Socialist streamer Hasan Piker told his audience that America deserved the September 11 attacks – and Zohran Mamdani called him an ally anyway.
Friday was the 25th anniversary of those attacks, and Mamdani showed up at Ground Zero with AOC at his side.
A camera at the memorial caught something while the families were still at the microphone.
9/11 25th Anniversary Brought America to Ground Zero
The 25th anniversary of September 11 drew everyone who was supposed to be there. Vice President JD Vance was there along with four former presidents.
Firefighters who pulled bodies from the rubble a quarter century ago made the trip back. And the families – the wives, the husbands, the children who grew up without a parent – stood at the microphone and did the hardest thing a human being can do: they read the names of their dead out loud, in public, one more time.
Nearly 3,000 names.
That is what Ground Zero sounds like on September 11. Grief that has had 25 years to harden into something permanent, spoken into a microphone so the country doesn't forget who was taken and who is still missing them.
Politicians are banned from speaking at the site. The memorial made that rule permanent in 2012 because the ceremony belongs to the families, not to officeholders.
Elected officials come to stand and listen – nothing more.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were caught on camera laughing together while the names were being read during this solemn ceremony.
9/11 Victims Families Demanded Mamdani Stay Away From Ground Zero
Mamdani's appearance was already the most contested in the ceremony's 25-year history before he set foot on the plaza.
Over 110,000 people signed a petition demanding he stay home and delivered it to City Hall. These were not outside agitators. They were the brothers, sisters, and widows of people killed on September 11 – and they had documented, specific reasons for their objections.
Widow Cheri Sparacio spoke for the families before the anniversary: "It's not about his religion or where he came from. It is strictly about the policies that he has today."
Those policies include Mamdani's appointment of Ramzi Kassem as New York City's chief legal counsel. Kassem represented Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda operative convicted for the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker. Al-Darbi is the brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar – one of the hijackers who flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
Republican Council Member Vicki Paladino named what Kassem represents: "Ramzi Kassem said he was inspired by 9/11 – not to join the fight against terrorism, but to defend the terrorists themselves."
And the week before the ceremony, when Mamdani signed executive orders commemorating the 25th anniversary, he made sure the ceremonial pen went to Kassem – not to a first responder, not to a victim's family member. To the al Qaeda lawyer.
One family member at the memorial drew the line that mattered: "Yes, he was a 9-year-old boy when 9/11 happened, but it is today that he stands with people like Hasan Piker. It is today that he hires people like Ramzi Kassem."
Former Governor George Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani both called on Mamdani to stay away. He came anyway. And he brought AOC with him.
What the Camera Caught at the 9/11 Memorial Says Everything
Democrats invoke 9/11 when it's useful. They wrap themselves in it when cameras are rolling and lecture Republicans about honoring the memory of the dead.
For generations, even politicians who privately didn't care made sure to look like they did on September 11. Whatever they believed, they understood that some moments demand a mask.
The socialist wing of the Democrat Party has stopped bothering.
Not behind closed doors – in public, on camera, at the most watched memorial in America, while the families of the dead stood twenty feet away.
That footage doesn't need a caption. It doesn't need analysis. It is the entire story of where the modern Democrat Party stands on September 11 – captured in a single frame, on the one day of the year when there is absolutely no excuse.
Sources:
- "Families of 9/11 victims press Zohran Mamdani not to attend remembrance ceremony," Washington Times, September 8, 2026.
- "Mamdani heads to 9/11 memorial despite 110,000-signature push from victims' families to stay away," Fox News, September 11, 2026.
- "Mamdani draws outrage by handing 9/11 pen to attorney who helped defend al Qaeda terrorist," Washington Times, September 6, 2026.
- "'A Direct Insult' to 'Every Family That Bled': Mamdani Signs 9/11 EO, Hands Honorary Pen to Terrorist's Lawyer," Western Journal, September 5, 2026.
- "America remembers 9/11 as 25th anniversary ceremonies unfold," Fox News, September 11, 2026.