NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
CNN’s Abby Phillip falsely stated on Tuesday that the alleged ISIS-inspired terror attack in New York City over the weekend was “against” Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“Two Republicans say Muslims don’t belong here after an attempted terror attack against New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, says nothing, really, to condemn those comments,” Phillip told CNN viewers, appearing to trip over her words as she went to a commercial break.
In reality, the attack is being investigated as an “act of ISIS-inspired terrorism” that was targeted at anti-Islam protesters outside Mamdani’s Gracie Mansion mayoral residence. Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, were charged with material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and use of a weapon of mass destruction.
NYC TERROR PROBE: HOMEMADE IEDS SET OFF IN ‘CONTROLLED DETONATION’ AT STORAGE FACILITY, SOURCE SAYS
Both men are U.S. citizens. One suspect’s parents are naturalized U.S. citizens from Turkey, while the other suspect’s parents are naturalized U.S. citizens from Afghanistan.
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A guest later on Phillip’s program pointed out that the attack was targeted against protesters, not the mayor himself.
“To frame it as an anti-Muslim attack would actually completely reverse what happened,” guest Joe Borelli said.
Mamdani, the first Muslim mayor of New York City, has described the attempted attack as “terrorism” but did not reference radical Islam in his initial public remarks.
MAMDANI AVOIDS ‘RADICAL ISLAMIC TERROR’ PHRASE AFTER ISIS-INSPIRED NYC ATTACK, ECHOING OBAMA-ERA DEBATE
After significant online backlash to her remark, Phillip took to X on Tuesday morning to offer an apology.
“I want to correct something I said last night. The bombs thrown in New York City over the weekend by ISIS inspired attackers was thrown into a crowd of anti-Muslim protestors and not specifically targeted at Mayor Mamdani. That wording was inaccurate and I didn’t catch it ahead of time. I apologize for the error,” Phillip wrote.
It was a rough day for CNN on Tuesday, as the network was forced to delete a social media post that oddly portrayed the terror suspects as teenagers who could have simply enjoyed nice weather.
“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather,” the now-deleted post read. “But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home. Here’s what we know so far.”
CNN followed up with this explanation on X: “A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted.”
CNN TORCHED OVER ‘BIZARRE’ POST ABOUT PENNSYLVANIA TEENAGERS CHARGED WITH THROWING BOMBS AT A NYC PROTEST
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee declared in a post on X Monday that “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” and later defended his remarks as Democrats condemned them. Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., has posted similar rhetoric in the past.
Speaker Johnson, responding to questions about Ogles on Monday, sounded the alarm about the threat of Sharia law in the U.S., warning that it is in direct conflict with the tenets the U.S. was founded on.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace, Elizabeth Elkind and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
Read the full article here