Rudy Giuliani calls for Mamdani to skip 9/11 memorial ceremonies: ‘It offends me'

Rudy Giuliani calls for Mamdani to skip 9/11 memorial ceremonies: 'It offends me' Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he believed Mayor Zohran Mamdani should not attend memorial ceremonies to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. View 5 Images Giuliani launched an anti-Muslim tirade, where he discussed Mamdani's plan to attend memorial ceremonies to honor the victims (Image: Getty Images) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the city through the 9/11 attacks and has since been disbarred over conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, said he believed current Mayor Zohran Mamdani should not attend memorial ceremonies to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. ‌ Giuliani launched an anti-Muslim tirade on the far-right news outlet Newsmax on Monday, where he discussed Mamdani's plan to attend memorial ceremonies to honor the victims, a tradition New York City mayors have participated in since the attacks. 'It offends me,' Giuliani said. He also compared Mamdani to the Sept. 11 hijackers, who said were hostile towards America and 'weren't hiding it like Mamdani is trying to hide it.' Zohran Mamdani can't keep Knicks out of his mind at community event with New York kids READ MORE : Giuliani also shared racist claims that allege Mamdani is a supporter of a plot designed by Muslims to take 'over certain parts of America and certain parts of Europe.' Mamdani confirmed his attendance at the ceremonies on Monday during a breakfast event in Brooklyn. He said he plans to attend the main ceremony and other 9/11 events on Friday, which will mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks. View 5 Images Mamdani confirmed his attendance at the ceremonies on Monday during a breakfast event in Brooklyn (Image: AP) ‌ 'I'm proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,' Mamdani said. 'What I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11, and a focus also on the first responders who did everything they could.' The mayor did not directly respond to Giuliani's comments. Giuliani is not the only one taking issue with Mamdani's attendance at the remembrance events. In fact, a change.org petition, signed by over 100,000 individuals, pleads with the mayor not to attend the ceremonies. ‌ 'This anniversary is one of remembrance grounded in shared American values: respect for the victims, recognition of the gravity of the attacks, and a clear rejection of the ideologies that contributed to such violence. For many families and community members, participation in these ceremonies carries an implicit expectation that those present uphold and affirm these principles without ambiguity,' the petition reads. 'Concerns have been raised about Mr. Mamdani's public positions, associations, and responses to rhetoric that many perceive as hostile to these shared values,' it adds. View 5 Images Giuliani is not the only one taking issue with Mamdani's attendance at the remembrance events (Image: Getty Images) ‌ Giuliani, who led New York City during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has been dubbed as 'America's Mayor,' has fallen from grace in recent years. Following his political career, he became Trump's personal attorney and one of his most vocal proponents of allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, which was won by former President Joe Biden. In 2024, he was disbarred from practicing law in New York after being indicted in Arizona and Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He was also accused by two Georgia election workers of defamation while trying to keep President Trump in office in a case that was settled in January. Mamdani to release over 170,000 files on city's handling of 9/11 attacks Giuliani's comment comes as Mamdani's administration announced it released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed documents regarding air quality following the September 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center, suggesting New Yorkers were misled about the environmental dangers in the area in the aftermath of the tragedy. ‌ View 5 Images Giuliani's comment comes as Mamdani's administration announced it released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed documents regarding air quality following the attacks (Image: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock) The trove of documents includes thousands of pages about air quality reports, contamination records, and correspondence among city officials regarding the environmental hazards in lower Manhattan. City officials say the documents had been stored in 68 boxes in a city office, hidden from the public for over two decades, and were discovered only last year. In one internal document, a letter was sent to former Giuliani deputy mayor Robert Harding, listing possible grounds for lawsuits against the city over its handling of the aftermath of the attacks. It said that the city could be sued for advising residents to return to the area too soon, causing toxic exposure, and for sending rescue workers to ground zero with faulty equipment. In another memo to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, five months after 9/11, one official wrote that the city was 'leaving itself open to a barrage of lawsuits. At the least, we should discontinue telling people to clean their apartments with wet mops and rags.' The document added that city officials should request cleanup funds from the federal government. View 5 Images City officials say the documents had been stored in 68 boxes in a city office, hidden from the public for over two decades, and were discovered only last year (Image: Corbis via Getty Images) Mayor Zohran Mamdani directed his administration to create a portal to publish the unveiled records, as his team works to review the documents over the course of a year. He said that in the coming months, his administration plans to review, redact, and publicize more documents found in municipal and insurance offices. While the released documents only share a fraction of the air quality reports taken around ground zero, they also seem to strengthen the notion that New Yorkers were advised to return to lower Manhattan prematurely after the attacks, exposing residents and workers to dangerous toxins. 'The very least our city owes the families, survivors, and first responders whose lives were forever changed by the horrific terror attack of Sept. 11 is transparency and accountability,' Mamdani said in a statement about the documents.