New York City has a self-described democratic socialist for a mayor who called for the arrest of a sitting foreign head of state, stayed silent for hours after a Jewish man was stabbed outside a synagogue, and whose anti-Israel rhetoric has drawn fire from Jewish leaders across the political spectrum.
One radio host finally said what a lot of people are thinking out loud.
And Fox News apologized for him twice — which tells you everything you need to know about where the network’s priorities are right now.
What Rosenberg Said on Fox & Friends Weekend
WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg called New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a terrorist and a jihadist during an appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend.
He didn’t hedge. He didn’t soften it. “Trying to talk to Mayor Mamdani is like trying to talk to the IRGC. This guy is a terrorist. That’s the bottom line, I’ll say it. You don’t want to say it, I’ll say it. He’s a terrorist, he’s a jihadist.”
Rosenberg continued: “He hates the Jewish people. He hates America. He hates the Italian people, he hates the Irish people, he hates the German people, unless you’re Muslim, Mayor Mamdani has no use for you.”
Rosenberg added that Mamdani “maybe has perpetrated the worst American and Jewish hate in the history of this country,” and that the blood of two people recently stabbed on the Upper West Side of New York City “is on his hands.” “That blood is on your hands, Mayor Mamdani,” he said directly.
Jenkins tried to interject, telling Rosenberg, “I think you may be a bit over your skis in calling him, in labeling him a terrorist and you’re probably going to be flagged for that.”
Rosenberg shot back: “Why?”
Good question.
The Stabbings That Started This Conversation
A 51-year-old suspect allegedly yelled “Allahu akbar” while stabbing a Jewish man and an Asian man in quick succession on the Upper West Side. Authorities charged the suspect, Raul Morales, with hate crimes.
The Jewish victim, Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus, 50, was stabbed with a screwdriver after leaving Tisha B’Av services. Tisha B’Av is one of the most solemn days in the Jewish calendar. He was attacked walking home from prayer.
The stabbings took place a day after Mamdani issued a statement acknowledging that he could not fulfill his promise to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In his video statement, before announcing the city could not arrest Netanyahu, Mamdani made a series of incendiary claims against Israel. The video has been viewed more than 242 million times.
Mamdani remained silent for several hours on what officials described as an antisemitic stabbing, choosing instead to post about his millionaire housing tax initiative.
Let that sink in. A Jewish man gets stabbed outside a synagogue on one of the holiest days of the Jewish year, and the mayor of New York City was posting about a tax plan.
UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein pointed to Mamdani’s months-long crusade against Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The mayor had posted a social media video calling for Netanyahu’s arrest, calling him a war criminal. Goldstein called it “political grandstanding” and said: “Shame on him for doing this for perceived political benefit when it has real-world consequence for the Jews of New York.”
Rabbi Yosie Levine of The Jewish Center said that “when public officials repeatedly cast the Jewish community as a stand-in for actions of the Israeli government, they create a climate in which Jews become targets.”
He added: “Today, every time the mayor speaks, we need the police to protect us. Jewish life in America is starting to feel like Jewish life in Europe.”
These are not fringe voices. These are community leaders watching their people get attacked and asking their mayor to lower the temperature. And the mayor spent the afternoon tweeting about housing policy.
Fox Apologized. Rosenberg Didn’t.
Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins issued an on-air statement after Rosenberg’s remarks. The network apologized not once, but twice for Rosenberg’s statements.
Jenkins said: “We know there are heated feelings around this war last hour, while discussing the role anti-Israel is playing in the rise of antisemitism, one of our guests labeled New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a quote, terrorist.”
Rosenberg wasn’t buying it. He noted in a post on X that Fox News apologized twice for his remarks and stated that he stands by them completely.
“The comments that had FOX apologize for me TWICE after my appearance early this morning. I 100% stand by my assertions! 100%!” he wrote.
And he wasn’t alone. Even Harmeet Dhillon, the deputy attorney general, was perplexed by the conservative cable television station’s apology. “Sid knows,” she wrote in an X message where she reposted Rosenberg’s full remarks.
The deputy attorney general of the United States quietly reposting the clip is not a small thing. That’s a senior law enforcement official signaling that Rosenberg’s concern about Mamdani’s conduct is not out of bounds.
Who Mamdani Actually Is
Mamdani proudly describes himself as a democratic socialist alongside left-wing lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He is the city’s first Muslim mayor, born in Uganda and raised in Queens.
His agenda reads like a wish list drawn up in a college dorm room. His campaign was packed with big policies aimed at lowering the cost of living, from free childcare and free buses to a rent freeze for people in rent-regulated apartments, much of it funded by raising taxes on the wealthy. He also proposed launching a pilot program for city-run grocery stores.
Government-run grocery stores. In New York City. Paid for by taxing the people who actually create jobs and economic activity in that city. Every dollar taxed away from a business or a high earner is a dollar that doesn’t go into the private economy, doesn’t hire anyone, and doesn’t produce anything. Socialist governments throughout history have tried variations of this playbook — and the result is always the same: shortages, inefficiency, and a middle class that gets squeezed until it disappears.
Mamdani was dogged during his campaign by comments he made in 2020 in which he called to “Defund this rogue agency” when referencing the NYPD, and described the department as “racist, anti-queer and a major threat to public safety.” He has since walked those statements back, but the record exists.
He also gave a speech in which he likened the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC to “monsters” fomenting “genocide” and societal division.
Earlier this year, Rosenberg faced backlash after referring to Mamdani as a “radical Islam cockroach” and later apologized, only to subsequently revoke that apology. The man has been consistent, if nothing else.
And this is where the Fox apology gets genuinely strange. Rosenberg isn’t some random caller who wandered in off the street. He is a longtime WABC radio host and outspoken supporter of Israel who has repeatedly criticized Mamdani. He was booked to talk about exactly these issues. He talked about exactly these issues. And then the network apologized for it.
The question worth asking is not whether Rosenberg’s language was heated. It was. The question is whether the underlying concern — that a mayor who calls for the arrest of a foreign head of state, demonizes Israel with incendiary language, and stays silent while a Jewish man gets stabbed outside a synagogue represents a genuine threat to Jewish life and constitutional order in New York City — is legitimate. A lot of serious people think it is.
Mamdani is not just a political opponent with different views on housing policy. He is a self-described socialist who has spent years using the language of the hard Left to delegitimize Israel, undermine law enforcement, and position himself as the national face of a movement that wants to fundamentally reshape American cities along lines that have failed everywhere they’ve been tried. Importing that ideology into the governance of the largest city in the United States, while stoking hostility toward Jewish residents, is not a normal political disagreement.
Sid Rosenberg said it bluntly. Fox News flinched. Harmeet Dhillon quietly said he was right. And somewhere in New York City, Moshe Yezhak Grunhaus is recovering from a screwdriver attack he suffered while walking home from synagogue on a holy day.
Decide for yourself who’s over their skis.
Sources: Mediaite; Todd Starnes; VINnews; The Gateway Pundit; CBS News New York; Gothamist; amNewYork; Times of Israel; The Forward; Fox News; ABC News; CNN; Britannica; Associated Press