CBS Spotlights FDNY Boss Resigning Over Anti-Israel, Communist Mamdani

In another sign of the kinds of interviews and news stories we should expect and demand from a CBS-run Bari Weiss, Wednesday’s CBS Mornings aired a heavily-promoted first interview with New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Commissioner Robert Tucker, who’s stepping down next month in direct response to the city’s election of anti-Israel and avowed socialist Zohran Mamdani.

Specifically, Tucker told co-host Tony Dokoupi he was leaving because he felt he couldn’t serve under Mamdani because he’s both Jewish and a proud first responder.

 

Dokoupil set it up by conceding that, along with New York City having “the largest police and fire departments in the country,” the Big Apple “is a very tough city to govern and it can be even more so when incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani has apologized for past calls to defund the police.”

While NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch has said she would remain at her post, Tucker chose to leave and gave his first interview about his curt resignation letter after Election Day.

Dokoupil’s first question was both apt and showed welcome sympathy for Tucker’s position (as opposed to scoffing at it): “Talking about police and public safety has been a little bit awkward for mayor-elect Mamdani because of some of his past comments. Does he have some work to do still in winning over the support of first responders in New York?”

Tucker simply responded Mamdani “has a tremendous amount of work to do and I think it’s work well worth doing” and even though he “respect[s]” Tisch for staying on, “I know she respects me for my decision to leave.”

Dokoupil then asked Tucker straight up if he’s resigning because he’s Jewish: “To what extent is this decision of yours about being a Jewish new Yorker?”

“Yeah, I think it’s a factor, no doubt, and I don’t want to tell you that it’s the only factor, but I believe that the things that I have heard the mayor say would make it difficult for me to continue on in – in such a senior executive role in the administration,” Tucker explained, remaining vague while also leaving little doubt to those who could read between the lines.

Dokoupil then outlined how Tucker has not been alone in feeling concern for their ability to be Jewish in New York under someone who’s voiced an “opposition to Israel as a Jewish state.”

To this, Tucker further emphasized he and Mamdani would have “very fundamental things” they would disagree on if he were to have stayed (click “expand”):

DOKOUPIL: Mamdani’s political rise has been taken as an ominous sign by many Jewish leaders –

RABBI ANGELA BUCHDAHL: Zohran Mamdani has contributed to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent anti-Semitism.

DOKOUPIL: – who point to, among other things, his opposition to Israel as a Jewish state.

TUCKER: Look, it’s a complicated, emotional decision to leave, but ideologically there’s no doubt that the mayor and I disagree on some very fundamental things to me.

Tucker specifically cited Mamdani’s callous response to the gang of thugs congregating around and blocking entrance to the Park East Synagogue on November 19 that Dokoupil explained for the uninitiated:

In a protest last week outside a synagogue hosting an event to support Jewish immigration to Israel, activists shouted threats. A Mamdani spokesperson was later quoted saying he “discouraged the language,” adding, in an apparent nod of support to the protesters, that “these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”

Tucker said “I don’t know that the public has heard appropriately from him” and, for those that did see his response, Tucker opined Mamdani “could have come out very quickly and condemned the behavior and some of the rhetoric,” but he didn’t.

The interview came to a close with this remarkable admission from Tucker that he has received no communication from Mamdani and his team:

I haven’t had any personal conversations with the mayor-elect, I haven’t heard from anyone in his incoming administration nor has the department and so, I only hope that – that that is not an indicator of their feelings about the FDNY. I’d like to think they think everything is going so well here that they don’t need to transition so fast.

Back live, Dokoupil concluded by emphasizing Tucker “loves his job” and “the people he is working with in general,” so this “was clearly an emotion and personal decision.” Despite his resignation, Dokoupil added, Tucker “is wishing Mamdani all the best, all the success in the world.”

Going to break, Dokoupil blurted out that he too has received no response from Mamdani and his team: “Oh, wait, I should add we asked the Mamdani campaign for comment. We did not hear back. So, yeah.”

To see the relevant CBS transcript from November 26, click here.