OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
Maxwell Azzarello, the man who set himself on fire outside Donald Trump’s Manhattan trial, had briefly worked for former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York in 2013.
Azzarello was an operations director for Suozzi’s campaign for Nassau County Executive.
Suozzi remembered Azzarello fondly and offered condolences to his family after learning of his death from injuries sustained in the self-immolation protest.
“Max Azzarello worked on my campaign for Nassau County Executive in 2013 as part of the field staff,” Suozzi said.
“Even though I haven’t seen or talked to Max since then I recall him being very kind, smart and hardworking. It is tragic that he has succumbed to his injuries and I am keeping Max and his family in my prayers.”
Azzarello had traveled from Florida to carry out the act.
His manifesto railed against both Trump and Biden as well as Bitcoin and the “fascist coup” of worldwide governments.
“Liberals mock the hypocrisy of conservatives; conservatives mock the hypocrisy of liberals, and our collective circumstances erode,” Azzarello wrote. “The left shouts ‘All Cops Are [expletive],’ which ensures they’ll be hated by the police and the public (and flies in the face of leftist theory). The public’s distrust of the government is at an all-time high, but so is the belief that we are helpless to do anything about it.”
Azzarello wrote that he filed a lawsuit “against dozens of perpetrators of the cryptocurrency Ponzi – not for litigation, but just to preserve the information and attach my name to it. I was terrified and hadn’t slept in days and it shows, but it served its purpose of keeping myself alive long enough to keep learning and telling this story.”
He had been the subject of criminal complaints in Florida the previous month related to public disturbances.
The incident highlights Azzarello’s apparent discontent with major political figures and governments.