New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash for previous comments he made nearly three years ago on the anniversary of September 11.
As the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks approaches, people are calling for the New York City politician, 34, to be banned from attending the commemoration event.
In 2023, Mamdani looked back at that fateful day in American history and wrote in a post on X, “Nearly 3,000 New Yorkers died on 9/11; 22 years later, the death hasn’t stopped.”
“We mourn our neighbors who died that day,” he added. “The hundreds of thousands who died in the wars that followed. The unknown millions injured & displaced. In their memory, we work toward a better world.”
However, some people online were taken aback by his use of the word died, when the people in the United States were murdered. Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaeda hijacked multiple airplanes and attacked the U.S., killing 2,977 people and injuring thousands more. It is the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
“Correction: 3000 New Yorkers didn’t just ‘die’ but were murdered in a cruel, calculated and heinous manner,” one person wrote on X, while many others chimed in with similar responses.
As Globe previously reported, a petition was started to try and keep Mamdani from attending the ceremony.
“Our objection is based on [Mamdani’s] public record — his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” one of the petition’s organizers, Giovanni Galante, told the New York Post. “This day is sacred to us.”
According to Fox News Digital, Mamdani previously engaged with internet personality Hasan Piker, who in 2019 said, “America deserved 9/11” (though Mamdani later called the remarks “objectionable and reprehensible”).
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin spoke out against the people calling for him to step aside. On WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, she said, “I think that is absolutely inappropriate.”
Despite the attempt to ban Mamdani, the former state assemblyman has made it clear that he will be in attendance.
“I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year’s 9/11 commemoration, reaffirming that we will never forget the solemn day felt by all of us who call this city home and, frankly, by all of us who call this country home,” Mamdani told CBS News New York‘s Marcia Kramer in July.
This story NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 9/11 Comments Resurface, Sparking Online Backlash first appeared on Globe. Follow Globe on Yahoo so you don’t miss what’s coming next.