Zohran Mamdani pressed over 9/11 families' campaign to bar him from 25th anniversary ceremonies

NEW YORK CITY, NY: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was pressed on Monday, July 27, about a growing campaign by families of 9/11 victims seeking to bar him from the city's 25th anniversary commemoration ceremonies this September.

The question came during a press conference where Mamdani was unveiling a 30% discount at five new municipal grocery stores when a reporter raised the effort to keep him away.

Zohran Mamdani vows to attend 9/11 commemoration

At a press conference where Mamdani unveiled a 30% discount at five new municipal grocery stores in the Big Apple, the mayor was asked about the campaign to keep him from attending the 9/11 commemoration.

At the presser, a reporter brought up the campaign. “Mr Mayor, there was a number of people who are survivors of 9/11 are calling on you not to go to 9/11 memorial services,” he said.

“I wonder how you feel about the fact that they’re trying to keep you away.”

Mamdani responded by pledging to attend regardless.

"I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders, forever impacted by that horrific attack by standing alongside them at this year's 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," he said.

9/11 families launch petition against Zohran Mamdani 

The clash came after a front-page article in the New York Post over the weekend, headlined "STAY AWAY," describing efforts by families of 9/11 victims to have Mamdani excluded from the ceremonies.

Giovanni Galante, the husband of Grace Catherine Galante, who was among the 2,977 people killed in the attacks, has helped organize a Change.org petition urging organizers to keep Mamdani out.

The petition had reached 14,000 signatures at the time of the report.

“Our objection is based on his public record, his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended them, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” Giovanni Galante, the husband of 9/11 victim Grace Catherine Galante, told the paper.

Organizers have pointed to Mamdani's refusal to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," his past association with Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj, and his ties to commentator Hasan Piker, who has made controversial remarks about the attacks, as reasons for the campaign.

Petitioners have also cited a book written by Mamdani's father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, shortly after 9/11.

The book argued that those who carried out such attacks should be understood within a broader political context rather than viewed solely as perpetrators of brutal acts.

The 9/11 controversy adds to a string of flashpoints between Mamdani and his critics over his foreign policy positions, most notably his pledge to seek Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest under an International Criminal Court warrant should he visit New York.

"He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court," Mamdani said earlier this month, adding that the view is "held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years."

Netanyahu fired back in a Fox Business interview with Maria Bartiromo, accusing Mamdani of "fomenting hate" and arguing that the mayor should represent "Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone" rather than turning "one group against the other."