Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch met right-wing radio personality Sid Rosenberg for dinner on Tuesday evening, the host dished on his radio show.
Rosenberg is a controversial figure who’s called Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, a “terrorist” and said during the campaign that Mamdani would be “cheering” for another 9/11.
The meeting between the commissioner and Rosenberg, whose remarks Mamdani slammed as “racist,” highlight the at times uneasy partnership between the mayor and police commissioner. The two have a number of key ideological differences on public safety.
“We had such a wonderful, great time,” Rosenberg said Wednesday on his WABC show, Sid & Friends in the Morning, regarding his meeting with the police commissioner
The host said they discussed “a lot” over their meals of pasta and chicken parmigiana, including Tisch’s “love of the city” and new Council Speaker Julie Menin — who Rosenberg said he also has a meeting on the books with next week. A spokesperson for Menin did not respond to requests for comment.
Tisch, Rosenberg and Tisch’s top spokesperson Delaney Kempner and two others met at 6 p.m. at Nicola’s, an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side, Rosenberg said. The group was joined by two others, but Rosenberg refused to identify them on the air.
Rosenberg said the meeting was initiated by Tisch but boasted that the two are “very close” and text weekly. He also claimed that Tisch usually likes to sit in the front of the restaurant, but “for some reason tonight she wants to sit in the back.”
Mamdani brushed off the meeting when asked by the Daily News about it on Wednesday.
“I can tell you that of all the questions that I ask my police commissioner, who she had dinner with the night before is not one of them,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference at the Whitney Museum.
The mayor and Tisch have different stances on several public safety issues, including keeping police headcount flat, abolishing the department’s controversial Strategic Response Group and eliminating the NYPD’s gang database. Tisch opposes all of those changes, which Mamdani, a democratic socialist who’s come under fire for his previous “defund the police” stances, promised on the campaign trail.
Mamdani was applauded by many for keeping Tisch, who has been credited with drops in crime and a general sense of greater stability in the department.
But the mayor has also faced some backlash from the left flank for his choice, and it’s unclear how much leeway Mamdani will continue to give Tisch to run the department as she pleases.
“If you took the under six months, you’re gonna lose it,” Rosenberg said. “…She ain’t leaving. She’s not. He’s not gonna make her leave, because it would be a PR nightmare.”
