❓WHAT HAPPENED: CNN commentator Ana Navarro falsely claimed an Islamic State-inspired attack in New York City, targeting people protesting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), was targeted at the mayor himself.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Ana Navarro, suspects Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, former New York City Council member Joe Borelli, and Abby Phillip.
📍WHEN & WHERE: March 11, 2026, New York City.
💬KEY QUOTE: “The attack wasn’t on Mayor Mamdani. It was attacking protesters, people protesting Mamdani.” – Joe Borelli
🎯IMPACT: CNN has faced criticism for its inaccurate coverage of the Gracie Mansion incident, both on-air and in written reporting.
CNN political commentator Ana Navarro falsely claimed during a panel discussion on CNN’s NewsNight show that an Islamic State-inspired attack near the official residence of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) had targeted the mayor himself. In reality, the incident involved two suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, who are accused of attempting to hit anti-Mamdani demonstrators protesting the “Islamic takeover of New York City” with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), while shouting “Allahu akbar!”
Navarro’s false statement came up in a conversation about whether Republicans were using the foiled attack to stir up anti-Muslim hostility. Former New York City Council member Joe Borelli, a Republican, immediately pointed out the error, explaining that the explosives were directed at the anti-Mamdani protesters rather than at Mamdani—a member of the same Twelver sect of Shia Islam as Iran’s ruling ayatollahs.
Even after the correction, Navarro maintained her position, declaring, ‘It was at his house!’ The program’s host, Abby Phillip, did not challenge or address Navarro’s remark at the time; she had previously made a similar false statement, describing the attack as “an attempted terror attack against New York’s Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.”
Phillip subsequently issued an apology, admitting that the devices had been thrown at protesters against Mamdani and Islamization, not the Muslim mayor. CNN had also published a report portraying the alleged terrorists sympathetically.
“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,” CNN wrote in a social media post sharing the report. “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 outside protest at Mayor Mamdani’s home,” it added, appearing to portray the suspects almost as victims.
The post was eventually deleted, with the outlet admitting it had “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident, thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting.” However, even after the report correction and Phillip’s apology, CNN did not stop mischaracterizing the attack, with CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere claiming on Wednesday afternoon that Mamdani was now a “target of political violence.”
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