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9/11 PETITION TOPS 100,000 TO KEEP MAMDANI FROM GROUND ZERO — But It Does Not Mean 100,000 Victims’ Families Signed
A petition launched by 9/11 widower Giovanni Galante is urging organizers of the 25th anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero to reconsider New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s attendance. The campaign is substantial:displayed 108,576 verified signatures when reviewed on Sept. 10, and several relatives of people killed on 9/11 have publicly backed it. But the signature total is not a count of 9/11 families. CBS News New York has already corrected an earlier version of its reporting after that distinction became blurred. Mamdani says he will attend, while the 9/11 Memorial & Museum says elected officials from across the political spectrum have historically been allowed to bear witness without delivering political remarks.
Updated and fact-checked through Sept. 10, 2026.
The Petition Is Real — and the Signature Count Has Climbed Above 108,000
The campaign to keep Mamdani away from the 25th anniversary ceremony is neither invented nor numerically trivial. The petition created by Giovanni Galante on July 10 had passed the 100,000 mark by early September. When the petition page was reviewed on Sept. 10, it displayed 108,576 verified signatures and said that helps verify that signatures come from real people.
That makes the campaign politically significant and far larger than it was when local news outlets first covered it in July and August. But the platform’s total measures petition supporters, not a verified population of relatives who lost family members in the attacks.
The petition’s six-figure signature count is verified by The claim that those signatures represent more than 100,000 members of 9/11 families is not supported by the available evidence.
“Verified Signature” Does Not Mean “Verified 9/11 Relative”
s own help guidance is important to interpreting the number. The platform says unverified signatures are not included in the displayed total and that its systems can remove duplicate or invalid entries. It also says petition supporters can use a pseudonym or a name other than their legal name.
Nothing in that process establishes whether a signer lost a spouse, parent, child or other relative on Sept. 11; survived the attacks; worked in rescue and recovery; or has no direct personal connection to 9/11. Galante’s own petition updates have invited family members who signed to contact him separately, underscoring that the platform itself does not provide a verified family-member count.
A “verified signature” is a verified petition-support record under the platform’s system. It is not verification that the signer belongs to a 9/11 victim family.
The Organizer’s Personal Loss Is Direct and Documented
Galante’s connection to Sept. 11 is not in dispute. CBS News New York reported that his wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was 29 years old and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North Tower when she was killed in the attacks. Galante has described the anniversary as a deeply personal day of mourning and argues that Mamdani’s presence would be painful and distracting for families who share his concerns.
The petition itself asks organizers to reconsider Mamdani’s participation, citing his public positions, associations and responses to rhetoric that the petition’s organizers view as inconsistent with the meaning of the commemoration.
Galante’s status as a 9/11 widower and his grief are factual. His conclusion that Mamdani’s attendance would disrespect victims’ families is his judgment and should be attributed to him and other supporters rather than presented as an uncontested fact.
Several Other Victims’ Relatives Have Publicly Joined the Objection
The petition is not supported only by Galante. Monica Iken Murphy, whose husband Michael was killed while working on the 84th floor of the South Tower, publicly backed the effort in CBS News New York coverage. At the Sept. 8 City Hall event, other relatives also appeared publicly to ask Mamdani to stay away from the Ground Zero ceremony.
Their involvement establishes that the opposition includes genuine 9/11 family members. It does not establish that the family community as a whole agrees with them.
It is accurate to say some 9/11 families are leading and supporting the campaign. It is not accurate to describe the petition’s total signature count as the position of all — or even most — 9/11 families without evidence showing that.
CBS’s Correction Is the Key Guardrail for the Entire Story
CBS News New York initially described the early petition in language that incorrectly suggested thousands of 9/11 families had signed it. The outlet later added an editor’s note correcting the point: the petition had been signed by thousands of people, including some 9/11 families.
That correction remains directly relevant now that the petition has moved into six figures. The larger number does not solve the underlying identification problem. A petition can have more than 100,000 verified supporters while the number of signers who are actually relatives of victims remains unknown.
“More than 100,000 signatures” is supported. “More than 100,000 9/11 family members signed” is not.
The Sept. 8 City Hall Petition Delivery Has Now Happened
One detail in earlier versions of the story is no longer prospective. Galante and a group that included victims’ relatives went to City Hall on Sept. 8 and delivered the petition while publicly urging Mamdani to skip the Sept. 11 ceremony. Reporting on the event put the petition above 102,000 signatures at that time.
The event turned an online campaign into a visible political confrontation just days before the anniversary. Republican City Council members Joann Ariola and Vickie Paladino were among elected officials who appeared with or supported the families calling on the mayor to stay away.
The City Hall handoff is now a completed event, not a scheduled plan. The petition nevertheless remains an advocacy campaign rather than a binding order on the mayor or the memorial organizers.
Mamdani Has Not Backed Away From His Plan to Attend
Mamdani has repeatedly said he intends to participate in the 25th anniversary commemoration. In an Aug. 20 CBS interview, he said he would honor the families, survivors and first responders by standing alongside them. On Sept. 3, he said the anniversary should focus on those killed, their families and lives shattered by the attacks rather than on political conflict.
His public participation in official 9/11-related events has continued as the petition grew. On Sept. 9, Mamdani joined NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch at One Police Plaza for the unveiling of a new 9/11 memorial and later joined city officials for a security briefing ahead of the anniversary and the Jewish High Holidays.
Mamdani’s intention to attend Ground Zero is public and consistent. The political dispute is over whether he should attend, not over whether he has said he plans to.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum Says Politicians Have Traditionally Been Allowed to Bear Witness
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has resisted turning the commemoration into a partisan platform. A spokesperson told CBS News New York that the organization has intentionally worked to keep the ceremony free of politics and that government officials from across the political spectrum have historically attended simply to bear witness.
The spokesperson also said political figures do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area. That distinction matters: attendance by elected officials has traditionally been treated as a ceremonial civic presence, not as a campaign speaking slot.
The Memorial’s stated practice favors allowing elected officials to attend silently while limiting their political role. It has not publicly adopted the petition’s demand that Mamdani be excluded.
There Is Also a Clear Attendance Precedent for Mamdani Himself
Mamdani’s presence at the anniversary is not unprecedented. Spectrum News NY1 reported that he attended the Sept. 11, 2025 ceremony in Lower Manhattan while he was a state assemblyman and the Democratic nominee for mayor. CBS and other reporting on the current dispute also note that mayors, presidents and other officials from both parties have attended the annual commemoration for years.
That history strengthens the argument that the sitting mayor’s presence is consistent with past practice. It does not create an automatic legal entitlement to a particular seat, credential or access arrangement inside a private family commemoration.
There is a strong institutional precedent for Mamdani’s attendance. Precedent should not be confused with a judicially established right to a specific role at the ceremony.
The 9/11 Family Community Is Publicly Divided
Opposition from victims’ relatives is real, but so is support for Mamdani’s inclusion. Elizabeth Miller, whose father was killed on 9/11, told CBS News New York that Mamdani should be allowed to attend and that the focus should remain on the loved ones being remembered rather than on who is present in the political audience.
Miller is project director of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization with more than 250 members. The group condemned what it described as anti-American smears and Islamophobic sentiment surrounding the effort to keep Mamdani away. Dennis McKeon, who organizes a Staten Island survivor group, took a more middle position: he said he respected families’ right to object but noted that mayors and governors had previously angered families without being banned.
The evidence supports a divided family community, not a single collective position. Reporting should identify which relatives and organizations hold which view rather than speaking for “the 9/11 families” as one bloc.
The Ceremony Is Structured Around Victims’ Names, Not Political Speeches
The official 25th anniversary commemoration on the Memorial plaza is designed around an in-person reading of the names by family members. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum says the names of the 2,983 men, women and children killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the Feb. 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing are memorialized at the site and will be central to the anniversary observance.
The Memorial’s 25th anniversary page says the program will commence at 8:30 a.m. and the first moment of silence will be observed at 8:46 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. The organization’s livestream page begins coverage at 8:40 a.m.; that difference reflects the public broadcast schedule rather than a change in the first moment of silence.
Whatever controversy surrounds elected officials in attendance, the official program remains centered on victims, family participation and remembrance rather than political remarks.
A Seventh Moment of Silence Is an Official New Addition in 2026
The anniversary program also includes a significant change. In May, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum announced that it would permanently add a seventh moment of silence beginning with the 25th anniversary, honoring people who died in later years from 9/11-related illnesses and injuries.
For the previous 24 anniversaries, six moments of silence marked the times when the World Trade Center towers were struck and fell, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93. The seventh silence recognizes the expanding post-9/11 death toll among first responders, recovery workers and others exposed to the aftermath.
The seventh moment of silence is an official 2026 addition and is separate from the political dispute over Mamdani’s attendance.
Mamdani Has Taken Formal 9/11 Actions as Mayor
On Sept. 4, Mamdani signed Executive Order No. 21 establishing Sept. 11 as an annual citywide Day of Remembrance and Service. The order directs the administration to coordinate remembrance and service activities and explicitly recognizes victims, first responders, survivors, city workers, families and people who later died from 9/11-related health effects.
He also signed Executive Order No. 22 to update the city’s continuity and mission-assurance framework for keeping essential services operating during emergencies. On Sept. 9, his administration separately launched a citywide digital “Memory Markers: 9/11” tribute through LinkNYC kiosks.
Those are official city actions and can be verified independently of the political dispute. Whether critics regard them as sincere, sufficient or politically motivated is a matter of interpretation.
Critics Have Focused on Mamdani’s Associations — but Association Is Not Proof of Sympathy for Terrorism
A substantial part of the argument against Mamdani concerns people he has supported, worked with or appointed. One recurring target is chief counsel Ramzi Kassem, a CUNY Law professor and civil-rights lawyer whose career has included representing clients in national-security and terrorism-related cases. Critics have cited that legal work as evidence that Mamdani’s administration is out of step with the meaning of the anniversary.
That argument requires an important factual boundary. Lawyers represent clients accused or convicted of serious crimes as part of the legal system, including in terrorism cases. Legal representation does not establish that the lawyer shares a client’s ideology, and employing such a lawyer does not by itself establish that the mayor sympathizes with terrorism.
It is legitimate to report critics’ objections to Mamdani’s personnel choices. It is not legitimate to convert a defense lawyer’s client list into proof of the mayor’s ideological support for al-Qaeda without direct evidence.
Mamdani’s Muslim Faith Is Not Evidence About His Position on 9/11
The dispute has also attracted rhetoric aimed directly at Mamdani’s religion. Mamdani is New York City’s first Muslim mayor. In a Sept. 7 interview, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani attacked Mamdani in terms that linked Islam and the 9/11 hijackers; The Guardian described the remarks as a rant against Islam and reported criticism that Giuliani was conflating the mayor’s faith with extremist violence.
The relevant historical fact is that the Sept. 11 attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda terrorists motivated by an extremist Islamist ideology. That does not make Muslim identity evidence of support for al-Qaeda, and religion alone is not a factual basis for concluding that an elected official is hostile to 9/11 victims.
Criticism of Mamdani’s statements, policies and associations can be evaluated on evidence. His religion cannot substitute for that evidence.
Crossing 100,000 Signatures Does Not “Ban” the Mayor
petitions are tools of public pressure. They do not have independent legal authority to remove an elected official from an event. The Sept. 11 ceremony on the Memorial plaza is a private family commemoration organized by the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in coordination with security and public authorities, and it is not open to the general public.
That means the petition can influence organizers, elected officials and public opinion, but the six-figure count does not automatically change access rules or create an enforceable exclusion order. The Memorial has continued to emphasize its established practice of allowing political figures to attend without speaking.
The petition is substantial political advocacy. It is not, by itself, a legal mechanism that bars Mamdani from Ground Zero.
What the Petition Story Proves — and What It Does Not
The strongest version of the story is already significant without inflating it. A 9/11 widower created a petition asking organizers to reconsider the sitting mayor’s attendance. The petition has attracted more than 108,000 verified signatures, several publicly identified victims’ relatives have joined the campaign, and the organizers delivered it to City Hall on Sept. 8.
At the same time, other relatives of victims have publicly defended Mamdani’s inclusion, the Memorial & Museum has reaffirmed a nonpartisan tradition of elected officials attending without remarks, and Mamdani has continued participating in official remembrance events while stating that he will be at the Ground Zero commemoration.
The factual dispute is not whether a major petition exists. It is whether that petition can be represented as the unified voice of 9/11 families. The available evidence says it cannot.
The Strongest Defensible Conclusion
There is a genuine and rapidly growing campaign urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend the 25th anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero. It was launched by Giovanni Galante, whose wife Grace was killed in the North Tower, and it has been publicly supported by other relatives of 9/11 victims. displayed 108,576 verified signatures when reviewed on Sept. 10, after the organizers delivered the petition to City Hall two days earlier.
But the signature total is a count of verified petition supporters under system, not a verified census of 9/11 families. CBS News New York has already corrected an earlier report that blurred that distinction. Public reporting also shows that some victims’ relatives support Mamdani’s attendance and that the 9/11 Memorial & Museum has historically permitted elected officials from different parties to attend silently without giving political speeches.
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Mamdani has said he will attend and has continued taking part in official 9/11 remembrance activities. The petition can create political pressure, but it does not itself ban him from the ceremony.
The strongest defensible conclusion is that some 9/11 families are leading a large and politically consequential campaign to exclude Mamdani, while the broader family community remains divided and the petition’s 100,000-plus signatures cannot honestly be described as 100,000 victims’ relatives.
