CNN’s Abby Phillip had to issue an on-air correction for pushing fake news. She can pretend that it was a mistake all she wants, but the facts were known well before she decided to push a blatantly false narrative about the bombing attempt in New York City over the weekend. As someone who fancies herself a journalist, it was inexcusable.
Here’s what actually happened. On Saturday, two ISIS-inspired terrorists — Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19 — threw homemade improvised explosive devices into a crowd of anti-Islam protesters gathered outside Gracie Mansion. Right-wing activist Jake Lang, a vocal critic of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, organized the protest. According to federal charges filed by the Department of Justice, both men admitted they were acting in support of ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist group.
Almost immediately, the media tried to push the narrative that Mamdani was the target of an attempted bombing at Gracie Mansion. But it took very little time to expose that lie.
Yet on Tuesday night, days later, Phillip described it as ”an attempted terror attack against New York’s Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.”
It gets worse. Later in the same broadcast, guest Ana Navarro repeated the same false narrative, and Phillip let it go right past her without correcting it.
By Wednesday morning, the backlash had apparently gotten loud enough to force action. Phillip posted an “apology” on X.
“I want to correct something I said last night. The bombs thrown in New York City over the weekend by ISIS inspired attackers was thrown into a crowd of anti-Muslim protestors and not specifically targeted at Mayor Mamdani. That wording was inaccurate and I didn’t catch it ahead of time,” she wrote. “I apologize for the error.”
Do you see what she did there? And I’m not talking about the poor grammar. The post still implied Mamdani may have been a target.
Users noticed her blatant effort to distort the truth, and the post was Community Noted on X.
I want to correct something I said last night. The bombs thrown in New York City over the weekend by ISIS inspired attackers was thrown into a crowd of anti-Muslim protestors and not specifically targeted at Mayor Mamdani. That wording was inaccurate and I didn’t catch it ahead…
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) March 11, 2026
Her failure to properly admit her “error” resulted in her having to deliver a rare on-air correction that night.
Related: CNN Literally Tried to Cover for NYC ISIS Terrorists
“This morning I issued a correction first thing in the morning on X for a mistake that I made in last night’s show, but I also wanted to do so on air as well,” she said. “I incorrectly said that the bombs that were thrown by ISIS-inspired suspects in New York over the weekend were directed at Mayor Mamdani. They were not. I failed to catch and correct that mistake in real time, and I take full responsibility for that. And while we do make mistakes, it is important to acknowledge and correct those errors when they happen.”
WATCH: @abbydphillip issues an on-air correction, complementary of the one published this morning on X, for stating the Gracie Mansion bombers targeted Mayor Mandani. We seldom see on-air corrections for on-air botches but here it is. The right thing. On A-block.
ABBY PHILLIP:… pic.twitter.com/u4Cxurrv5g
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 12, 2026
Even this “apology” has problems. For starters, you’ll notice she never told viewers who the actual targets were. She corrected the wrong part of the story without telling the right part.
Mayor Mamdani’s own public statement made the same omission. He called it “terrorism” but declined to use the phrase “radical Islamic terror” — a dodge that echoed a familiar Obama-era playbook. Phillip’s correction followed the same template: acknowledge the error, but don’t say anything that might complicate the preferred narrative.
This is exactly what Mamdani did the day after the attack.
“Yesterday, white supremacist Jake Lang organized a protest outside Gracie Mansion rooted in bigotry and racism. Such hate has no place in New York City. It is an affront to our city’s values and the unity that defines who we are,” he said in a statement. “What followed was even more disturbing. Violence 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.”
There was no attempt to explain who actually committed the violence, just a blatant implication that Lang’s group was responsible for the bombs. There’s no doubt this was intentional. It helped perpetuate a convenient false narrative. You could blame Mamdani for Abby Phillip’s mistake. But CNN already got caught trying to cover for the ISIS terrorists, so there’s very little reason to believe this all wasn’t by design.
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