Hochul voices support for Mamdani after Giuliani tells him to skip 9/11 ceremony

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Tuesday voiced support for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) after one of his predecessors, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), criticized him for planning to attend the city’s 25th anniversary commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

“Division should not prevail over the spirit of unity that brought us together after September 11th,” Hochul said in a post on the social platform X . “On this 25th anniversary, we should honor those we lost by coming together again as New Yorkers and Americans. The Mayor of New York City will be there, as he should be.”

The calls from Giuliani and others urging Mamdani to skip the ceremony stem in part from the mayor’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented a convicted al-Qaeda member whose brother-in-law was among the 19 hijackers who perpetrated the Sept. 11 attack, as the city’s top legal counsel.

The move led some families of 9/11 victims to launch a petition urging Mamdani not to go. The petition claims Mamdani supports people perceived as “dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies.”

Giuliani, who led New York City when the attacks took place, has touted conspiracy theories tinged with anti-Muslim sentiment about Mamdani in connection with the attacks and said it offended him that the mayor will attend.

Mamdani has dismissed these claims and conspiracy theories, saying the focus leading up to Friday’s commemoration should be about the families of those killed 25 years ago “in the horrific act of terror on Sept. 11,” the mayor told reporters Monday.

“And a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers,” Mamdani added. “And so, in the days to come, my focus will be on attending events that memorialize that incredible courage and I will be there on Friday at the memorial just as I was last year.”

Mamdani said he “did not have much more to add” when asked about Giuliani’s comments.

Alongside the Empire State’s governor and the Big Apple’s mayor, four of the five living presidents, along with Vice President Vance, are expected to attend the Ground Zero ceremony.

President Trump, born in the city’s Queens borough, will not attend Ground Zero, instead choosing to speak at the Pentagon for a separate commemoration, as the Pentagon was also struck during the Sept. 11 attacks. It will be the second year in which he has done so from Washington, though he and Vance attended the Ground Zero ceremony in 2024.