For the primary time, FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker is explaining why he determined to announce his resignation simply at some point after Zohran Mamdani gained the New York Metropolis mayoral race.
“Look, it is a sophisticated, emotional determination to depart. However ideologically, there is no doubt that the mayor and I disagree on some very elementary issues to me,” Tucker, who was appointed to the function in August 2024, informed “CBS Mornings” in his first interview since handing in his resignation letter on Nov. 5.
In a closely-watched determination final week, Tucker’s police counterpart, New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accepted Mamdani’s provide to remain in her function. Months earlier than the election, Mamdani softened his sharp criticism of the NYPD and clarified that he’s “not working to defund the police,” distancing himself from previous social media posts.
Regardless of his public apology to the NYPD, Tucker mentioned Mamdani nonetheless has some work to do in the case of profitable over the assist of first responders. Past that, a few of Mamdani’s stances, like his refusal to assist Israel’s proper to exist as a Jewish state, have alarmed many Jewish New Yorkers.
“I feel it is a issue [in my decision to resign], little question,” mentioned Tucker, who’s Jewish. “And I do not wish to let you know that it is the solely issue. However I consider that the issues that I’ve heard the mayor say would make it tough for me to proceed on in such a senior government function within the administration.”
In keeping with exit polls, 31% of Jewish New Yorkers voted for Mamdani, with 65% voting for unbiased opponent Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani gained each borough however Staten Island.
In an October debate, Mamdani, who will make historical past as New York Metropolis’s first Muslim mayor, vowed to “be the mayor who would not simply defend Jewish New Yorkers, but in addition celebrates and cherishes them.”
Nevertheless, Tucker and a few distinguished Jewish leaders – like Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at New York Metropolis’s Central Synagogue – aren’t satisfied by the mayor-elect’s phrases of reassurance. In an October sermon, Buchdal accused Mamdani of contributing “to a mainstreaming of a number of the most abhorrent antisemitism.”
“Extra importantly than listening to it, we wish to see it,” Tucker mentioned.
He pointed to Mamdani’s response to a protest final week exterior of an Higher East Aspect synagogue internet hosting an occasion to assist Jewish emigration to Israel, throughout which activists shouted threats. A Mamdani spokesperson was later quoted saying he “discouraged the language,” including in an obvious nod of assist to the protesters that “these sacred areas shouldn’t be used to advertise actions in violation of worldwide regulation.”
Tucker mentioned Mamdani ought to have come out rapidly to sentence the conduct and rhetoric.
“You recognize, I do not know that the general public has heard appropriately from him,” he mentioned.
Inside headquarters in Brooklyn, the place the FDNY coordinates responses to emergencies throughout America’s greatest metropolis, Tucker says they’re nonetheless ready for outreach from Mamdani.
“I have not had any private conversations with the mayor-elect. I have not heard from anybody in his incoming administration, nor has the division. And so I solely hope that isn’t an indicator of their emotions in regards to the FDNY. I would wish to assume they assume every little thing goes so properly right here that they needn’t transition so quick,” he joked.
Mamdani and his workforce haven’t responded to CBS Information’ requests for touch upon this story.
