{"id":325231,"date":"2026-08-19T20:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325231\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T20:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T20:24:15","slug":"speaker-menin-calls-push-against-mayor-mamdani-at-9-11-ceremony-absolutely-inappropriate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/325231\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Menin calls push against Mayor Mamdani at 9\/11 ceremony \u2018absolutely inappropriate\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Council Speaker Julie Menin<\/a> on Wednesday rejected calls for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the 25th anniversary commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks<\/a>, calling the push \u201cabsolutely inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin was responding on WNYC\u2019s The Brian Lehrer Show<\/a> to an online petition asking organizers to reconsider Mamdani\u2019s participation and to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman\u2019s call for attendees to turn their backs on the mayor if he shows up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t agree with that at all,\u201d Menin said in the inaugural segment of the station\u2019s new monthly series, Speak with the Speaker.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The dispute is unfolding around a ceremony that has long kept elected officials in the background while victims\u2019 relatives read the names of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.\n<\/p>\n

Menin, who has longstanding ties to Lower Manhattan and the 9\/11 Memorial, said that separation was intentional. She noted that she served on the jury for the 9\/11 memorial, has served on the memorial\u2019s board and foundation since its creation and previously chaired Manhattan Community Board 1 for seven years during the post-9\/11 recovery period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that the Memorial Museum, one of the things that we did is we made sure that there was no politicization of the events of 9\/11 when we are honoring those lives that were lost,\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n

She noted that elected officials attend the annual ceremony but do not give political speeches.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Mayor Bloomberg made a terrific decision in making sure that there were not political speeches because, again, it shouldn\u2019t be politicized,\u201d Menin said. \u201cSo, those that are trying to politicize this, what is happening on the 25th anniversary, I think that that is unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Menin and Mamdani agreed in this year\u2019s city budget<\/a> to fund a $34.2 million portal for post-9\/11 air quality and health records, with the first documents expected to be released before the 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\"CityCity Council Speaker Julie Menin points to language in a report about 9\/11 air quality during a press conference at City Hall on Feb. 5, 2026.Emil Cohen\/NYC Council Media Unit \"AA firefighter stands at the 9\/11 Memorial on Sept. 11, 2024. The FDNY lost 343 members in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n

The petition, launched July 9 by Giovanni Galante, whose wife was killed on 9\/11, had nearly 89,000 signatures on Change.org<\/a> as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It asks organizers to consider whether Mamdani\u2019s participation is consistent with the purpose of the ceremony, citing a series of political associations, appointments and endorsements that petition organizers say raise concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 9\/11 families, this is not simply a public ceremony \u2014 it is a deeply personal day of mourning,\u201d the petition states.\n<\/p>\n

Galante told CBS New York<\/a> earlier this month\u00a0that \u201chaving Mamdani there would show a disrespect to our family members because of the people he supports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blakeman, whose nephew was killed in the South Tower, has gone further. He said Mamdani is \u201cnot welcome there\u201d and urged attendees to stage a silent protest if the mayor attends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a respectful and peaceful way to protest that, and I would suggest that people turn their back on the mayor,\u201d Blakeman said, according to Fox News.<\/a><\/p>\n

Other relatives of those killed have said Mamdani should be allowed to attend.\n<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Miller, whose father died in the attacks, also told CBS New York<\/a> that Mamdani should be allowed to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Mamdani has assured 9\/11 families that he wants to be there to honor our loved ones, and I think he should be allowed to do that,\u201d said Miller, the project director of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus really shouldn\u2019t be on who\u2019s there, who\u2019s not there,\u201d she added. \u201cIt should be on our loved ones.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani has said he plans to attend.\n<\/p>\n

Asked at a press conference last month about the calls for him to stay away, the mayor did not criticize those opposing his presence.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them at this year\u2019s 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,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

And even one of Mamdani\u2019s longtime critics has suggested the political fight should stop, at least for the day. Staten Island activist Scott LoBaido has proposed a Sept. 11 \u201cceasefire\u201d with the mayor, according to SILive.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Wednesday rejected calls for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5301,17914,19077,22925,9,11,10,84021,25774],"class_list":["post-325231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-9-11","tag-brian-lehrer-show","tag-julie-menin","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-speaker-menin","tag-wnyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}