As the old saying goes, “never let a crisis go to waste.” In an all-too-common occurrence, CNN leveraged the tragic Midtown Manhattan office shooting into a vague call for speech censorship and gun bans.
Watch as former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, a known sandinista sympathizer, pinned the environment that led to the shooting on familiar foes:
Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio essentially blames the current "very troubling time" on the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the Constitution pic.twitter.com/8Q1gDKV2KO
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 29, 2025
BLL DE BLASIO: I think we should be honest, Laura, that people are feeling less and less secure in general in our society. It's a- it's a very troubling time.
LAURA COATES: It is.
DE BLASIO: I mean, you have so many voices saying extreme and dangerous things. That doesn't help on all sides. And then on top of it, just way too many weapons around and- and very little that stops someone from getting a weapon. I mean, this is a deeply troubling situation. I keep wondering when it will be the incident that finally tells people we have to change something. But what you read or what we heard there, you know, the idea that there's a whole generation that came up preparing for school shootings?
COATES: Yeah.
DE BLASIO: And now is experiencing office shootings. I mean, this- this is not a sustainable way for our society to progress. What does it do to people's psyche? Those folks, not just in that building. Everyone who goes into a building in Midtown tomorrow is going to be worried. They won't be able to help themselves. And this is just not a way to live. We have to do something better as a society.
COATES: Well said. Mayor Bill de Blasio, thank you.
The interview began with a moment to rightfully honor fallen NYPD Officer Dadirul Islam, who leaves behind a wife and two children with a third on the way. It is at this point that host Laura Coates interjects, setting up audio of a shooting survivor who barricaded herself and her colleagues in a conference room, as they learned during school shooter drills.
It is at this point that De Blasio essentially blames the shooting on too much speech and too many guns. The leftist reflexive gun grab I get, coming from a city that locked a man away for building his own guns as one would a Lego set. But who determines what speech is “extreme and dangerous?” What evidence does De Blasio have of such speech being a factor in this shooting? We don’t know the answers to these questions because host Laura Coates chose to sigh and emote instead of asking serious followup questions.
If some mid comic has his late-night show cancelled, the media cry out and don their sackcloth and ashes in the name of “free speech”. If it’s you, however, the former Mayor of New York City will call for your guns to be seized and your speech suppressed as his CNN host nods along in the middle of breaking news coverage.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on CNN’s Laura Coates Live on Monday, July 28th, 2025:
LAURA COATES: With me now, former Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio. Mayor- God, I cannot believe this has happened. What is your reaction to what has happened tonight?
BILL DE BLASIO: Laura, I had to, way too many times, go to the hospital and meet the families of an officer that we lost. And this is the worst of all circumstances. When it's someone who's young and has a family, has a baby that will never know their father. It's just horrifying. And someone who, you know, was living the American dream. And this is such a classic New York story of a young man who came here from Bangladesh and joined us in every way as New Yorkers, as Americans, to protect his fellow citizens. And, you know, it's just horrifying. And the- the suddenness, I mean, we were all going about our lives today and suddenly word came around all over New York City, you know, active shooter situation. Now, the other thing, you know, Laura, is that the first thing we all have to think about when- whether you're mayor or you're a police commissioner is, is this a lone wolf or is this part of something bigger that we have to address and we have to warn people about? Thank God, it appears, and certainly Commissioner Tisch said as quickly as she could, that there is not some larger conspiracy here. But the investigation now will go into, well, did anything else motivate him? Did anybody else aid him? Is there some bigger reality we need to know about that could tell us something to protect ourselves for the future? Or is this just some individual tragically troubled, acting on his own demons?
COATES: It- really, the way you describe it and just thinking about the general fear people have and their worst case scenario, their- their-their- worst nightmare coming to life in their own buildings as well. And I want you to listen to what witness Jessica Chen recounted about the terrifying moments that she endured during the deadly shooting.
JESSICA CHEN: We ran into the conference room and then eventually barricaded the tables across the doors and just stayed still. I think it was very, very apparent through all this that a lot of us were young. A lot of us went through training and elementary school of what to do in an active shooter situation. We were all unfortunately prepared.
COATES: That- that phrase, “unfortunately prepared”, is- that will stick with me, because this actually marks the 254th mass shooting in this country this year. Now, this city in New York is home to around a million daily commuters, not to mention the New Yorkers who work in these buildings. How do they now feel secure even going to work tomorrow?
DE BLASIO: I think we should be honest, Laura, that people are feeling less and less secure in general in our society. It's a- it's a very troubling time.
COATES: It is.
DE BLASIO: I mean, you have so many voices saying extreme and dangerous things. That doesn't help on all sides. And then on top of it, just way too many weapons around and- and very little that stops someone from getting a weapon. I mean, this is a deeply troubling situation. I keep wondering when it will be the incident that finally tells people we have to change something. But what you read or what we heard there, you know, the idea that there's a whole generation that came up preparing for school shootings?
COATES: Yeah.
DE BLASIO: And now is experiencing office shootings. I mean, this- this is not a sustainable way for our society to progress. What does it do to people's psyche? Those folks, not just in that building. Everyone who goes into a building in Midtown tomorrow is going to be worried. They won't be able to help themselves. And this is just not a way to live. We have to do something better as a society.
COATES: Well said. Mayor Bill de Blasio, thank you.
DE BLASIO: Thank you.
