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Feb. 9 2023, Revealed 3:45 p.m. ET
Former First Woman Michelle Obama denied serving to embattled FDNY boss Laura Kavanagh safe her place as commissioner of the New York Hearth Division, RadarOnline.com has discovered.
In a shocking growth to come back lower than 4 months after being named the thirty fourth Hearth Commissioner of the FDNY, Kavanagh, 40, is accused of utilizing her loft and high-profile connections to safe the place.
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Based on the New York Submit, rumors first began when it was urged the previous first girl gave Kavanagh – who served as a marketing campaign staffer to former President Barack Obama – a “glowing” endorsement and urged New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams to advertise the 40-year-old to FDNY commissioner.
Following the surprising allegation, Michelle was pressured to talk out denying the accusation.
“Michelle Obama was by no means concerned in any method with Commissioner Kavanagh’s appointment to the FDNY,” the previous first girl’s workplace instructed the Submit in a press release on Wednesday.
Kavanaugh beforehand served because the interim chief of the FDNY after the previous commissioner, Daniel Nigro, retired from the place in February 2022.
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Seven months later, Mayor Adams named Kavanaugh because the thirty fourth Hearth Commissioner of the New York Metropolis Hearth Division on October 27, 2022 – making the 40-year-old the primary girl to carry the place.
“New Yorkers and New York Metropolis’s ‘Bravest’ deserve an distinctive chief and Commissioner Kavanagh has the imaginative and prescient, the abilities, and the compassion to guide the FDNY into the longer term,” Adams mentioned in a press release on the time.
However Kavanagh shortly got here below fireplace this week after she abruptly demoted three high-ranking fireplace chiefs.
In protest to Kavanagh’s determination, two different high-ranking FDNY chiefs – Chief of Division John Hodgens and Chief of Operations John Esposito – voluntarily sought their very own demotions, inflicting turmoil all through your complete 17,000-strong firefighter drive.
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“Hodgens is among the most honorable people I’ve ever met,” former NYC firefighter-turned-attorney Pete Gleason mentioned after Hodgens sought his personal demotion. “I’ve little question that [Kavanagh] undermined his capability to be the uniformed chief of the FDNY, and that exhibits how treacherous she is.”
“She’s demoting folks and she or he is meant to run it previous him,” Gleason added. “What she created is a really public embarrassment for the FDNY.”
“She’s primarily a PR individual with none firefighting expertise, and she or he’s misplaced the respect of the drive,” one other FDNY insider instructed the Submit concerning Kavanagh’s new place.
Previous to turning into concerned within the FDNY, Kavanagh labored on campaigns for former President Obama and different high-profile Democratic politicians in 2006.
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She then joined former NYC Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s administration between 2006 and 2012, earlier than being named the FDNY’s director of exterior affairs in 2014.
Regardless of by no means working as a firefighter, Kavanagh rose by means of the FDNY ranks earlier than being named the hearth division’s latest commissioner in October 2022.