On last night’s edition of CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip, known around these parts as the “ThunderDome”, the panel discussed NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s push for a tax on pied-a-terres. What viewers inadvertently caught was a bizarre downplay of a virulently racist term. Take a look at host Abby Phillip’s strange new redefinition of “from the River to the Sea”: According to Abby Phillip: "From the River to the Sea" is a pro-Palestinian slogan, and not a call for the elimination of Jews. pic.twitter.com/VnYNGDG5Y4 — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 7, 2026 ABBY PHILLIP: New York real estate titan Stephen Roth went even further saying, quote, "I consider the phrase tax the rich when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs and even the phrase 'From the river to the sea,'" he's referring there to a controversial pro-Palestinian slogan. I don't know about the racial slur piece.  Of course, “from the River to the Sea” is much more than a “controversial pro-Palesinian slogan.” It is a call for the outright elimination of Jews between the River (Jordan) and the Sea (Mediterranean). This is the chant that terrified many Jewish college students, as it was uttered across countless pro-Hamas marches across hundreds of college campuses in the wake of the medieval October 7th attack against Israel. Phillip probably knows better, or at least SHOULD know better, having covered these marches on the show that bears her name. Her glib downplay of the eliminationist slogan raises questions about what exactly passes for standards at CNN. How does this pass muster, when it wasn’t that long ago that Ryan Girdusky got thrown off the show for cracking a beeper joke at MSNBC castoff Mehdi Hassan? As our own Curtis Houck recounted at the time, Phillip clutched her pearls and offered apologies and reiterated that Girdusky’s joke was beyond the pale. Phillip’s downplay of a terror mantra was a throwaway line ahead of a thoughtful segment on Zohran Mamdani’s class warfare and its potential for far-left violence.  It should also stand as a reminder of the need to maintain consistent standards. Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned segment as aired on CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip on Wednesday, May 6th, 2025: CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP 5/6/26 10:37 PM (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZOHRAN MAMDANI: When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we're taxing the rich. I'm thrilled to announce we've secured a pied-a-terre tax, the first in New York's history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city. Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million. (END VIDEO CLIP) ABBY PHILLIP: That was New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announcing his plan to tax wealthy residents' second homes as he stood outside of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin's multi-million-dollar penthouse. But that video didn't sit well with two of the city's richest, including Griffin, who had this to say about it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEN GRIFFIN, CITADEL CEO: I actually had to see it a second time because the first time I couldn't believe what I was watching. And I'll tell you, it took a moment to digest what I was watching. What really upset me about the video was the fact that it put me in harm's way to turn me into a political puppet was just in poor taste, really poor taste. (END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIP: New York real estate titan Stephen Roth went even further saying, quote, "I consider the phrase tax the rich when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs and even the phrase 'From the river to the sea,'" he's referring there to a controversial pro-Palestinian slogan. I don't know about the racial slur piece. I do think Ken Griffin's discomfort with somebody being outside of his home is very reasonable. ANA NAVARRO, CNN DR. POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Mamdani really screwed up there. I think it's boneheaded and short-sighted. Listen, Ken Griffin has now moved to Miami. We know because we live in Miami, Ken Griffin has single-handedly changed the face of philanthropy in Miami. He's giving to everything. But we just saw it in that clip. We didn't see it in the clip of Ken Griffin, but he alludes to the assassination of the CEO of the health insurance company by Luigi Mangione last year and the fact that this puts him in the crosshairs. I think Mamdani did this for clicks, I don't think he needed to do this. In Florida and I think in a lot of states, people who have homestead there who are permanent residents usually pay or have some tax loops that somebody who has a pied-a-terre or has a second home has to pay higher taxes than I do as a person in Florida who's got a homestead exemption because I'm a permanent resident. So I don't know why he's got to do this entire show. I do think he put Ken Griffin in harm's way -- Ken Griffin's children in harm's way. I just think it was stupid and I think Mamdani should have the humility to accept that and to apologize because this is a city that is the financial center of the world and if people like Ken Griffin start leaving and deciding not to buy second homes here and not to have their businesses here, New York City is going to be in a world of harm's way. PHILLIP: There's that extreme and then there's the other extreme of Stephen Roth saying that this is like a racial slur. When people hear that, they're like, that doesn't make any sense. SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON: People can make their own determination for that, but I want to pick up where Ana was leading to. She's right, 1.6 percent of the wealthiest people in this city pay nearly half of the taxes. If those folks leave, to Ana's point, you're going to have a financial crisis of magnitude of which Mamdani does not understand. You think about everyday things that people utilize, public transit, safety, education, all of the taxes that go to provide for all of those things for poor people in this city, what in the hell are they going to do if 44 percent of those dollars all of a sudden disappear overnight? And this is a short-sighted... PHILLIP: I think it's your right to have that debate about what the impact is going to be on the city. But I will say that you also have to keep in mind that New York City has continuously increased their tax rate and they've done so and not decreased the number of extreme wealthy people in the city. In fact, the number of extremely wealthy people in the city has increased. BAKARI SELLERS: I think Ana's point about being in front of someone's home, for all of us, I'm assuming, and if I'm wrongfully assuming, God bless you, but all of us have been through threats or having law enforcement in front of our house. I mean, me and you and Donna Brazile talk about that all the time, just the different type of threats that we deal with, I know Scott deals with it as well. That is beyond the pale of politics and something that you should have the humility to recognize and the political wherewithal to correct that. So let's say that first. SCOTT JENNINGS: What about the impulse to do it in the first place? SELLERS: The second part, the impulse to do it, or the reasoning behind it is the messaging. And no one is leaving New York because of tax the rich. NAVARRO: That's not true. SELLERS: The statistics don't bear that out, but also let's just say this. And while there is this inordinate attention that we're paying to people who are beyond wealthy, because we're not talking about people who are making $1 million or $10 million. JENNINGS: That's still a very small percentage of American people, even at $1 million. That's my point exactly. I think one of the things, and I'm not a Zohran Mamdani fan by any stretch of the imagination, but one of the things that has occurred in New York City since he has been elected is that people are paying attention to the class warfare that's happening in this country. And listen, we're not just talking about the rich and them being uncomfortable because I simply say tax the rich. In fact, that's not anything on my top 10 policy initiatives. However, when we're having this discussion, there are people in this country that are literally starving. There are people in this country -- I'm not finished. There are people in this country who literally cannot, they're the working poor, who work 40, 60 hours a week and cannot afford health care. There are people in this country who are going through these things. And so I totally get Zohran Mamdani highlighting the plight of the working poor in this country, distasteful as it may be. PHILLIP: Hold on Kevin, let Shermichael-- SINGLETON: I'm in agreement with you morally about the plight of working class people. I'm not going to ignore that. Everybody at this table, we have people in our own families that are working class. I'm never going to dismiss that. But the short-sighted nature of the mayor to go after what I would argue success. Because at some point, maybe you go after the top 1 percent and when you tax the hell out of them, then you go after the group that's beneath the top 1 percent. And at some point, everybody at this damn table will be next because of our income levels. So what message does that signal to younger people, to hard-working people in New York City, across the country? Should they not attempt to be successful? Should they not attempt to make a shot at earning a significant amount of money? PHILLIP: We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back on the other side. And Kevin, you'll have your say. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIP: Let's pick up where we left off. KEVIN O'LEARY: I just wanted to take the emotion out of it and talk about the policy. Think about this. Wouldn't you want more people to come to New York that spend over $5 million construction jobs making their pied-a-terre? And then they have to pay the maintenance on it. Then they pay the property tax on it. But they put no financial burden on the city because they're not here. So why would you disincentivize the incremental person to do that by taxing them more? Why not say to them, if you don't use the city's services at all, and you spend all this money on taxes and construction jobs and maintenance and doorman and everything, let's get more of these people. Let's get hundreds of thousands more of them. NAVARRO: So my friend Bakari Sellers has asked me to explain pied-a- terre. SELLERS: Yes, I have no idea what you're talking about. You're using these French words, I thought it was a sandwich. I thought it was a sandwich with ham and extra slices. PHILLIP: To your point, just to your point. O'LEARY: I want you to tell us something about that actual video, 60 million views within four days. And I asked one of my social media editors, how did they produce that? And he said, by the way, we think that tap on the window, that's post. It's genius what that guy is doing. He's got a team making social media. NAVARRO: No, it's genius if what you want is to get clicks. But it is not genius if what you want is for Ken Griffin to continue building his project. PHILLIP: Hold on one second. Just to Kevin's point about what Mamdani is trying to do. Just look at this chart. Low, middle, and upper middle class wages have been growing at, let's call it 10 percent in this country. The top 3 percent or not in this country, New York City, the top 3 percent, their wages have been growing by 34 percent, that's the imbalance. That is the imbalance that Zohran Mamdani was elected to address. SELLERS: And that's what most of the people are. PHILLIP: So I guess what I'm saying is if you want to understand why he's doing what he's doing, it's because there are millions of regular New Yorkers who say the rich people are fine. We don't need to be worrying about them or catering to them. Who's going to worry about us? I mean that's a basic principle of populism that he is enacting as mayor. JENNINGS: And look, it's a powerful branding that he's tapping into. He's hardly the only one. Most major Democrats are tapping. But this whole idea of demonizing people who have been successful, it's a powerful thing right now. But I think one unacknowledged point, and it extends Ana's point, which I think was very well stated and I agree with you 100 percent, there's a dark undercurrent of rage and violence that comes with this. You look at the Luigi killing of the United Healthcare CEO, the guy who burned down the Palisades in L.A., he told the police he was doing it to get back at the billionaires. They arrested a guy in Pennsylvania who was a political candidate for leaving threatening messages for members of Congress, he threatened to kill Donald Trump. You listen to the transcripts. He's saying we're going to surround all the rich people in the country and we're going to slit their throats. I think the unacknowledged undercurrent here of violence and radicalism is going on. The Democrats are playing with fire and it needs to be discussed. A lot of violence. PHILLIP: We do have to leave it there. Everyone, thank you very much for being here tonight.