Life & Liberty

I was among the first, possibly the first, to call Mamdani a communist threat that would end with flames, back when Bloomberg gave him a friendly platform on @TheStalwart’s otherwise excellent podcast early last summer. Why? Because I grew up in the Bronx while the borough burned. My father and grandfather were both FDNY officers. And as I have documented, those fires were not an accident of poverty. They were the product of socialist mayors, the flight of capital from the city (the vast majority of major corporations moved to Westchester and NJ), and the deliberate undermining of FDNY arson investigators by NYPD unions with deep ties to the Democrat party machine. Mamdani doesn’t need to light a match for more churches to butn. He only needs to make the arson investigators’ lives difficult, and there are a hundred ways to do that: replace them with incompetent DEI hires, cut their budget, bury them in paperwork, move authority to another agency, offer retirement payouts, reassign the good ones until the unit is hollow. It’s all happened before people. Go read any book or watch any documentary about the Bronx in the 80’s. To be clear: I have no evidence he is undermining the FDNY today. I haven’t researched it. What I am saying is this: unless someone like @HarmeetKDhillon, who is excellent, designates these fires as hate crimes and floods the city with federal arson investigators, the odds this continues are high. But, last I checked, the FBI doesn’t investigate arson. It outsources that to an underfunded team at ATF. And we all know how well ATF performs. So I’m not holding my breath. P.S. Or we could just send the National Guard. They alone don’t have the authority without the governor’s permission but it’s all part of America’s most important port and the USCG has full authority to protect, investigate and request support from NG and military assets to perform law enforcement operations to secure the city.

.@RoKhanna, the public deserves answers—not carefully worded talking points. The alleged incident occurred on July 8. You gave an interview to Reuters on July 9. The story was published on July 11, followed by your social media campaign and national TV appearances. A few straightforward questions: Why wasn’t this trip publicized in advance? For a politician as media-focused as you, the silence before the trip—and the publicity afterward—deserves an explanation. You say this was a serious 90-minute detention. Why did you say nothing about it on your own X account for approximately three days, even though you had already given Reuters an interview the next day? What changed between July 9 and July 11? When reports emerged that you allegedly declined requests to meet with former hostages and hostage families during this trip, you responded, “I have met with Israeli hostages.” That does not answer whether you met with any of them during this visit. Which hostages were you referring to? When and where did those meetings occur? Did you meet with any hostages or hostage families during this trip? If not, why didn’t you answer the actual allegation directly? You have publicly said you were detained by armed settlers and the IDF. What specific actions by the IDF constituted your detention? Who physically blocked the road? Did Israeli soldiers order you to remain, or otherwise prevent you from leaving? The IDF disputes that account. Will you release the complete, unedited video so the public can see the sequence for itself? Your delegation reportedly remained at the scene for roughly 90 minutes. How much contemporaneous video and photographic evidence was recorded? Will you release all of it—not selected clips, but the complete record? Who paid for this trip: your congressional office, your campaign, another organization, or someone else? Will you release the travel and funding disclosures so the public can verify the answer? Finally, will you release the contemporaneous text messages, emails, photographs and videos generated by your delegation during those 90 minutes? If your account is accurate, full transparency should only strengthen your credibility. These aren’t partisan questions. They’re the questions any member of Congress should be prepared to answer after making serious public allegations involving a foreign government. Transparency shouldn’t require this many questions.

.@RoKhanna, the public deserves answers—not carefully worded talking points. The alleged incident occurred on July 8. You gave an interview to Reuters on July 9. The story was published on July 11, followed by your social media campaign and national TV appearances. A few straightforward questions: Why wasn’t this trip publicized in advance? For a politician as media-focused as you, the silence before the trip—and the publicity afterward—deserves an explanation. You say this was a serious 90-minute detention. Why did you say nothing about it on your own X account for approximately three days, even though you had already given Reuters an interview the next day? What changed between July 9 and July 11? When reports emerged that you allegedly declined requests to meet with former hostages and hostage families during this trip, you responded, “I have met with Israeli hostages.” That does not answer whether you met with any of them during this visit. Which hostages were you referring to? When and where did those meetings occur? Did you meet with any hostages or hostage families during this trip? If not, why didn’t you answer the actual allegation directly? You have publicly said you were detained by armed settlers and the IDF. What specific actions by the IDF constituted your detention? Who physically blocked the road? Did Israeli soldiers order you to remain, or otherwise prevent you from leaving? The IDF disputes that account. Will you release the complete, unedited video so the public can see the sequence for itself? Your delegation reportedly remained at the scene for roughly 90 minutes. How much contemporaneous video and photographic evidence was recorded? Will you release all of it—not selected clips, but the complete record? Who paid for this trip: your congressional office, your campaign, another organization, or someone else? Will you release the travel and funding disclosures so the public can verify the answer? Finally, will you release the contemporaneous text messages, emails, photographs and videos generated by your delegation during those 90 minutes? If your account is accurate, full transparency should only strengthen your credibility. These aren’t partisan questions. They’re the questions any member of Congress should be prepared to answer after making serious public allegations involving a foreign government. Transparency shouldn’t require this many questions.

Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine. When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon. nytimes.com/2026/07/11/us/…