{"id":157306,"date":"2026-03-08T22:40:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T22:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/157306\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T22:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T22:40:30","slug":"manhattan-bp-brad-hoylman-sigal-blames-wrong-protesters-for-hurling-bombs-outside-gracie-mansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/157306\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan BP Brad Hoylman-Sigal blames wrong protesters for hurling bombs outside Gracie Mansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal was roasted Sunday after he blamed the wrong protesters for hurling suspected explosive devices during dueling demonstrations<\/a> outside Gracie Mansion Saturday.<\/p>\n

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal was roasted for wrongly blaming \u201cWhite Christian Nationalists\u201d for bombs at Gracie Mansion. Manhattan Borough President<\/p>\n

Hoylman-Sigal issued a statement on X Saturday \u2014 claiming, in part that, \u201cWhite Christian Nationalists led a roaming trail of Islamophobia and antisemitism today on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side at Gracie Mansion where they targeted our mayor with an incendiary device.\u201d<\/p>\n

The borough president took down the statement before it was publicly revealed Sunday that two pro-Muslim demonstrators, identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi<\/a>, were arrested in the incident. Federal authorities are now working with the NYPD on the case.<\/p>\n

Hoylman-Sigal\u2019s since-deleted post on X. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

The pair were part of a group of counter-protesters who mobbed a planned anti-Muslim demonstration organized by right-wing agitator Jake Lang.<\/p>\n

But a source took a screenshot of Hoylman-Sigal\u2019s erroneous knee-jerk statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very sad. What\u2019s happened to the Democrats? They\u2019re blind to the point that facts don\u2019t matter anymore,\u201d said former Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat turned Repubilcan and founder of Americans Against Antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage is done. They jumped to conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoylman-Sigal said he revised his statement as he received more information.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy comments evolved as I learned more. It was an evolving statement. I amended it,\u201d Hoylman-Sigal said Sunday.<\/p>\n

Ibraham Kayumi, 19, and Emir Balat, 18, trained with ISIS overseas and packed their bomb with \u201cMother of Satan,\u201d an explosive long favored by international terrorists, sources said.<\/p>\n

AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He defended his statement that Lang and \u201cfar right Christians\u201d led a protest against Mamdani, the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor.<\/p>\n

Still, the Manhattan borough president said authorities should \u201cthrow the book\u201d at the alleged bomb throwers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not making any excuses for bomb throwers. People who hurled incendiary devices are just idiots,\u201d Hoylman-Sigal said. \u201cThey are domestic terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other politicians put out one-sided statements condemning Islamophobia.<\/p>\n

The same type of bomb was used in high-profile terror attacks in France and the UK over more than a decade.<\/p>\n

AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Democratic Borough President was panned for his knee-jerk reaction to the protest. Hans Pennink<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy to know that our mayor and First Lady are safe, but horrified that there was such a disturbing threat of violence outside their residence,\u201d said congressional candidate and former city Comptroller Brad Lander.<\/p>\n

\u201cVile displays of Islamophobia will never be tolerated in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Liz Krueger, who reps the Upper East Side neighborhood that includes Gracie Mansion, said, \u201cNew York is no place for anti-Muslim hate or any other kind of prejudice. We don\u2019t need out-of-state provocateurs sowing fear, division, and violence in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani himself put out a statement Sunday condemning \u201cwhite supremacist Jack Lang\u201d for organizing a protest outside Gracie Mansion \u201crooted in bigotry and racism\u201d that has \u201cno place in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat followed was even more disturbing,\u201d he said. \u201cViolence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics slammed the mayor for failing to identify who was responsible for bringing bombs to a protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is insane\u2026 Mamdani calls out first, and by name, a `white supremacist\u2019 for protesting,\u201d said Geiger Capital on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe then leaves out the 2 Muslim men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, who were arrested by NYPD after they yelled `Allahu Akbar!\u2019 and threw a homemade bomb into the crowd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal was roasted Sunday after he blamed the wrong protesters for hurling suspected explosive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[32579,8409,64973,13057,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,103,4648,58],"class_list":["post-157306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-bombs","tag-gracie-mansion","tag-improvised-explosive-devices","tag-isis","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nypd","tag-protests","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}