By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2026-08-08 13:02:04 | Updated at 2026-08-08 13:53:23
53 minutes ago
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to defy 9/11 victims’ families by attending the 25th-anniversary ceremony of the terror attacks at Ground Zero, but he ditched this year’s ceremony for the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Instead of attending the solemn ceremony on Feb. 26 at Ground Zero, he chose to pitch a housing project to President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.
Mamdani — who was photographed last year grinning ear-to-ear with a Brooklyn imam who was an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 — sent one of his deputies to the memorial instead.
That day, the socialist mayor met privately with the president to try to convince him to provide more than $21 billion in federal funds for a 12,000-unit affordable housing project at a massive railyard in Queens.
Mamdani “blew us off and passed on it because he does not give a s–t,” raged Andrew Colabella, whose 41-year-old cousin John DiGiovanni was one of the six people murdered when radical Islamic terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground parking garage.
“The only thing he cares about is his ego and his so-called political future,” added Colabella, a Republican legislator representing Westport, Conn.
Colabella and some other family members of the 1993 victims accused Mamdani of blowing off the 33rd annual memorial service because it lacked major media coverage. The mayor was quick to visit Ground Zero in April to greet King Charles III because plenty of cameras were rolling, they added.
Colabella accused the mayor of meeting with Trump on a pie-in-the-sky housing proposal to avoid being booed at Ground Zero over his “longtime association” with individuals who’ve defended Islamic terror, including vile left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Colabella said he’s among the more than 79,000 who’ve signed a surging petition demanding Mamdani skip the victims’ tribute at Ground Zero on Sept. 11.
Edward Smith — whose 35-year-old wife Monica Rodriguez Smith was seven months pregnant when she was killed in the 1993 WTC bombing — said Mamdani did him and other family members a huge favor by skipping the February service.
“It is best he didn’t show up, but it’s even crazier that New York would elect him mayor in the first place,” added Smith, a native New Yorker now living in Scottsdale, AZ.
Smith, who plans to attend the 9/11 ceremony, said he’s not signing the petition to keep Mamdani away because it “empowers” the mayor, adding he’d prefer people opposing his presence to “boo him or turn their backs on him.”
Julia Kerson, deputy of mayor of operations, went to the ceremony at the September 11 Memorial plaza in February in Mamdani’s place.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Dan Flynn and City Council Speaker Julie Menin were also in attendance, according to Eyewitness News ABC-7 video of the event.
Most NYC mayors since the 1993 bombing – including Rudy Giuliani, Michael Bloomberg and Eric Adams – have attended at least some of the annual ceremonies in person or sent a deputy.
Mamdani claimed his meeting with Trump in February was “productive,” but the White House has yet to comment on it.
Reps for the mayor did not return messages.
