{"id":344503,"date":"2026-09-12T00:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344503\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T00:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T00:14:13","slug":"rudy-giuliani-reveals-what-he-told-mamdani-during-awkward-handshake-and-even-offered-surprising-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344503\/","title":{"rendered":"Rudy Giuliani reveals what he told Mamdani during awkward handshake \u2014 and even offered surprising praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudy Giuliani revealed to The Post<\/a> on Friday that he shook Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s hand<\/a> at the 9\/11 ceremony because it was the right thing to do given the occasion \u2014 and even praised him for staying throughout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up facing each other. I said, \u2018I pray for you all the time,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 said Giuliani, 82 \u2014 who was famously dubbed \u201cAmerica\u2019s mayor\u2019\u2019 for his steady stewardship at the helm of New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\"SmallVice President JD Vance, former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, NYC Mayor Zorhan Mamdani, and other officials attend the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Thank you,\u2019\u201d the GOP former mayor said of the far-left current mayor \u2014 who he recently publicly urged to not attend<\/a> the ceremony this year out of respect for victims\u2019 families, claiming Hizzoner \u201cdoesn\u2019t agree that September 11 was an Islamic terrorist attack on the United States of America.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that if either one of us turned our backs [on the other], that would have been the story,\u2019\u2019 Giuliani said of himself and Mamdani, 34, at the somber ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give him credit for that. The whole event would have been different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about respect for the families, the solemness of the occasion,\u2019\u2019 the ex-Hizzoner said.<\/p>\n

Giuliani even praised Mamdani while acknowledging, \u201cOur differences are strong and haven\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe stayed until the very end. I give him credit for that,\u2019\u2019 Giuliani said.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (left) and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani attend a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center at the National 9\/11 Memorial & Museum on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, Getty Images<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cI\u2019m concerned about him hanging around with guys saying 9\/11 was our fault,\u2019\u2019 the former mayor said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani appeared on radical podcast host Hasan Piker\u2019s show while campaigning for mayor. Piker once said, \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rudy Giuliani revealed to The Post on Friday that he shook Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s hand at the 9\/11…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5301,113412,34583,57,9,24,55,54,56,14738,58,82],"class_list":["post-344503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-9-11","tag-9-11-25th-anniversary","tag-9-11-memorial","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rudy-giuliani","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344503","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=344503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}