New York City has a new mayor. He’s a democratic socialist. He’s hosting Ramadan Iftar dinners at City Hall. He’s planning to be sworn in on the Quran. And he won an election in the greatest city in the world — a city that watched nearly 3,000 Americans get incinerated on a Tuesday morning in September 2001.
If you think some people in Washington might have something to say about that combination of facts, you’d be right. And if you think Washington’s left flank would immediately cry racism instead of engaging with a single one of those facts — well, you’ve clearly done this before.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama sparked a five-alarm meltdown this week when he shared a post on X from the account “End Wokeness.” The post placed a photo of the Twin Towers burning on September 11, 2001 next to an image of Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosting a Ramadan event at City Hall. The caption: “Less than 25 years apart.”
Tuberville’s own comment? Four words. Four words that lit the internet on fire.
“The enemy is inside the gates.”
Cue the fainting couches.
Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts didn’t waste a breath on nuance. He went straight for the nuclear option:
“Racist. Islamophobic. Disgusting. Republicans just want to Make America White Again.”
Right on cue, Chuck Schumer — a man who has never met a camera he didn’t love — rode in on his high horse:
“This is mindless hate. Muslim Americans are cops, doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers, bricklayers, mothers, fathers, neighbors, mayors, and more. Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American and we must confront and overcome it whenever it rears its ugly head.”
Nobody said anything about Muslim Americans, Chuck. Tuberville shared a post juxtaposing 9/11 with a man who is, by the way, also a self-described democratic socialist who recently dined with Mahmoud Khalil inside Gracie Mansion. But sure — connect those dots however you need to.
Tuberville wasn’t backing down. He shared Schumer’s post and came back swinging:
“Calling Radical Islam out for being a CULT doesn’t make you an ‘Islamophobe.’ Radical Islamists chant ‘death to America’ and would love to see every Christian and Jew murdered. Under Sharia Law, if you are not a Muslim, you are the ENEMY. Under Sharia Law, minorities are PERSECUTED. Under Sharia Law, women are SOLD, RAPED, and TRAFFICKED. Don’t believe me?? Read it for yourself! Radical Islam is NOT compatible with the Constitution and has NO PLACE IN AMERICA. I won’t be silenced about this.”
Say what you want about Coach Tuberville — the man does not whisper.
Mamdani himself fired back with the kind of line that sounds great at a fundraiser and means absolutely nothing in the real world:
“Let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers.”
Slick. But here’s the thing — nobody has a problem with breaking bread. People have a problem with the company you keep, the ideology you carry, and the city you now run sitting directly on top of the most hallowed ground in American history.
The Democrats’ playbook here is so worn out you can see through it. Disagree with a progressive? Racist. Question radical ideology wrapped in religious packaging? Islamophobe. Want the border enforced? White nationalist. They’ve turned every serious conversation into a word-association game where they always win and you’re always the villain — no debate required.
Tuberville isn’t saying Muslim Americans are the enemy. He’s saying radical Islamic ideology — the kind that produces hijackers, suicide bombers, and chants of “death to America” — is incompatible with a constitutional republic. That’s not hate speech. That’s a history lesson.
New York City buried thousands of its own. It watched those towers fall in real time. And now its mayor gets sworn in on the Quran while hosting dinners with figures who’ve made headlines for their open hostility to Israel and the West.
The Democrats want to call that progress. Tuberville called it something else.
History will sort out who was right — and it won’t need a trigger warning to do it.