Jim Mishler tried to make a mountain out of a Mamdani molehill in a Dec. 27 Newsmax article:
New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced that Lillian Bonsignore, the former chief of the city’s Emergency Medical Services, will become the next commissioner of the New York City Fire Department.
The New York Times reported that Bonsignore’s appointment marks several milestones for the nation’s largest fire department.
She will be the first openly gay person to lead the FDNY, only the second woman to serve as commissioner, and the first former EMS chief to take the fire department’s top post.
Billionaire technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, CEO of multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, who has business holdings in the city, posted in response to the appointment.
“People will die because of this,” he wrote on X. Musk noted that EMS experience does not automatically equate to fire experience. “Proven experience matters when lives are at stake.”
Actually, it kinda does — even the FDNY Foundation congratulated her. Still, that didn’t Newsmax from platforming another complainer a couple days later:
Kari Lake told Newsmax on Monday that New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s decision to appoint Lillian Bonsignore as head of the city fire department raises serious questions about merit-based leadership, arguing that professional qualifications, not personal identity, should determine who runs crucial public safety agencies.
On “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Lake reacted to Mamdani’s selection of Bonsignore, who previously oversaw emergency medical services operations at the FDNY but has no firefighting experience.
Bonsignore would be the first openly gay person to lead the department.
“They want to check the box,” said Lake, acting CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Lake said she believes many Americans are frustrated by what she called an overemphasis on identity politics rather than competence and experience.
Lake offered no evidence that “identity politics’ played a role in Bonsignore’s appoinment. Instead, she insisted that EMS is not suitable experience for a fire chief:
Bonsignore’s appointment has drawn attention because FDNY commissioners have traditionally risen through the ranks of firefighting leadership.
Although EMS plays a vital role in the department, operational firefighting experience has historically been viewed as central to managing the nation’s largest fire department.
Lake said the decision does not align with common-sense leadership standards.
“The fact that she’s not a firefighter, you know, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” she said.
Lake failed to explain how Bonsignore’s considerable EMS experience disqualified her from serving as fire chief. Further, Lake has never worked in either fire or EMS capacities as far as we know, so on what basis is she denying that Bonsignore can’t handle being a fire chief?