m., officers assigned to transit duty were flagged down by a civilian reporting that a man armed with a knife had just stabbed multiple people. As officers moved toward the 4, 5, 6 platforms, they encountered one of the victims coming up the stairs, confirming the attack. From the top of the stairs, officers observed Griffin on the platform and immediately ordered him to drop the weapon.
“The individual was armed with a large knife described as a machete and was behaving erratically, repeatedly stating that he was ‘Lucifer,’” Tisch said during a <a href="https://x.com/NYPDnews/status/2043011402827465011">press conference</a>.
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This was the weapon recovered at the scene. <a href="https://t.co/J1gxyECKm3">pic.twitter.com/J1gxyECKm3</a>
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/2043012597931270596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Police issued at least 20 commands for Griffin to drop the weapon. Tisch said officers also attempted to de-escalate the situation, telling him, “We are going to get you help.”
The standoff lasted roughly ten minutes, according to law enforcement sources.
Griffin refused to comply. “He then advanced toward the officers with the knife extended,” Tisch said. “One officer discharged his firearm, striking the perpetrator twice.” Officers immediately began performing life-saving measures at the scene before Griffin was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“Our officers were confronted with an armed individual who had already injured multiple people and was continuing to pose a threat,” Tisch said. “They gave clear commands. They attempted to de-escalate, and when that threat did not stop, they took decisive action to stop it and to protect New Yorkers on one of the busiest train platforms in the city.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he had been briefed on the incident shortly after it occurred and praised the response by law enforcement. “I’m grateful to the NYPD for their quick response and for preventing additional violence,” Mamdani posted on <a href="https://x.com/NYCMayor">X</a>. “The three victims were taken to the hospital and are thankfully in stable condition.”
The incident caused immediate disruption inside Grand Central, with yellow police tape blocking entrances and multiple subway lines diverted as officers secured the scene and began their investigation. Authorities said the entire encounter was captured on body-worn cameras, and the NYPD is expected to release that footage as part of its standard review process for officer-involved shootings.
Officials also noted that Griffin had three prior arrests, but no documented history of being classified as an emotionally disturbed person by the department. Tisch emphasized the challenges officers face in moments like this, particularly in a crowded transit hub. “Incidents like this show the reality of this work,” she said. “Officers step into situations where the risks are immediate and the stakes are high. They make decisions in tight spaces in real time with lives around them.”
The commissioner added that the NYPD has recently increased its presence in the subway system, deploying more than 175 additional officers to transit patrol in recent weeks, alongside existing overtime posts. “Their focus is on preventing violence and responding immediately when something happens, just as they did today,” Tisch said. “They work to ensure that the millions of people who ride our subways each day can do so safely.”
The investigation remains ongoing.

New-York-Subway-Violence-1_1775931890

‘Lucifer’ Unleashes Bloody Slashing Rampage Inside Grand Central Station

Crime

Law Enforcement

U.S.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has completed his tenant reach-out series, allowing him to start the process of crafting policy based on the testimonies his administration collected over the last six weeks.
Each week in a different borough of New York City, Mamdani invited renters to air their grievances about their landlords — one of Mamdani’s flagship initiatives. Within ninety days of the hearings, the Mayor’s Office of Tenant Protection, along with other agencies, will bring a joint report to Mamdani’s desk showcasing common themes they learned from tenants.
Mamdani’s team told renters that they wanted to hear about repairs, problems with rats, problems with heat, deceptive fees from landlords, and “ICE-related harassment in buildings.”
“Your testimony will directly inform policy changes to strengthen city policies to protect tenants,” an ad for the dubbed &#8220;Rental Ripoff&#8221; series stated.
The Daily Wire spoke to one of the tenants offering her testimony.
“I’ve been living in my apartment for over ten years. We didn’t have heat in the apartment most of the time for years. We had walls that were collapsing, a ceiling that’s collapsing, a horrific bug and rat infestation problem,” a female tenant, Abigail, said.
When asked why she remained in the apartment, she told The Daily Wire it was because it was rent stabilized. She pays $300 a month for her share of a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. She said the total rent for the apartment was $900 monthly, while the average rent for a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn is <a href="https://www.apartments.com/rent-market-trends/brooklyn-ny/">$4,892</a> a month.
Abigail explained that she was a comic strip artist, so it was hard to find an affordable place to live. She hopes Mamdani keeps her rent frozen at $300 and that he mandates that her landlord fix all that is wrong with her apartment.
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The Rental Ripoff hearings were led by Mamdani’s Director of Tenant Protection Cea Weaver — who infamously claimed that “Homeownership is a tool of white supremacy.” In her presentation, titled “New Yorkers vs. Bad Landlords,” Weaver told renters that the mayor’s office would use the feedback collected at the hearings to inform housing policy going forward.
New York real estate broker Adam Frisch warned The Daily Wire that the hearings are too one-sided. “They should pull from a combination of tenants, landlords, financiers, developers, and economists. Everybody looks at the situation with their own biases, and it’s the role of the mayor to sit down with tenants and landlords and say I know you’re both unhappy. Let’s see what we can do.”
Landlords blame rent stabilization for the poor conditions of certain apartments. Without the ability to raise rent, they say, they are unable to generate sufficient revenue to maintain their buildings.
Pinnacle Group, a major New York landlord, filed for bankruptcy in 2025, claiming that the “sharp increase in financing costs outpaced rental revenue, which could not be correspondingly increased due to rent stabilization.”

NYC Mayor Mamdani Holds News Conference

After Weeks Of One-Sided Open Mic Complaints, Mamdani Eyes Housing Power Grab

Economy

Housing

America’s favorite socialist import, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, just dropped his Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/equity/downloads/pdf/FINAL_PUBLISH_Preliminary%20REP_4%206%2026.pdf">Plan</a> and unsurprisingly surmised that white New Yorkers are too wealthy.
According to his new report, a 375 page bureaucratic word salad spread across 45 city agencies, the median net worth of a white household in NYC is roughly $277,000. For black households it’s about $19,000, a nearly 15-fold difference. Mamdani’s solution to this abhorrent problem, is a “whole-of-government” race-based overhaul that explicitly prioritizes “black and brown New Yorkers” who’ve supposedly been “pushed out” for decades.
This is an odd way of saying black and brown people are going to be given special treatment over their white counterparts.
The plan is textbook grievance politics dressed up as compassion. It lays out hundreds of goals, more than 800 strategies, and over 600 indicators across all 45 city agencies, to try and put down the white folk. From housing and health to pothole filling, these agencies must view their work through a “racial equity lens.” In other words, resources, jobs, and contracts will be doled out based on skin color, not merit, need, or behavior. This will coincide with anti-racism training for city workers, pay equity mandates by race, and new “True Cost of Living” measures — all absolutely necessary to ensure a nation&#8217;s success, right?
It won’t be cheap. The Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice and the Commission on Racial Equity (a mouthful) is already budgeted at $10.2 million per year, which is a 42% jump from last year. Meanwhile, New York City is staring at a $5.4 – $7.1 billion <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/04/07/opinion/mamdanis-cost-of-living-crisis-is-simply-a-cover-for-government-excess/">budget</a> shortfall. But sure, let’s keep pouring money into this black hole of DEI bureaucracy. 
Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, immediately said she would look into the proposal, and reminded Americans that there’s no such thing as “reverse discrimination” — it’s just plain old discrimination, and it’s illegal.
The real driver of these gaps isn&#8217;t some ancient conspiracy keeping black and brown New Yorkers down. It&#8217;s the policy machine the city built over decades. Benefit structures that penalized marriage and work over dependency didn&#8217;t close wealth gaps — they entrenched them, weakening family formation in the communities they claimed to help. Meanwhile, high <a href="https://www.ibo.nyc.gov/assets/ibo/downloads/pdf/taxes-and-other-revenues/2026/2023-pit-data.xlsx">taxes</a>, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=225585">crime</a>, failing schools, and endless red tape pushed productive families out. Mamdani&#8217;s plan doesn&#8217;t reckon with any of that. It just adds a racial lens to the same failed apparatus.
This is the horseshoe theory in action. Marxist “equity” meets identity politics and ends up in the same place, punishing success to buy votes. The <a href="https://reason.com/2023/06/29/supreme-court-on-affirmative-action-eliminating-racial-discrimination-means-eliminating-all-of-it/#:~:text=In%20a%206%E2%80%933%20decision%2C%20the%20Supreme%20Court,racial%20discrimination%20in%20the%20college%20admissions%20process.">Supreme Cour</a>t already gutted race-based preferences, correctly identifying that explicit discrimination by race violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Mamdani knows this, he just hopes Trump’s DOJ is too busy to sue.
New Yorkers deserve color-blind policy, not skin-color equity delivered by a Champagne socialist. Prioritizing one race over another doesn’t close “inequity” gaps, it widens resentment and accelerates the exodus of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mo3-peFUzzA#:~:text='Varney%20&amp;%20Co.'%20host%20Stuart%20Varney%20warns,and%20residents%20out%20of%20New%20York%20as">taxpayers</a> who actually fund the whole circus. When the bill finally comes due — because it always does — by way of higher taxes, worse services, and more crime, the same “disproportionately affected” communities will be the hardest hit.
Mamdani ran on affordability. Now he’s pivoting to race essentialism because actual solutions such as school choice, cutting regulations, enforcing the law, and promoting two parent families are politically inconvenient for a Democratic Socialists of America mayor. It’s easier to blame “whiteness” than failed ideology.
They call this “racial equity.” I don’t think so. Because once government starts picking winners and losers by race, you don’t get justice. You get Martin Luther King, Jr. rolling in his grave. You get South Africa with better bagels. And you get a whole bunch of angry, poor, and divided New Yorkers.

NYC Mayor Mamdani Makes A Housing-Related Announcement

Mamdani’s Newest Policy Plan Is Just Straight-up Racism Against White People

Anti-Racism

Democratic Socialism

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Tax an individual enough and they will vote with their feet, warned JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in his annual shareholder letter on Monday. 
Dimon’s already making the move for JPMorgan Chase by employing more people in his Dallas office than in the company’s New York City headquarters. The banker added that the trend will only continue. Over the past decade, JPMorgan has reduced its New York City headcount from 30,000 to 24,000, while expanding its Texas ranks from 26,000 to 32,000. Dimon acknowledged that New York remains a strong hub for financial talent, but said high costs are one of the firm’s biggest challenges.
“No city or company or country has a divine right to success,” wrote the CEO in his annual shareholder letter. “People like to make this a moral or loyalty issue, but it is not.”
Dimon framed the issue not as politics, but as basic economics. “Companies need to remain competitive in this very competitive, fast-moving world. Higher taxes mean lower returns on capital and less competitiveness by their nature.”
He also drew a comparison to New York in the 1970s, when “nearly half of the 125 Fortune 500 companies based in New York City left.” While mergers played a role during that era’s surge in dealmaking, Dimon argued that “the price of doing business in New York City accounted for most” of the departures. The exodus of major employers contributed to the city’s fiscal crisis and near-bankruptcy in 1975, eroding its tax base.
The 2026 exodus isn’t limited to JPMorgan. Wells Fargo <a href="https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/dallas-county/wells-fargo-massive-irving-campus-texas-banking-boom-accelerates/287-7febeb0c-d4ec-45e4-903f-f93e38e32e3e">opened</a> a new 850,000 square-foot campus in 2025 in Texas and Goldman Sachs is <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2025/gs-unveils-fresh-look-inside-northend-campus">developing</a> a $500 million dollar campus in Dallas’ Victory Park. The influx of financial firms has earned the city the nickname “Y’all Street.”
Dimon warned that the trend is likely to accelerate, potentially worsening an already fragile moment for New York City. While he did not mention him by name, his comments come as newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani advocates for higher taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. Less than a month into office, Mamdani floated raising property taxes to address what he described as a multibillion-dollar budget gap comparable to the Great Recession. He has also pushed Governor Kathy Hochul to raise the corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5% and add a 2% tax on incomes above $1 million.
When Mamdani won his election, Dimon opened the communication lines by calling the newly elected mayor. Previously, Dimon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/business/mamdani-nyc-business-leaders.html">called</a> Mamdani’s free buses and rent freezes “the same ideological mush that means nothing in the real world.”
Mamdani has previously told reporters that when he goes into meetings with business leaders, he keeps an open mind. “I go into each of these meetings knowing what I know, knowing what I believe, and interested in what I can also learn from each and every one of the people who have made the city what it is.”
So far, however, there is little indication that the business community’s concerns about higher taxes have swayed him.

Jamie Dimon

Jamie Dimon Has Bad News For NY — And Red State May Reap The Rewards

JP Morgan

Texas

Wall Street

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-DEMONSTRATION

The ‘No Kings’ Protests Released New Levels Of Absurd

China

Democrats

Donald Trump

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Leftists

Matt Walsh

Minneapolis

Opinion

Republicans

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
New York City crime isn’t just a hot-button political issue; it’s also a concrete measure of how healthy public life is in the nation’s biggest city. So, whether crime is up or down in the Big Apple matters — for many reasons — which is why the question is fiercely debated and closely scrutinized. Unfortunately, the city doesn’t make it as easy as it could be for the public to track, understand, and contextualize the crime data it releases, which has led to some skepticism about the much-touted declines in crime that the NYPD has been claiming over the past 14 months. What are we to make of these conflicting claims? How is New York City really doing on crime?
The answer is two-fold: New York got safer in 2024 and ’25 — especially with respect to gun violence. But on other crime measures, the city remains well above pre-pandemic lows.
The city experienced two of its safest years in 2017 and 2018. But in 2020, homicides and shootings surged by 47% and 97%, respectively. The pandemic-related shutdowns kept New Yorkers indoors most of that year, leading to a decline in other major felony offenses tracked by the city. These offenses tend to have a more diverse set of victims than homicides and shootings, which often involve victims who are part of the same criminal networks as the perpetrators. However, the reported drop in crimes like robbery and assault concealed an important reality: when accounting for the reduced time potential victims spent outside (where such crimes usually happen), there was a sharp increase in the risk of assault and robbery in New York — by roughly 10-15%.
This might actually help explain why some people may not be feeling the declines that are being enthusiastically reported. A 10% decrease in reported robberies might not feel significant if it’s partly due to fewer opportunities to commit the crimes; and although foot traffic and subway ridership have somewhat recovered from the lows during the pandemic, many New Yorkers (some of whom have left the city entirely since 2020) haven’t fully returned to their pre-pandemic routines.
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It&#8217;s also worth noting that in 2022, although both shootings and homicides began decreasing, other “major” crime categories increased by 22%. Those levels remained stable in 2023 before starting to decline in 2024. Last year, the city announced continued progress on both shootings (which dropped below 2017 levels) and homicides (which fell below the 2019 level), along with a broader decrease in other crime categories; however, compared to 2018, 2025 still experienced 17% more robberies, 48% more assaults, 10% more burglaries, and 149% more car thefts.
And while the city is reporting some progress on these measures through the first couple of months of 2026, those numbers may well be revised upward, as is commonly the case — and not just in New York. The early reports are encouraging, but it’s still too early to say whether 2026 will see the recent momentum shift.
So, while the city has massively improved on the gun violence front, New Yorkers are still at a higher risk of many other kinds of victimization than they were in 2018.
Important as all this is, we must not discount other measures of public safety and order.
Although they may be regarded as less serious than a robbery report, resident complaints about public disorder — such as open-air drug use, public urination, homeless encampments, and emotionally disturbed vagrants — highlight an important part of the story. In addition to the well-publicized “CompStat” reports issued by the NYPD, the department also monitors quality of life complaints (QOLstat), which are increasing on the streets and especially in the transit system (where such complaints are up more than 29% through March 22nd). On the streets, complaints for public urination (58%), graffiti (17%), and disorderly persons (20%) are all rising.
This matters. Disorder has long influenced how the public perceives crime and safety. Recognizing this effect is a key part of the Broken Windows theory <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/">articulated</a> by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in their seminal 1982 article. The state of our public spaces shapes our perceptions of their safety and security. Just because an offense isn’t labeled a “major” crime by the agencies that track such things doesn’t mean it should be ignored in assessing a city’s overall safety.
The truth of the matter is that the NYPD and its partners have made genuine progress in their efforts to control and reduce the most serious crimes, but the nation’s largest city — now governed by the most anti-law-enforcement mayor of our time — is still far from <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/crime-in-new-york-dashboard">out of danger</a>. Whether New York can improve public safety will depend heavily on major decisions the mayor and city council must make in the coming months and years. Some healthy skepticism about the administration’s claims of success can help maintain pressure where it’s needed most.
***
Rafael A. Mangual is the Nick Ohnell fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a contributing editor of City Journal, and author of the 2022 book, Criminal (In)Justice.

New York City police patrol car, USA NYPD, 911 on Manhattan Midtown 34th street. American cop auto.

New York City’s Victory Lap On Crime Hides What’s Happening On The Streets

Crime stats

Manhattan Institute

NYPD

public safety

An 83-year old U.S. Air Force veteran who was shoved onto subway tracks in Manhattan earlier this month has died from his injuries, and the suspect, identified as a Honduran national in the country illegally, has now been charged with second-degree murder.
Richard Williams, a grandfather, succumbed to his injuries on March 17 after the March 8 attack at the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station on the Upper East Side, according to authorities. The suspect, 34-year-old Bairon Hernandez, was arrested on March 10 at a homeless shelter. Following Williams’ death, prosecutors upgraded the charges from assault to second-degree murder, court records show.
The incident occurred just before noon, when police alleged Hernandez <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nypd-search-for-suspect-who-pushed-two-men-onto-subway-tracks">pushed Williams and a 30-year-old man</a> onto the southbound F train tracks. Bystanders managed to pull both victims back onto the platform before an oncoming train arrived. The second victim, identified as 30-year-old Jhon Rodriguez, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Williams hit his head on the tracks and immediately lost consciousness, bleeding heavily from a head wound, according to Rodriguez.
Hernandez fled the scene but was later taken into custody. Authorities have not publicly indicated a motive. Prosecutors previously said Williams had been left “brain-dead” following the attack, and his daughter indicated in the days afterward that he was unlikely to recover. The medical examiner has since ruled his death a homicide. 
Williams, a retired Air Force pilot, had recently overcome a five-year battle with prostate cancer and was described by family as having found a renewed lease on life in the months before the attack. His daughter expressed outrage at the suspect in earlier remarks, calling for severe punishment in the wake of the attack. 
Hernandez, according to the Department of Homeland Security, is a “serial criminal” with a lengthy rap sheet of at least 15 prior charges, including aggravated assault, weapons possession, and domestic violence. Federal authorities say he had been deported from the United States four times after first entering the country illegally in 2008, but repeatedly reentered. He has since been indicted on a second-degree murder charge.
The killing has intensified concerns over public safety in New York City, which has seen a series of high-profile violent incidents in recent months. While overall crime rates fluctuate year to year, recent acts of violence, specifically by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-indicted-after-allegedly-burning-woman-to-death-on-nyc-subway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">migrants</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdani-breaks-silence-after-nypd-confirms-bomb-was-used-in-terror-attempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Islamic-aligned elements,</a> have drawn sustained public attention and political debate.
The case also comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the city’s handling of migrants and the strain on public resources. 
New York has taken in tens of thousands of migrants in recent years, many of whom have been housed in shelters across the city, including facilities similar to the one where <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-accused-of-shoving-air-force-veteran-onto-subway-tracks-was-deported-four-times">Hernandez</a> was arrested. Critics argue that gaps in vetting, supervision, and coordination between federal immigration authorities and local jurisdictions have contributed to public safety risks, while city officials maintain that the vast majority of migrants are law-abiding.
Still, for many New Yorkers, the death of Williams, a veteran who survived war and cancer only to be killed in a random act of violence, has become a stark symbol of the city’s ongoing struggle to balance public safety, immigration policy, and criminal justice enforcement.
The proximity of the events has contributed to a broader sense of unease in the city, particularly as officials grapple with overlapping challenges related to crime, policing, and social services. For many New Yorkers, the death of Williams, a veteran and elderly commuter, has become a stark symbol of those concerns.
Hernandez is to be arraigned in Manhattan Supreme Court on March 30.

A910878F-E263-420E-A192-895BD53C4078_1_201_a

Elderly Veteran Dies After Being Pushed Onto Subway Tracks, Illegal Alien Charged

Illegal Immigation

A surface radar detection system used by air traffic controllers to monitor movements on runways did not alert before an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Sunday night, a crash that killed both pilots and injured crew members and dozens of passengers.
As authorities continue to investigate the deadly crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday that LaGuardia&#8217;s &#8220;Airport Surface Detection System — Model X&#8221; (ASDE-X) did not alert air traffic controllers before a fire truck <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-video-shows-air-canada-jet-erupting-on-impact-with-fire-truck-at-laguardia">drove onto the runway</a> in front of Air Canada Express Flight 8646.
The detection system uses radar and satellite technology to provide controllers with &#8220;detailed coverage of movement on runways and taxiways&#8221; and is &#8220;equipped with visual and aural alarms that will alert controllers of possible runway incursions or incidents,&#8221; <a href="https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/asde-x">according</a> to the Federal Aviation Administration.
On Sunday night, however, LaGuardia&#8217;s surface detection system failed to notify controllers of the looming disaster on runway 4, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters. Quoting the analysis from a replay of the detection system, Homendy said the system did not alert controllers because the fire trucks on the ground were in close proximity and were &#8220;merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track.&#8221;
Homendy said the truck that collided with the jet did not have a transponder. While surface detection systems can track vehicles without transponders, Homendy said that transponders help the effectiveness of the system.
&#8220;In order for ASDE-X to work well, you have to know where ground vehicles and aircraft are, and in this case, that ground vehicle did not have a transponder,&#8221; she said. &#8220;And it would&#8217;ve been helpful — when you have a radar target, it does not provide you with the information that you need like it would for an aircraft as a controller.&#8221;
The NTSB chairwoman added that when investigators watched a replay of what the detection system showed controllers, it did not show any &#8220;blobs&#8221;— which represented the emergency vehicles — move in front of the plane, indicating that the system failed to accurately track the fire trucks.
The NTSB also revealed on Tuesday that there were two controllers on duty at the time of the deadly crash, which Homendy said was consistent with normal operating procedures for many airports, including LaGuardia, for the midnight shift. The midnight shift at LaGuardia begins at 10:30 p.m. and ends at 6:30 a.m. The Air Canada jet crashed into the fire truck at approximately 11:40 p.m.
The NTSB chairwoman said that officials would look into whether it &#8220;makes sense&#8221; for LaGuardia to operate with just two air traffic controllers on the midnight shift, or if the airport should change its procedures.
Homendy cautioned reporters about &#8220;pointing fingers at controllers,&#8221; arguing that there are many factors officials still must investigate before pinning the blame on air traffic controllers. Audio from the air traffic control tower revealed one of the controllers saying that he &#8220;messed up&#8221; after the collision. Another controller replied, &#8220;No man, you did the best you could.&#8221;
According to the NTSB, 25 seconds before the crash, truck 1 requested air traffic controllers to allow it to cross runway 4 as a group of emergency vehicles were responding to an issue with another jet on the tarmac. Twenty seconds before the end of the radio correspondence, &#8220;the tower cleared truck 1 and company to cross runway 4 at Taxiway Delta.&#8221;
When the truck was cleared to cross, the Air Canada jet was 100 feet from the ground as it approached runway 4. Nine seconds before the radio transmission was cut off, however, the air traffic controllers told truck 1 to stop, just one second before the Air Canada jet&#8217;s landing gear was heard touching down on the runway.

Air Canada Express Plane Collides With Fire Truck At LaGuardia Airport

There’s A System Meant To Prevent The Deadly LaGuardia Plane Crash. Why Didn’t It?

Airplane crash

General

National transportation Safety Board

Plane Crash

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shut down rumors that a deadly runway crash at New York&#8217;s LaGuardia Airport was caused by a lack of air traffic controllers, telling reporters on Monday that the airport is well-staffed.
Duffy, flanked by Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) along with several others, took several questions about the collision — between an Air Canada flight 8646 and a Port Authority fire truck — that occurred late Sunday night. While he deferred most questions to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is handling the full investigation, Duffy responded immediately when a reporter asked whether a lack of air traffic controllers had been a factor in the crash.
Several reports have included audio from Air Traffic Control that features one air traffic controller calling for the fire truck to stop — and then a short time later saying that he&#8217;d &#8220;messed up.&#8221; Another voice could be heard saying that he&#8217;d done &#8220;the best he could.&#8221;
One reporter asked Duffy at the press conference whether there was any truth to rumors that only one air traffic controller had been working at the time — and whether he thought such an incident might discourage people from choosing to become air traffic controllers, and Duffy said that it shouldn&#8217;t.
&#8220;I told you I am not going to talk about specifics, but for that question, I will say that is inaccurate,&#8221; Duffy said. He went on to note that the Transportation Department is doing everything possible to retain experienced air traffic controllers and train new recruits in order to fill vacancies, but he went on to say, &#8220;As airports go, LaGuardia is a well-staffed airport &#8230; I did want to clarify, I have heard the rumor there was only on controller in the tower and that is not accurate.&#8221;
Duffy laid out several key updates that he wanted Congress to approve funding for, saying that providing for the safety of the American people while they travel should not be a partisan issue. &#8220;There is bipartisan agreement so they should come together and figure out a way to give us the rest of the dollars to complete the job.&#8221;
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said LaGuardia is “well-staffed” but still faces a shortage of air traffic controllers. He said there are currently 33 certified controllers but the goal is to have 37. More than one controller was on duty at the time of the accident, he said.… <a href="https://t.co/RfMr5Z1VwA">pic.twitter.com/RfMr5Z1VwA</a>
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC7NY/status/2036178822576382248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Trump Admin Debunks Viral Rumor After Deadly LaGuardia Crash

air traffic controllers

Air Travel

Sean Duffy

Two pilots are dead following a collision between an Air Canada Express jet and an airport firetruck at New York City&#8217;s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night, according to officials.
The Port Authority said an Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident when it was struck by the aircraft. 
More than a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/air-canada-laguardia-collision-live-updates-rcna264682">dozen</a> passengers were injured in the crash, with several transported to Elmhurst Hospital and New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital for treatment.
Jazz Aviation, which operates Air Canada Express, issued a statement.
“Flight 8646 was en route to LaGuardia (LGA) from Montréal (YUL),” the company <a href="https://flyjazz.mediaroom.com/2026-03-23-Jazz-Aviation-LP-operating-as-Air-Canada-Express-confirms-incident">said</a>. “The preliminary passenger list indicates the aircraft was carrying 72 passengers and 4 crew members, although this is subject to confirmation. The incident occurred at approximately 11:47 PM on March 22, 2026.” 
According to CNN, the aircraft had just landed and was traveling at approximately 100 miles per hour when it collided with the firetruck. Early reports suggest a possible communications issue might have contributed to the crash. 
Air traffic control audio from the incident appears to capture a controller saying he &#8220;messed up,&#8221; followed by another voice responding, &#8220;Nah man, you did the best you could.&#8221; The context and role of those individuals have not yet been officially confirmed.
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Audio from Air Traffic Control when plane collided with fire truck at New York airport:
&#8220;Stop Truck 1, stop!&#8221;
&#8220;We were dealing with an emergency earlier and I messed up&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/7dJcFov4gq">pic.twitter.com/7dJcFov4gq</a>
— BNO News (@BNONews) <a href="https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/2035957754389471605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that LaGuardia Airport was shut down at 3:16 am and will not reopen until at least 2 pm. 
The New York Police Department said: &#8220;Due to an emergency incident at LaGuardia Airport, all streets and highway exits into the airport are closed until further notice. Expect delays and avoid the area if possible.” 
The crash comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown enters its 37th day, disrupting air travel and airport operations nationwide.
As a result, major airports in the United States are experiencing severe delays with security wait times over three hours. TSA officers are working without pay during the shutdown which has led to higher absences. Over four hundred have quit since mid-February. “They’re going to take other jobs to put food on the table and pay the rent,” <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airport-lines-tsa-agents-flight-delays-jfk-nola-spring-break-2026-3">said</a> Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “I do think it’s going to get much worse, and as it gets worse, I think that puts pressure on Congress to come to a resolution.” President Donald Trump announced on Saturday he will send ICE agents to “help our wonderful TSA agents who have stayed on the job despite.”

All Flights Cancelled At NYC’s LaGuardia After Deadly Runway Collision

Airports

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used a St. Patrick&#8217;s Day event to complain about &#8220;genocide&#8221; in Gaza, arguing that the Irish and Palestinians could relate over their shared histories marked by oppression.
Mamdani joined former Irish President Mary Robinson at a breakfast honoring Irish New Yorkers, and he used his remarks to praise Robinson for her support for Palestinians.
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Mamdani rips &#8216;genocide&#8217; in Palestine during St. Patrick’s Day event <a href="https://t.co/qXhjOmqn2e">https://t.co/qXhjOmqn2e</a> <a href="https://t.co/2jP4BHzOWp">pic.twitter.com/2jP4BHzOWp</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2033917935010390095?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I say this as over the past few years, as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many. For those who have long cared about universal human rights and the extension of them to Palestinians, silence, however, is nothing new – for Palestinians are so often left to weep alone,&#8221; Mamdani said. &#8220;Yet former President Robinson has never been silent.&#8221;
&#8220;The story of the Irish, both in Ireland and in New York City, is at one time a story of oppression, of subjugation, and of discrimination,&#8221; Mamdani said, arguing that it was &#8220;no coincidence&#8221; that the Irish would see their own history reflected in Gaza. &#8220;Who can better understand those who weep than those who have been made to weep for so long?&#8221;
Robinson, who served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997, followed Mamdani&#8217;s lead, and after saying that St. Patrick&#8217;s Day was a time to celebrate Irish culture and traditions, it was also a time to remember all those who may yet be &#8220;living under the shadow of war and suffering.&#8221;
&#8220;For many Irish people, these realities resonate deeply, as the mayor has said. Our own history holds memories of famine, exile and conflict. Perhaps because of that, many recognize echoes of Ireland’s past and the suffering of others today and the pain of displacement and the enduring human longing for dignity, justice, and self-determination,&#8221; she said.
Mamdani referenced Irish support for a Palestinian state in his official message to New Yorkers as well.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Happy St. Patrick&#8217;s Day, New York. <a href="https://t.co/DPCGPlFbE2">pic.twitter.com/DPCGPlFbE2</a>
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/2033925083853385985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Celebrity Sightings In New York – March 17, 2026

NYC’s Mamdani Uses St. Paddy’s Day Event To Complain About ‘Genocide’ In Gaza

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