Vice President JD Vance mocked New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Saturday for claiming his Muslim aunt felt unsafe on the subway after the 9/11 terrorist attacks because she wore a hijab.
“According to Zohran,” Vance posted on X, “the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks.”
Mamdani spoke of the alleged anti-Muslim bigotry against his aunt during a speech on Islamophobia in front of a Bronx mosque on Friday. He used the anecdote to make a broader point about how he would stand up for New York City‘s Muslim community should he win the mayoral election next month.
“The dream of every Muslim is simply to be treated as any other New Yorker, and yet for too long we have been told to ask for less than that and to be satisfied with whatever little we receive,” Mamdani said. “No more.”
“I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own,” he added. “But there is one thing that I will change. I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.”
The Muslim democratic socialist’s statement was ridiculed by conservatives on social media for neglecting to mention the nearly 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11, 2001, at the hands of the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings discussed Mamdani’s remarks on CNN late Friday, saying the mayoral front-runner “cannot lose sight” of 9/11 if he wants to win.
“If you’re going to run for mayor of New York City or have any position in New York City, and you’re going to talk about 9/11 or invoke 9/11, you darn sure better start with the people who died in the Twin Towers,” Jennings argued. “That’s what I think, and he didn’t do that. He made it about his experience and his aunt and all this.”
Mamdani is currently leading independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa in the polls, although recent high-profile endorsements may shake up next month’s outcome.
KNICKS SEND MAMDANI CEASE-AND-DESIST LETTER OVER SINCE-DELETED AD
Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race last month, endorsed Cuomo on Thursday, and Mamdani received long-awaited support from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Friday.
New York City’s early voting period begins on Saturday. The general election is 10 days away.