NYC GOP Councilwoman Vickie Paladino faces firestorm after calling for ‘expulsion of Muslims’ in light of Bondi Beach terrorist attack
Queens Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino is facing a firestorm from Democrats over social media posts she made calling for the “expulsion of Muslims” in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack in Australia.
Paladino took down the posts in question after facing outrage from fellow local elected officials, including Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who ripped the comments as Islamophobic.
“We’re in the midst of a global jihad the likes of which the world has never seen, and we cannot ignore it,” Paladino had written on X after 15 people were killed and 40 others injured at a celebration of the Jewish Hannukah holiday on Sunday.
Queens Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino faces firestorm for anti-Muslim posts. Paul Martinka
The tweet was later removed from Paladino’s account. Twitter
Incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who is Jewish, said she asked Paladino to take down the post. Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
“We need to take very seriously the need to begin the expulsion of Muslims from western nations, or at the very least the severe sanction of them within western borders,” the posts said, adding that action needed to be taken to prevent “another 9/11 or worse.”
Outgoing City Comptroller Brad Lander called for the council to launch proceedings to censure Paladino “this week.”
“This is disgusting — and utterly unacceptable. There are nearly 1 million Muslim New Yorkers. Our neighbors, friends, co-workers, teachers, and our Mayor-elect,” he wrote on X.
Mamdani, who will become New York City’s first Muslim mayor when he takes office next month also slammed the Whitestone pol’s post.
“A million Muslims live in New York City. We belong here, as does every other New Yorker. This is vile Islamophobia from the Councilwoman and it has no place in our city,” he wrote on X.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams piled on, too, saying the statements have “no place outside a white supremacist rally.”
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani condemned Paladino’s tweet. Aristide Economopoulos for NY Post
Outgoing City Comptroller Brad Lander called for the council to launch proceedings to censure Paladino “this week.” Getty Images
Incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who is Jewish, said she asked Paladino to take down the post, which had been removed by Monday afternoon.
“Rhetoric that vilifies an entire community only serves to inflame tensions at a moment when New Yorkers must come together to address our shared challenges,” Menin also wrote on X. “This is a time to uplift all communities, not sow divisions.”
Menin, a Manhattan Democrat, didn’t say whether she would heed the calls to censure Paladino.
Paladino, who also shared a post that said “These Evil Islam ANIMALS hate everybody,” called the outrage an affront on the First Amendment, despite apparently agreeing to scrub the comment from her account.
“It’s been clear for a while that progressives don’t value freedom of speech, but I find it very funny that they’re so apocalyptic about this tweet, while their own social media accounts and those of their leftist allies in the DSA spew some of the most toxic, violent, and anti-American rhetoric on a daily basis,” she said in a statement.
“Once again progressives are acting like the PR wing and defense attorneys for radical Islam after a wave of terror attacks, and the West is going to have to deal with this dangerous reality soon enough.”
