As New York City prepares for the 25th anniversary of the horrific terror attacks on 9/11 that destroyed the original World Trade Center, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to not attend the memorial service. He would be excoriated heavily online for that, and for the city’s disclosure of files that showed he was untruthful about the air quality after the attacks.
Giuliani was interviewed by the right-wing television network Newsmax on Sunday (Sept. 6) about 9/11, and took the opportunity to attack Mamdani with lies about his beliefs in an Islamophobic-laced commentary. “Having lost friends there, and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming,” he said.
Mamdani declined to respond to Giuliani’s attacks, but did confirm that he will be at the ceremony. It is the latest
attack on him after a controversy involving a petition with dubious origins, representing some 9/11 family members, calling for him not to attend the service was created earlier in the summer.
Giuliani was mayor of the city during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He would go on to be heralded by the media, even being referred to as “America’s Mayor” in the months afterward. The longtime Republican politician would try to parlay that acclaim into attempts to become president, settling for being a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda, disgracing himself by falsely claiming Black poll workers interfered with the 2020 presidential election.
Giuliani would receive more ire after a press conference was held by Mayor Mamdani on Tuesday morning (Sept. 8), as his administration announced the release of files related to 9/11 that had been discovered last year.
Those files contained over 170,000 pages, which revealed that the Giuliani administration, along with other federal officials, covered up the true effects of air quality in the area. That decision would place thousands of workers and members of the New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York at risk, with many succumbing to various illnesses in the years afterwards.
The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who has been an advocate for the first responders and other 9/11 workers afflicted, ripped Giuliani and others at the press conference. “They began covering their ass 3 weeks after 9/11… There was poison in the air, on the ground, on your pets/clothes… THE CITY KNEW.”
