New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he will attend the 25th anniversary remembrance of the September 11 attacks at ground zero, a decision that drew a sharp rebuke from Rudy Giuliani, the man who led the city through that day.
Giuliani, who was mayor on September 11, 2001, said on Newsmax that Mamdani should not be at the ceremony. His objection was personal and direct: he lost friends in the attacks and remains close to many of the families who lost loved ones.
"Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he's coming."
He followed that with a broader point about the ceremony's purpose.
"The reality is this ceremony is for the families and for America to remember historically."
Mamdani, for his part, declined to engage with Giuliani's criticism at length. He told reporters his focus at Friday's ceremony would be on "the first responders who gave everything," and he offered a brief statement that leaned heavily on patriotic language without addressing the substance of Giuliani's objection.
"I'm proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country. And what I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of Sept. 11 and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers."
Asked to respond further to Giuliani, Mamdani said only, "I don't have much more to add."
The dispute over Mamdani's attendance at ground zero did not start with Giuliani's Newsmax appearance. Days earlier, Mamdani signed two executive orders tied to the anniversary. One designated September 11 a citywide "Day of Remembrance and Service." The other updated New York City's emergency preparedness procedures.
The signing itself drew criticism, not for the orders' content, but for an optic. During the ceremony, Mamdani had a ceremonial pen passed to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem.
Kassem's background is what made that gesture land badly. He previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaida operative who pleaded guilty before a U.S. military commission to war-crime charges connected to terrorist plots against commercial ships, including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker.
The mayor's decision to elevate Kassem in a ceremony meant to honor the victims of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, carried out by al-Qaida, is the kind of detail that does not require editorial commentary to register. A lawyer who defended an admitted al-Qaida war criminal stood at the mayor's side as he signed orders commemorating September 11. The families watching that moment could draw their own conclusions.
Giuliani's criticism carries weight that a generic political attack would not. He did not watch September 11 on television. He was at ground zero. He led New York City's response in the hours, days, and weeks that followed. His connection to the families of the dead is not rhetorical, he named it specifically, citing friendships and personal closeness built in the aftermath of the attacks.
That history makes his objection harder to dismiss as partisan noise. When Giuliani says the ceremony "is for the families," he is speaking as someone who stood with those families when the towers were still smoldering.
Mamdani's response, patriotic boilerplate followed by "I don't have much more to add", did not engage with any of the specific concerns Giuliani raised. He did not address the Kassem controversy. He did not explain why a lawyer who represented an al-Qaida operative holds the position of chief counsel in his administration. He offered sentiment where specifics were called for.
Mamdani said he wants the week to focus on first responders and grieving families. That is the right instinct, stated plainly. But a mayor's personnel decisions speak louder than his prepared remarks. Choosing Ramzi Kassem as chief counsel was a decision. Handing him a ceremonial pen at a September 11 signing was a decision. Attending the ground zero ceremony without addressing the questions those decisions raised is also a decision.
The families Mamdani says he wants to honor lost husbands, wives, sons, and daughters to an attack planned and executed by the same organization whose operative Kassem defended. Whether Kassem's legal work was constitutionally protected is beside the point the families are likely to make. The question is not whether al-Darbi deserved a lawyer. The question is why that particular lawyer now sits at the right hand of the mayor of New York City, and why the mayor seems unwilling to discuss it.
Giuliani put the matter simply: the ceremony belongs to the families and to the country's collective memory. If Mamdani wants to honor that memory, he could start by answering the questions he has so far declined to address.
Showing up at ground zero is easy. Earning the right to stand there takes more than a proclamation and a talking point.
