Mamdani Thrown Out? — “Victory for America” Claim Explodes
Petition From Some 9/11 Families Seeks to Keep Mamdani Away From the 25th Anniversary Ceremony — but It Does Not Speak for Every Victim Family
A public campaign urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11 attacks has become one of the most politically charged disputes surrounding this year's memorial. The petition is real. It was launched by Giovanni Galante, whose wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was killed in the North Tower, and by September 8 it had drawn more than 100,000 public signatures. Several relatives of 9/11 victims have publicly endorsed the effort, saying Mamdani's political record and associations make his presence painful or inappropriate. But the petition should not be described as the unified position of 'the 9/11 families.' CBS News corrected an earlier report that had implied thousands of victim families had signed; the public petition total includes signers from the general public, and organizers have not produced a verified count showing how many are relatives of those killed. Other 9/11 family members have defended Mamdani's right to attend, while the National September 11 Memorial & Museum says government officials from across the political spectrum have long been allowed to attend simply as witnesses, without giving speeches. Mamdani says he will attend.
1. The Petition Was Started by a 9/11 Widower
Giovanni Galante organized the petition in July. His wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was 29 years old and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower when she was killed on September 11, 2001.
The petition asks organizers of the 25th anniversary commemorations to reconsider Mamdani's participation. Its central argument is that the annual ceremony should remain focused on remembrance, national unity and rejection of the ideologies behind the attacks, and that Mamdani's public positions and associations have caused some bereaved families to doubt whether his presence is consistent with that purpose.
Those objections are the petition organizers' political judgments. The petition is not an official finding by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum that Mamdani has violated any rule governing attendance.
2. The Signature Count Is Large — but It Is a Public Petition, Not a Census of 9/11 Families
The petition grew rapidly. CBS News reported more than 23,000 signatures by August 18. updates showed the total rising above 80,000 later that month. By September 8, major news outlets reported that the petition had crossed 100,000 signatures, and the live page displayed more than 100,000 verified public signatures.
That is a substantial show of public support for the organizers' position. It does not establish that 100,000 relatives of 9/11 victims oppose Mamdani.
CBS News New York explicitly corrected an earlier version of its reporting that had incorrectly suggested thousands of 9/11 families had signed. The corrected article states that the petition was signed by thousands of people, including some 9/11 family members.
Galante has invited other victim relatives who signed to identify them
selves and contact him, but no independently verified accounting has established how many of the total signatures belong to victim families. Any article describing the full public tally as a count of '9/11 families' would therefore overstate the evidence.
3. Several Bereaved Relatives Have Publicly Supported the Effort
The lack of a verified family count does not mean the family opposition is invented. Multiple relatives have publicly attached their names to the campaign.
Monica Iken Murphy, whose husband Michael was killed while working on the 84th floor of the South Tower, told CBS News that she wanted the 25th anniversary to remain focused on the people directly affected by the attacks.
Other relatives joined Galante at a September 8 City Hall event where organizers delivered the petition and renewed their request that Mamdani stay away from the commemoration.
Their grief and objections are genuine and deserve to be reported as such. The accuracy problem arises only when the views of those families are presented as though they automatically represent all 9/11 families.
4. Other 9/11 Families Say Mamdani Should Be Allowed to Attend
The 9/11 community is not politically uniform. CBS News also interviewed relatives who rejected the campaign to exclude the mayor.
Elizabeth Miller, whose father was killed in the attacks, said Mamdani had assured families that he wanted to attend to honor their loved ones and that he should be allowed to do so. Miller is associated with September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group with more than 250 members.
The organization criticized what it viewed as anti-Muslim sentiment surrounding some of the campaign against the mayor and argued that the anniversary should not be turned into a partisan or religious loyalty test.
Dennis McKeon, who leads a Staten Island organization for 9/11 survivors, took a more middle-ground position. He told CBS he respected families' right to object, but also noted that mayors and governors have faced criticism from 9/11 families in past years without being barred from the ceremony.
5. Mamdani Says He Will Attend
Mamdani has rejected calls to stay away. He told CBS News New York that he would 'proudly honor' the families, survivors and first responders by standing alongside them at the commemoration and reaffirming the city's commitment to never forget the attack.
In a separate September interview, he said the anniversary should be about the people who were killed, their families and the lives permanently changed by the attack, not about political conflict surrounding elected officials.
His participation will be especially scrutinized because he is New York City's first Muslim mayor. That fact is politically relevant to the controversy because some defenders say religious identity has become entangled with criticism of him, while petition organizers say their objections concern his record and associations rather than his faith.
6. The Memorial's Longstanding Rule Is to Keep Elected Officials in a Non-Speaking Role
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has resisted framing the commemoration as an endorsement of any officeholder. Its stated policy is that the event should remain free of politics.
A Memorial spokesperson told CBS that government officials from across the political spectrum have attended the ceremony 'simply to bear witness.' Politicians do not deliver remarks during the ceremony and are asked to remain in a designated area.
That distinction matters. Mamdani is not being invited to give a political speech, lead the name reading or use the ceremony as a campaign event. His role, like that of other elected officials who attend, is observational and ceremonial.
The petition therefore asks organizers to make an exception to a longstanding practice of allowing public officials to attend quietly, rather than to prevent Mamdani from taking over the program itself.
7. The Ceremony Is Centered on the Victims' Families
The official 25th anniversary commemoration begins at 8:30 a.m. on September 11 at the Memorial plaza. Access begins earlier for 9/11 family members, who receive credentials for entry.
The heart of the program is the reading of the names by relatives. The Memorial says family members will read the names of the 2,983 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks and the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The ceremony will include seven moments of silence. Six mark the times when the two World Trade Center towers were struck and collapsed, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93. A seventh moment has been added for the 25th anniversary to honor people who later died from 9/11-related illnesses and injuries.
The first moment of silence will occur at 8:46 a.m., the time American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower.
8. Mamdani Has Taken Several Official 9/11-Related Actions Before the Anniversary
The mayor's response to the controversy has not been limited to saying he will attend. On September 1, his administration and the FDNY released a 25-year report detailing the long-term health effects suffered by firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, officers, retirees and other department members who participated in the World Trade Center rescue and recovery effort.
The city said more than 10,000 FDNY members are certified with at least one 9/11-related physical health condition and emphasized the need for continued medical monitoring and federal support.
On September 4, Mamdani signed Executive Order 21 establishing September 11 as an annual citywide Day of Remembrance and Service. The order directs the mayor's office to designate one or more moments of silence and encourages city agencies to hold memorial, educational and service activities.
Then, on September 8, the administration released approximately 170,000 pages of city records concerning air quality, health risks and the government's response after the attacks, while settling long-running litigation brought by 9/11 Health Watch over access to the records.
Those actions do not require families who oppose Mamdani to change their view of him. They do show that the city's current 9/11 policy cannot accurately be reduced to a claim that the mayor has ignored the anniversary or the health consequences of the attacks.
9. The Petition's Grievances Should Be Reported as Allegations and Political Objections
The petition lists a series of concerns about Mamdani's past statements and political relationships. Some involve people whom petitioners regard as hostile to American institutions or insufficiently condemnatory of extremism.
One frequently cited example is Mamdani's appointment of Ramzi Kassem as New York City's chief counsel. Kassem previously represented detainees and terrorism defendants, including a Guantanamo prisoner. Legal representation of an unpopular or accused client is not itself evidence that an attorney endorses the client's ideology or conduct.
Likewise, guilt by association should not be converted into a factual claim that Mamdani shares every view expressed by people he has met, praised, appointed or politically supported. Each allegation requires its own evidence and context.
The strongest accurate formulation is therefore that petition organizers believe Mamdani's record and associations make his attendance inappropriate. That belief is a political and moral judgment, not an established finding that he supports the ideology of the 9/11 attackers.
10. Mamdani's Religion Is Part of the Political Context — but Not a Rule of Eligibility
Mamdani's status as the city's first Muslim mayor gives the dispute an unavoidable religious dimension, especially on an anniversary of an attack carried out by al-Qaeda, an Islamist terrorist organization.
But the perpetrators' ideology does not create a general presumption against Muslim public officials participating in civic remembrance. Muslim Americans were among the people killed on September 11, served as first responders and members of the military, and have participated in the city's remembrance efforts for decades.
Critics are entitled to judge Mamdani's specific words, appointments and associations. Defenders are equally entitled to argue that excluding the sitting mayor because of broad religious or associative suspicions would politicize a ceremony intended to transcend party and faith.
That is why a fact-based article should distinguish criticism of identifiable conduct from a generalized claim that a Muslim mayor is inherently inappropriate at a 9/11 memorial.
11. The Dispute Is Ultimately About Symbolism, Not Control of the Ceremony
The petition has no legal power to remove Mamdani from office or automatically bar him from the Memorial plaza. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum controls its commemoration procedures, and the organization has emphasized a nonpartisan practice of allowing government officials to attend as witnesses.
The political force of the petition is symbolic. Supporters want Mamdani to conclude that his presence would cause unnecessary pain and voluntarily stay away. Mamdani's position is the opposite: he argues that the mayor of New York City has a responsibility to stand with victims' families, survivors and first responders on the anniversary.
Both positions can be sincerely held without pretending there is a factual consensus among the thousands of people directly affected by September 11.
12. What Can Be Said With Confidence
A real petition organized by 9/11 widower Giovanni Galante asks organizers to keep Mayor Zohran Mamdani away from the 25th anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero.
Galante's wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was 29 and worked on the 105th floor of the North Tower. Monica Iken Murphy and other relatives have publicly supported the campaign.
The petition had more than 100,000 public signatures by September 8. That number should not be described as 100,000 victim families. CBS corrected an earlier article that had overstated how many 9/11 families had signed, and no verified public accounting establishes the family-member total.
Other relatives of victims have defended Mamdani's attendance. The 9/11 family community is divided, not united behind one position.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum says elected officials from across the political spectrum have traditionally attended simply to bear witness. They do not give political remarks and are placed in a designated area.
Mamdani says he will attend. In the days before the anniversary, his administration released an FDNY health-impact report, established September 11 as an annual citywide Day of Remembrance and Service, and opened a public portal containing roughly 170,000 pages of city records concerning post-9/11 health and air-quality issues.
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The official commemoration begins at 8:30 a.m. on September 11. Family members will read the names of the 2,983 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the ceremony will observe seven moments of silence, including a new one honoring those who later died from 9/11-related illnesses and injuries.
The accurate story is therefore not that 'the 9/11 families' have collectively ordered a Muslim mayor to stay away. It is that a substantial public petition led and supported by some bereaved relatives is challenging Mamdani's presence, while other victim families and the Memorial's nonpartisan attendance tradition support allowing the sitting mayor to attend quietly. The disagreement is real, emotionally charged and unresolved — but it is not unanimous.
