Democratic socialists Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Mayor Zohran Mamdani were seen laughing and smiling together at Ground Zero in New York City on Friday as 9/11 victims’ families wept nearby.
The incident occurred as family members read the names of the 2,977 Americans killed on September 11, 2001, by Islamic terrorists. Some families had asked earlier in the week that Mamdani stay away from the memorial due to his Islamist associations.
Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani did not respond to requests for comment.
A video circulating online juxtaposes 9/11 families visibly grieving with Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez laughing and smiling nearby.
Mamdani attended the ceremony despite a petition that gathered over 110,000 signatures by Friday requesting he not intrude on the event.
“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,” Mamdani told reporters Monday. “And what I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11.”
In 2025, Mamdani appeared alongside Imam Siraj Wahhaj, identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He also appointed Ramzi Kassem as chief counsel, who previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, a convicted al-Qaeda operative whose brother-in-law hijacked the plane that struck the Pentagon.
The first-term mayor has previously framed Muslims as the primary victims of 9/11, telling crowds in 2025 that his “aunt” was forced to stop riding the New York City subway in the aftermath of 9/11 “because she didn’t feel safe in her hijab.” It turns out the woman was not his aunt and did not live in NYC.
Mamdani also claimed a former teacher warned him on Sept. 11 that he might face bullying because of his Muslim background. The former teacher does not recall that conversation, according to the New York Times.
Both Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez have ties to left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, who in 2019 stated, “America deserved 9/11.” Piker was raised in Turkey and lived there until he came to the United States for college.
Piker attacked families who signed the petition asking that Mamdani not attend the 9/11 memorial, calling them to have a “demented racist viewpoint.”
AOC has appeared on Piker’s streams and hugged him at Mamdani’s victory party. Asked in August 2026 whether Piker should have a role in the progressive movement, she said Democrats “have a responsibility to build a winning coalition.”
