Top Democrats Called Out for Silence Over Racist Push for Mamdani to Skip 9/11 Memorial

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, progressives this week have expressed appreciation for the few Democratic leaders who have defended Mayor Zohran Mamdani against openly Islamophobic attacks from right-wing city lawmakers demanding that he skip Friday's memorial event.

But Zeteo editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan was among those who said the silence from some of the party's top leaders—who have also failed to speak out against other recent incidents of anti-Muslim hate—has been "deafening."

Republicans including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, and multiple members of the New York City Council have appeared entirely comfortable in recent days calling on Mamdani to stay away from the annual memorial, solely due to the fact that he is Muslim.

Giuliani told the right-wing outlet Newsmax over the weekend that because the 2001 attacks were perpetrated “in the name of the Muslim religion," Mamdani—who this week released files that the Republican mayor had kept hidden regarding air quality concerns after the attack—should not attend the memorial.

New York City Council Members Vickie Paladino and Joann Ariola, both Republicans, have joined Giuliani's call, with the latter lawmaker bringing a petition to City Hall with 100,000 signatures—less than 2% of the population of New York City—of people who believe "Mayor Mamdani is not welcome at the ceremony."

Paladino, who earlier this year called for "revolutionaries" like members of the Democratic Socialists of America to be "neutralized" by federal law enforcement agencies, appeared on Fox News Tuesday night and told anchor Laura Ingraham that Mamdani's presence at the 9/11 memorial would send "a message to Osama bin Laden that look, we conquered New York."

Paladino also said Tuesday that she is "demanding that he not show his face on that sacred ground," adding, "he does not belong there."

Jonathan Shainin of Equator magazine said the demand for Mamdani to skip the memorial ceremony appeared to be "the most brazenly racist episode in recent American history," while noting that "competition is fierce."

The latest right-wing attacks on Mamdani—whose approval rating stands at 69% and whom 73% of New Yorkers say should attend the 9/11 event—follow months of attacks on left-wing streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, who publicly apologized for a comment he once made that the US "deserved 9/11." US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat who is Muslim, faced accusations of being "un-American" for campaigning with Piker.

A number of pro-Palestinian student protesters have also been threatened with deportation since Trump took office, and both Republicans and Democrats claimed that nationwide campus demonstrations in opposition to US military support for Israel as it waged war on Gaza in 2024 were "antisemitic."

Now, said Hasan on Tuesday evening, top Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, have said nothing in defense of Mamdani—or the roughly 1 million Muslims who call New York City home and presumably also don't "belong" at the 9/11 memorial, according to Paladino and others.

"Hi Democrats, don’t think that millions of Muslims—and not just Muslims but anti-racist liberal and leftist Americans—don’t hear the deafening silence from most of you as the Muslim Democratic mayor of New York is being smeared and attacked by the GOP and right-wing media over 9/11," said Hasan.

Writer Wajahat Ali added that the silence has come from the same Democrats who "threw Mamdani under the bus when he was running and are throwing El-Sayed under the bus now."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who also resides in New York City, told local media outlets when asked about the issue that Giuliani's comments were "divisive" and said that "Mamdani is the mayor of New York City and of course he should be at 9/11."

But Jeffries and the state's other senator, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D), are not among the federal lawmakers who have condemned the Republican attacks.

The relative silence was juxtaposed by what journalist Emma Vigeland called "deference" to "gutter bigotry towards Muslim people," as displayed in a lengthy Vanity Fair article that described "an inchoate, emotional component" of New York City "that sees the city’s first Muslim mayor as a stand-in for the 19 Muslims who hijacked four planes and turned them into deadly weapons, part of the 'them' who attacked 'us.'"

"Chris Smith and Vanity Fair, I cannot believe you published this racist Islamophobic drivel without any pushback," said Hasan. "Mamdani was 9 years old on 9/11 and all Muslim Americans are not ‘stand-ins’ for 19 foreign hijackers."

On Wednesday, Vanity Fair edited the article to include the word "Islamophobic" along with "inchoate" and "emotional."

Hasan applauded Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) for condemning Giuliani's "blatant anti-Muslim rhetoric."

"This from the man who betrayed his country by conspiring to overturn a presidential election," said Van Hollen. "Giuliani is a traitor to our democracy. Mayor Mamdani champions it."

Reps. Pat Ryan, Gregory Meeks, and Jerrold Nadler, all Democrats from New York, were also among those who spoke out.

"Rudy Giuliani is a hypocrite trying to distract the public from his role in hurting New Yorkers after 9/11 by feeding into ridiculous, hateful, anti-Muslim rhetoric. He’d like the public to reminisce on his days as 'America’s Mayor.' Meanwhile, as Mayor, he intentionally hid the truth about the toxins in the air at and around ground zero," said Nadler. "We must denounce claims like Giuliani’s as the bigoted, anti-Muslim rhetoric that they are."