WASHINGTON (TNND) — Vice President J.D. Vance lambasted Zohran Mamdani for talking about the how the 9/11 terrorist attacks negatively impacted public perception of Muslims.
Mamdani, who is the first major Muslim candidate to run for New York City mayor, made a public address on Friday concerning the Islamophobic comments he’s received. At one point in his speech, Mamdani directed his attention toward the “indignities” that many Muslim New Yorkers and Muslim Americans have faced in a post 9/11 world.
“I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of the city,” Mandani said. “I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.”
Vance shared this snippet of Mamdani’s address and wrote in his post: “According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks.”
Mamdani pushed back on Vance’s social media post poking fun at his aunt during an interview on MSNBC on Saturday.
“This is all the Republican Party has to offer, Mamdani said. “Cheap jokes about Islamophobia so as to not have to recognize what people are living through, attempts to pit peoples’ humanity against each other.”
On Friday evening, Mamdani posted his six-minute speech addressing the Islamophobic comments that have plagued his campaign. Mamdani directly called out his opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, for laughing during a radio interview that Mamdani would celebrate another terrorist attack in New York City. He also criticized New York City Mayor Eric Adams for saying New York City can’t be like Europe which is plagued with “Islamic Extremism.”
“There are 11 days remaining until Election Day. I will be a Muslim man in New York City. Each of those 11 days and every day that follows after that, I will not change who I am. I will not change how I eat. I will not change the faith that I am proud to belong to. But there is one thing I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.