For the first time, FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker is explaining why he decided to announce his resignation just one day after Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race.
“Look, it’s a complicated, emotional decision to leave. But ideologically, there’s no doubt that the mayor and I disagree on some very fundamental things to me,” Tucker, who was appointed to the role in August 2024, told “CBS Mornings” in his first interview since handing in his resignation letter on Nov. 5.
In a closely-watched decision last week, Tucker’s police counterpart, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch accepted Mamdani’s offer to stay in her role. Months before the election, Mamdani softened his sharp criticism of the NYPD and clarified that he is “not running to defund the police,” distancing himself from old social media posts.
Despite his public apology to the NYPD, Tucker said Mamdani still has some work to do when it comes to winning over the support of first responders. Beyond that, some of Mamdani’s stances, like his refusal to support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, have alarmed many Jewish New Yorkers.
“I think it’s a factor [in my decision to resign], no doubt,” said Tucker, who is Jewish. “And I don’t want to tell you that it’s the only factor. But I believe that the things that I have heard the mayor say would make it difficult for me to continue on in such a senior executive role in the administration.”
According to exit polls, 31% of Jewish New Yorkers voted for Mamdani, with 65% voting for independent opponent Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani won every borough but Staten Island.
In an October debate, Mamdani, who will make history as New York City’s first Muslim mayor, vowed to “be the mayor who doesn’t just protect Jewish New Yorkers, but also celebrates and cherishes them.”
However, Tucker and some prominent Jewish leaders – like Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi at New York City’s Central Synagogue – aren’t convinced by the mayor-elect’s words of reassurance. In an October sermon, Buchdal accused Mamdani of contributing “to a mainstreaming of some of the most abhorrent antisemitism.”
“More importantly than hearing it, we want to see it,” Tucker said.
He pointed to Mamdani’s response to a protest last week outside of an Upper East Side synagogue hosting an event to support Jewish emigration to Israel, during which activists shouted threats. A Mamdani spokesperson was later quoted saying he “discouraged the language,” adding in an apparent nod of support to the protesters that “these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
Tucker said Mamdani should have come out quickly to condemn the behavior and rhetoric.
“You know, I don’t know that the public has heard appropriately from him,” he said.
Inside headquarters in Brooklyn, where the FDNY coordinates responses to emergencies across America’s biggest city, Tucker says they’re still waiting for outreach from Mamdani.
“I haven’t had any personal conversations with the mayor-elect. I haven’t heard from anyone in his incoming administration, nor has the department. And so I only hope that is not an indicator of their feelings about the FDNY. I’d like to think they think everything is going so well here that they don’t need to transition so fast,” he joked.
Mamdani and his team have not responded to CBS News’ requests for comment on this story.