Eight people were murdered and 11 injured in New York City Tuesday in the latest jihadi terrorist attack with a truck. Five of the victims were Argentine citizens, and another was Belgian. Not surprisingly, witnesses say the suspect yelled “Allahu Akbar!” as he exited the rented truck/murder weapon. Fox News reports, “The man accused of plowing into New York pedestrians Tuesday had a printout of an ISIS flag in his car and left behind handwritten notes pledging his loyalty to the Islamic State, as a clearer picture emerged Wednesday morning of Sayfullo Saipov’s alleged links to the terror group.” Police shot him and he remains in the hospital.

So another radical Islamist went on a murderous rampage. Surely, the connection is obvious … right?

Wrong.

“All the evidence we have suggests that he was acting alone,” New York’s Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted. “The so-called ‘Lone Wolf syndrome.’” Except Cuomo then proceeded to contradict his own assertion, adding correctly, “You have to remember a couple of years ago [the Islamic State] telegraphed this — that they were going to individual acts, they said, ‘Use a knife, use a car, use a truck, use whatever you can get.’ That’s what this was.”

But then he went back to his first position of willful blindness and obfuscation: “We have no evidence whatsoever that this was anything other than a person acting individually. We have no evidence that it’s connected to anyone or anything, or there are any follow-up measures.”

Never mind the evidence Cuomo had just presented. Indeed, Saipov used the same method and vile catchphrase that so many other jihadis have used and promoted.

Let’s be clear, again. There is no such thing as a “lone wolf” jihadi attacker. As Mark Alexander explained, “These attacks and those to come were and will be directly tied to worldwide Jihad by way of the Qur'an, the foundational fabric linking all Islamist violence.”

Not all Democrats are so blind as Cuomo. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “We have to expect that as the capital of the [Islamic State] caliphate has now fallen, there are going to be increasing efforts to show that they remain dangerous and lethal, and to expand the virtual caliphate.”

Uzbekistan, Saipov’s country of origin, increasingly has become a hotbed for Islamic State recruiting. And Saipov came to the United States seven years ago under the Diversity Visa Program, which President Donald Trump and the GOP aim to eliminate.

Trump responded to the attack on Twitter, saying, “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!” Furthermore, he said, “I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!”

Not when lives are at stake.

Footnote on a First: NY Mayor Bill de Blasio actually called this terrorist attack a “terrorist attack,” and not a New York second too soon!