New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was seen shaking hands with his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, at the 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
The pair appeared cordial, shaking hands briefly before parting ways despite Giuliana saying earlier this week that Mamdani’s presence at the ceremony would “offend him.”
Giuliani, who was mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, became the public face of the city’s response to the attacks and visited the World Trade Center site multiple times on Sept. 11, with many dubbing him “America’s mayor.” He said Mamdani should, without question, skip the ceremony at ground zero.
“Frankly, whatever he’d like to say, he doesn’t agree that Sept. 11 was an Islamic terrorist attack on the United States of America,” Giuliani said on Sunday, adding, “having lost friends there, and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
Some family members of those who died in the attacks called on Mamdani to avoid attending the memorial service, even starting a petition that received more than 100,000 signatures to stop the mayor from appearing. The petitioners said Mamdani’s previous comments and the people he chooses to surround himself with make him an inappropriate participant in the ceremony.
The pushback to Mamdani’s attendance was later heightened after the mayor handed a ceremonial pen used to sign 9/11-related executive orders to New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch, asking her to pass it to Ramzi Kassem, the city’s chief counsel. Kassem was the attorney for Ahmed al Darbi, an al Qaeda associate who pleaded guilty to war crimes charges.
Mamdani has defended his going to the ceremony, saying he intends to keep the day focused 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 did everything they could.”
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden were also in attendance at the event, as well as Vice President JD Vance, current and former Cabinet officials, lawmakers, and New York leaders.