Stay Home, Mayor
Zohran Mamdani has spent years making choices that many 9/11 families find indefensible. Now those same families are telling him to stay away from Ground Zero on the twenty-fifth anniversary, and he is refusing.
Families of 9/11 victims are demanding NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani be banned from the 25th anniversary of the attacks at Ground Zero, branding him an apologist for Islamic terror whose presence would be an insult to the memories of nearly 3,000 people murdered.
“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 terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks,” said Giovanni Galante – whose 29-year-old wife Grace Catherine Galante was among 2,977 innocents killed by al-Qaeda terrorists. – New York Post
More than 300 relatives of people murdered on September 11 have signed a petition asking that the mayor of New York not attend the ceremony. That number should rise until every family member who shares the view has signed. The people who buried the dead get to decide whether someone’s presence honors the memory or contaminates it. In this case, they have decided.
Mamdani’s answer is to ignore them.
🚨 JUST IN: 9/11 victims’ families are pushing to BAN NYC Ugandan Mayor Mamdani from the September 11th event at Ground Zero after he previously used the somber day to praise MUSLIMS
I’m with them, BLOCK HIM from the event!
“Families of 9-11 victims are trying to keep Mayor… pic.twitter.com/PFuQ79UdA5
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 26, 2026
He Chose This Reputation
No one made Mamdani refuse a clear, unambiguous condemnation of “globalize the intifada.” No one forced him to keep the associations, appointments, and political alliances that repeatedly placed him near people whose views on terrorism and the deliberate killing of civilians are repulsive to most Americans. He selected those positions. He defended them. He elevated the people who shared them. The consequences of those decisions are now sitting in a petition signed by hundreds of grieving families.
He could have drawn hard lines years ago. He preferred the radical pose. That is his right in politics. It is not his right to demand that the families of the murdered simply swallow the result and smile for the cameras.
Entitlement Dressed as Solidarity
Mamdani’s office says he will attend to “stand with” the families, survivors, and first responders. Hundreds of those families have already said, in writing, that they do not want him there. Continuing to claim he is standing with them while they publicly reject his presence is not solidarity. It is arrogance. It is the behavior of a man who cannot accept that one particular stage does not belong to him.
Ground Zero is not a campaign backdrop. It is not a photo opportunity for a mayor who wants to prove that no one can tell him where he may stand. The twenty-fifth anniversary exists for the dead and for the people who have carried the absence for twenty-five years. It does not exist to validate Zohran Mamdani’s self-regard.
Privilege Has Limits
Holding office does not grant a permanent invitation to every solemn ceremony. Attendance at this memorial is a privilege that depends, in part, on the confidence of the families most directly harmed. Mamdani has spent years eroding that confidence through his own words and his own choices of company. When the bill comes due, he treats it as an outrage that anyone would present it.
That is not leadership. That is the instinct of someone who believes the rules of basic respect do not apply to him.
Sign the Petition
If you are a 9/11 family member and you believe Mamdani’s record disqualifies him from standing at Ground Zero this year, sign the petition. Urge every relative who feels the same to sign it. Make the list long enough that officials cannot wave it away.
This day belongs to the families. It does not belong to a politician who has repeatedly chosen ideology over moral clarity and now expects the bereaved to pretend otherwise. He should stay home.
Feature Image: AI-generated illustration.
