Mamdani draws fury from 9/11 mourners over Ground Zero appearance: ‘Disrespectful’
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s presence at Friday’s 9/11 remembrance at Ground Zero drew criticism from some in the city, including one former police officer who said the mayor “probably should have skipped it” and another mourner who called his appearance “disrespectful” and “very offensive.”
Mamdani has faced criticism over his associations with controversial political and online figures, as well as his decision to appoint Ramzi Kassem as his administration’s chief counsel.
Kassem previously represented a Guantánamo detainee linked to an al Qaeda terrorist plot. Former New York Republican Gov. George Pataki, 9/11-era FDNY Commissioner Thomas von Essen and others called on Mamdani to skip the ceremony.
“He showed up anyway. It does bother us,” Walter Matuza, whose father Walter was killed that day, told Fox News Digital.
Matuza said he was part of the group of victims’ families that initiated the petition to keep Mamdani away.
He cited Mamdani’s association with streamer Hasan Piker, who once said America “deserved 9/11,” as well as Mamdani’s appointment of Kassem.
Matuza, of Staten Island, said his father was one of dozens at Carr Futures brokerage who died after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower just above their 92nd floor offices.
Mike, a former New Jersey police officer, told Fox News Digital he recalled watching the terror unfold on television from across the Hudson – and later came to Manhattan to help relieve exhausted NYPD officers stuck at their posts.
“Based on the rhetoric that he’s used in the past. Yeah, he probably should have skipped it,” Mike said of Mamdani.
He added that Mamdani’s appointment of Kassem also troubled him, saying the mayor could’ve handled the situation in a “whole different way.”
“But, he did it and unfortunately people aren’t going to forget it.”
Another mourner called Mamdani a “communist” when asked about his appearance on Friday, adding that the memorial was “not supposed to be a political event.”
Steven, who traveled all the way to New York from Hobe Sound, Florida, to attend the remembrance, lambasted Mamdani’s presence as “disrespectful” and “offensive.”
“I’ve been following that over the past couple weeks and I saw that I think they had upwards of 700,000 New Yorkers requesting him not to be here. I mean, as the mayor, I would assume he has the right to be here…. But who he represents and the people he’s affiliated with… I feel that he should stay away. I don’t feel that his presence here is wanted, and I think he should honor that as a human being.”
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz, Robert Schmad, Morgan Phillips and Kiera McDonald.