Footage from Friday's ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, showing New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez smiling and appearing to laugh as the names of victims were read aloud, drew widespread Republican condemnation over the weekend. A Republican who says he stood beside them for the duration disputes the interpretation.
The clip came from a live broadcast that cut from a young man weeping at the memorial to the two Democrats speaking, their conversation inaudible. Family members of the roughly 3,000 people killed were reading the names from the stage. Steve Guest, a former senior aide to Senator Ted Cruz, called it disgraceful. Meghan McCain and Florida state Senator Randy Fine were among those who condemned it, with Fine saying the pair mock the country rather than mourn it. The Pittsburgh Republican Committee said it illustrated why victims' families had not wanted Mamdani there.
Michael Ragusa, a former FDNY emergency medical technician who ran unsuccessfully for city council as a Republican in 2023 and who attended the ceremony, said on social media that the videos are not true and that he was standing next to the pair the whole time. He said the camera caught Ocasio-Cortez greeting Mamdani hello, that she had waited at the back of the line for an appropriate moment to do so, and that multiple other politicians from both parties were laughing and talking behind him. Speaking to Newsweek, Ragusa said he was beside them for two hours, that they were respectful throughout and stayed for the entire ceremony, and added that he is a lifelong Republican who has been critical of both. The offices of Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to requests for comment.
The mayor's attendance had been contested for days. A petition circulated by 9/11 families urging him to stay away gathered more than 100,000 signatures, with organisers describing him as a vile antisemite. Charles Wolf, who lost his wife in the attacks, said at a City Hall press conference that the mayor is serving himself rather than the families. Council Member Joann Ariola, who helped deliver the petition, said Mamdani was too cowardly to meet the families himself. Governor Kathy Hochul rejected the campaign, saying the mayor of New York would be there as he should be.
Rudolph Giuliani, mayor at the time of the attacks, had urged Mamdani not to attend, saying he does not accept that September 11 was an Islamic terrorist attack. The two exchanged a brief handshake at Ground Zero on Friday. Former governor George Pataki said he would have no objection to Mamdani's presence if he disavowed commentator Hasan Piker, who has said America deserved the attacks, and condemned the phrase "globalize the intifada."
