CAUGHT ON CAMERA: ISIS-Inspired Teen Bought Bomb Fuse for $6.89 at Fireworks Store Days Before NYC Terror Attack — CNN Deletes Sympathetic Tweet About Suspects

Two self-radicalized ISIS supporters from Bucks County, Pennsylvania built shrapnel-packed improvised explosive devices, traveled to New York City, and hurled them at Americans exercising their First Amendment rights outside Gracie Mansion — the official residence of the city’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

And CNN’s first instinct was to frame the bombers as sympathetic figures.

Let that sink in.

Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, now face five federal charges each, including providing material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction, after Saturday’s attack on an anti-Islam demonstration organized by conservative influencer Jake Lang.

According to the criminal complaint, Balat told police he was inspired by ISIS. When asked if he wanted to replicate the Boston Marathon bombing, his response was chilling: “No, even bigger. It was only three deaths.”

The bombs — sports drink bottles filled with TATP explosive material, set inside glass jars packed with nuts and bolts designed to maximize casualties — mercifully failed to detonate. Had they gone off, the carnage would have been catastrophic.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed the severity:

The NYPD Bomb Squad has conducted a preliminary analysis of a device that was ignited and deployed at a protest yesterday and has determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb. It is, in fact, an improvised explosive device that could have caused serious injury or…

— Jessica S. Tisch (@NYPDPC) March 8, 2026

TATP — known as the “Mother of Satan” — is the same volatile explosive used in the 7/7 London bombings that killed 56 people and the Ariana Grande concert attack that killed 22. This was not a firecracker. This was a mass-casualty weapon.

🚨 BREAKING: The bomb thrown at anti-Islam protestors in NYC was charged with TATP, an "ENORMOUSLY volatile" and "extremely powerful" substance, per @PaulDMauro

Thank the LORD it didn't detonate 🙏🏻

This is the same substance used by major terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda… pic.twitter.com/UeA9YGd4Zl

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 8, 2026

The Fuse Purchase

Surveillance video obtained by CBS News shows Balat casually walking into a Phantom Fireworks store in Penndel, Pennsylvania on March 2 — just five days before the attack — and purchasing a 20-foot roll of safety fuse for $6.89.

William Weimer, VP and General Counsel of Phantom Fireworks, told the Daily Wire: “Coming in and buying that was uneventful. Had he bought 20 rolls of fuse, it might have raised eyebrows.”

$6.89. That’s what it cost to supply a terror attack on American soil.

Both suspects had recently traveled overseas. Balat spent over three months in Istanbul last year. Kayumi traveled to Istanbul and Saudi Arabia in 2024. The FBI is investigating whether they received training or further radicalization abroad.

CNN’s Disgraceful Response

While the FBI was building a terrorism case, CNN posted a now-deleted tweet describing the suspects as “two Pennsylvania teenagers” who “crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather.”

Read that again. CNN framed two ISIS-inspired bombers who packed shrapnel into explosives designed to kill Americans as kids on a nice day out.

The backlash was swift and brutal. CNN was forced to delete the post and issue a statement admitting it “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting.”

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter conceded the network was “rightly criticized.”

FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t mince words: “The defendants allegedly support ISIS and tried to follow the path of that deadly group by attempting to detonate explosive devices in a crowd.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi added: “This was an alleged ISIS-inspired act of terrorism that could have killed American citizens. We will not allow ISIS’s poisonous, anti-American ideology to threaten this nation.”

The Fallout

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) sparked a firestorm when he responded bluntly:

Muslims don't belong in American society.

Pluralism is a lie.

— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) March 9, 2026

Democrats piled on demanding expulsion. Ogles didn’t flinch:

To Hakeem Jeffries, Gavin Newsom, and the high-ranking Democrats flooding X to condemn me:

A Muslim shot and killed three Americans in Texas. Two Muslims tried to blow up New York City…again. Meanwhile, all DHS counterterrorism programs are unfunded because you shut them down. pic.twitter.com/4Kji78jGIE

— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) March 9, 2026

Additional explosive residue was found in a storage unit tied to the suspects in Pennsylvania. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation remains ongoing.

This is a developing story.