Relatives of the victims who died in the horrific terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, have come out and said they will all turn away from Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he attends the memorial commemorating the event at Ground Zero. Over 98,000 individuals have signed a petition asking organizers of the event to keep the democratic socialist away from the 25th anniversary ceremony.
Backers took the petition to City Hall on September 8. The attacks that fateful day killed 2,977 people, among them a total of 658 of them were employed by Cantor Fitzgerald. Mamdani stated that he intends to be at the event and honor those who died, but this is not sitting well with families who lost loved ones during the incident.
Maureen Santora, 81, whose son Christopher, a firefighter, died at the age of 23 with Engine 54 in the South Tower, wants Mamdani to stay quiet. “I just hope that he doesn’t say a single word because most of us will be very upset,” she went on to say. Others are taking the silent approach to the situation, such as Angie Pesce.
According to a report from The Daily Caller, Pesce’s brother Danny died in the North Tower. Pesce told the media that Mamdani would probably “show up to be spiteful.” Giovanni Galante, the organizer of the petition, whose wife Grace died in the attacks, said, “I would definitely ignore him.” Jeanette Puccio-Pick, whose father passed away on the 94th floor of the South Tower, revealed that her focus stays on him, not on Mamdani.
The pushback goes beyond just Mamdani’s attendance of the ceremony. Galante, along with Queens GOP Councilwoman Joann Ariola, held a press conference on September 8, 2026. During that appearance, Ariola waved off the mayor’s recent executive orders on remembrance as being hollow due to his retention of chief counsel Ramzi Kassem and his refusal to disavow radicals like Hasan Piker.
Retired Port Authority police weighed in on the matter as well, along with association president John McDevitt, sending letters in August that urged Mamdani to just stay home on the day of the event. However, there are some family members who disagree. Elizabeth Miller, who lost her father in the attacks, said the mayor should be allowed to attend the ceremony, labeling attacks on him as Islamophobic.
Unfortunately, Mamdani did indeed attend the ceremony and there were a lot of folks furious over his attendance on social media platform X. One person responded to a clip from Mamdani himself, saying, “Hey… Nice live shot of you laughing at the 9/11 memorial 2 minutes ago. You slimy piece of sh*t.” Another user said, “You are nothing but a Jihadi!”
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Someone else stated clearly that folks aren’t falling for his empty words about the tragedy that struck on 9/11. “You support the terrorist. We are not fooled by your empty words,” the person said. Another person reminded Mamdani of the very words his father said about the attacks and how he said it was America’s own fault. “Your own father said 9/11 was the fault of America,” the user commented.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video