New York Gov. Kathy Hochul dipped out of the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks early on Friday to do an interview on CNN.

Hochul, who is seeking re-election this year, left the solemn annual memorial event at the Ground Zero reflecting pool just before 11 a.m. as family members of the victims were still reading the names of the 2,977 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001, along with the six slain in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

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“I saw a lot of pain this morning, I hugged a lot of families and saw little babies that never knew their grandparents. And it’s a hard time for New Yorkers, but we really do come through in the toughest of times together, more united,” she told Wolf Blitzer as the name-reading was ongoing.

Hochul left the solemn ceremony at the reflecting pool just before 11 a.m. Friday as the list of names of victims killed on Sept. 11, 2001 were being read — so she could sing her own praises on CNN. Getty Images

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani (right) at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum plaza in lower Manhattan on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. Paul Martinka for NY Post

The Democrat, who is seeking a second, full four-year term in November, also discussed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent release of thousands of pages of documents related to the air quality in Lower Manhattan after 9/11, saying New Yorkers “were let down” by the city and state’s misrepresentations.

Mamdani stayed for the full program, along with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who serves as the chairman of the the National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s board of trustees.

“I want to thank all the dignitaries that are here and families that stayed until the end, because everyone one of these names matter,” Michael Massaroli, who read the final names at the ceremony, said.

But Hochul had already long wrapped her interview with Blitzer by then.

A person pauses at the 9/11 memorial Friday morning ahead of a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Getty Images

During the sit-down, she also highlighted her admin’s initiatives like increasing police patrols around Jewish institutions ahead of High Holidays.

“I’ve allocated over $70 million, a tripling of the money that have been allocated just a few years ago, to give to synagogues and places that need to be secure, money for security cameras, different lighting, different ways that people can feel safer,” Hochul said, also praising her state-level initiative to implement protest “buffer zones” around houses of worship.

The governor separately announced a $2.2 million state grant to fund free admission to the 9/11 Museum every Sunday for New York residents and students.

Hochul Press Secretary Kara Cumoletti defended the governor’s decision to leave the ceremony early, pointing fingers at Vice President J.D. Vance, who she claimed left at the same time.

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“The governor departed the ceremony at the same time she does every year, alongside former presidents and Vice President Vance,” Hochul’s spokesperson wrote.

“She then went on national television to commemorate the 25th anniversary of September 11th, the victims, and their enduring impact on New York. Trying to manufacture a controversy out of that is both false and beneath the solemnity of the day,” she said.

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Hochul’s GOP challenger for governor, Bruce Blakeman, was also at Friday’s ceremony. 

The Nassau County executive also left the “vip area” of the memorial mid-ceremony, per a spokesperson, but he did so during the reading of his nephew’s name, a court officer who perished during the attacks.

“Bruce Blakeman was at the Memorial today as he has for the last 25 years and after had lunch with his family. He later attended the NYS Court Officers Memorial for his nephew Sgt. Tommy Jurgens, Sgt. Mitchell Wallace and Captain Harry Thompson. Tonight he will attend services in Manhattan for Rosh Hashanah.” Blakeman spokesperson Chris Boyle said.