CNN Deletes Post About Attempted Terror Attack Outside Mamdani’s Home That Breached ‘Editorial Standards’

(Photo by Matthew Hoen/NurPhoto via AP)

CNN announced in a statement on Tuesday that it had deleted one of its social media posts for “breaching the editorial standards” of the network after it was hit with backlash for its framing of an attempted terrorist attack in New York City last week.

“A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting,” CNN said in the statement. “It has therefore been deleted.”

The deleted post in question sparked backlash on social media after it referred to the suspects, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, as “two Pennsylvania teenagers” who could have been enjoying the “warm weather” when their lives were “drastically” changed.

“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,” read the post. “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 protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home. Here’s what we know so far.”

The post received widespread criticism, including from Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin, who commented, “Some of the media headlines that have been coming out of this attempted ISIS terror attack are wild.”

The New York Police Department’s (NYPD) bomb squad determined over the weekend that a device allegedly thrown by the two men outside Mamdani’s residence was “an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or death.”

Both men “were acting in support of ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice, with Kayumi allegedly telling cops he was affiliated with the terror group.

One of the two bombs recovered by police contained an explosive that “has been used in multiple terrorist attacks over the last decade,” the Department of Justice added.

“This was an alleged ISIS-inspired act of terrorism that could have killed American citizens,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “We will not allow ISIS’s poisonous, anti-American ideology to threaten this nation — our law enforcement officers will remain vigilant, as they were when these devices were brought to a protest.”

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