New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hails the unity and humanity of New Yorkers who helped one another in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks 25 years ago. Mamdani spoke at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in lower Manhattan, which was completely destroyed on the day of the terror attacks.
Page A4From§Eachthe early evening edition — 11 September 2026
THE HANDSHAKE
9/11 families demand Mamdani stay away; he shows up, shakes Giuliani's hand, branded villain for smiling minutes later.
As it ran on the front
Four days before the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11th, Rudy Giuliani told the New York Post that Mayor Zohran Mamdani's presence at the memorial "offends" him. The next day, a coalition of 9/11 families and first responders carried a petition to the steps of City Hall asking Mamdani to stay away from the ceremony entirely. The same day, a Washington Examiner columnist found a second complaint: Mamdani had handed a ceremonial pen to a lawyer who once represented al Qaeda while signing an executive order naming Sept. 11 a day of remembrance. Gov. Kathy Hochul answered that same day too, saying division shouldn't prevail over unity. Mamdani, for his part, had already told ABC News he was going regardless.
He went. At Friday's ceremony, per Politico, he shook Giuliani's hand — the hand of the man who'd spent four days calling his attendance an insult. Later that day Mamdani walked to Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, rebuilt on the ground the attacks destroyed, and spoke about the resilience of New Yorkers who helped one another that morning twenty-five years ago.…
…(cont) Then came the aftermath, in two separate channels. Giuliani told the Post the handshake was simply "the right thing to do." Separately, an anonymous source told Politico's Playbook that Giuliani had offered Mamdani prayers, telling him he knew the job was tough. Two accounts, two outlets, one handshake, doing different work depending on who's asking.
Robert De Niro, who still calls Mamdani's past defund-the-police comments "ridiculous," said the mayor should have gone anyway. And later, cameras caught Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grinning at the memorial while a mourner sobbed nearby, and that's the clip that actually drew the fury — not the handshake, not the prayers, the grin.
That's the whole mechanism laid end to end. The petition wanted him gone. Giuliani wanted him gone, then wanted credit for shaking his hand. The pen story wanted him suspect. And once none of that worked, and he showed up and did the thing correctly, the last available move was to catch him looking like a person who was glad to be alive at a funeral, and run that instead. The test wasn't built to be passed by showing up correctly. It was built to move the instant he cleared the last bar.
“They spent four days demanding Mamdani stay home, then he showed up and did exactly what they said they wanted, and the cameras still found the one frame where he looked human and used it against him. That's not about 9/11, that's about who gets to control what grief is supposed to look like on camera. The rules only exist to be moved the second you clear them.”
“Giuliani said it himself to the Post — shaking that hand was the right thing to do, so where's the outrage supposed to land. Sure, he'd spent four days saying the mayor's presence "offends" him, but that's just historical context, not a contradiction. Did I say he was offering the guy prayers for job security? That's not — that's not what "America's Mayor" meant, forget I said that.”
The receipts
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were seen grinning at the 9/11 Memorial as a mourner sobbed nearby on camera.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Mayor Mamdani had a tense – but civil – exchange at the 9/11 memorial service Friday, with an expert revealing the message “America’s Mayor” passed on to Hizzoner.
Friday marks 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, which claimed the lives of 2,977 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville.
Rudy Giuliani revealed to The Post on Friday that he shook Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s hand at the 9/11 ceremony because it was the right thing to do.
Robert De Niro called Zohran Mamdani's defund the police comments "ridiculous" but argued the NYC mayor should still attend the 9/11 memorial.
BEST FRENEMIES: Didn’t see this one coming. At Friday’s ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani — he of the recent anti-Muslim tirade — shook hands with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the subject of that rant.
· Families of 9/11 victims' message to Mamdani: 'Please do not come' to memorial ceremony from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· 9/11 victim families deliver petition to Mamdani at City Hall asking him to stay away from memorial ceremonies: ‘Disrespectful’ from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Rudy Giuliani calls for Mamdani to skip 9/11 memorial ceremonies: ‘It offends me’ from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
· Giuliani scorns Mamdani’s presence at 9/11 anniversary: ‘It offends me’ from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Hochul voices support for Mamdani after Giuliani tells him to skip 9/11 ceremony from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· ‘Mamdani views himself as an executor of a pan-Islamist movement’: Tiana Lowe Doescher from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Mayor Mamdani faces pushback over plans to attend 9/11 anniversary events from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.