25 years after 9/11: Rudy Giuliani takes it personally

When the victims of the terrorist attack are remembered on Friday at Ground Zero New York on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Mayor Zohran Mamdani will also confidently mingle with the dignitaries. They include former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama as well as Mamdani's predecessors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani in particular doesn't like Mamdani's presence at all. The man who ruled the city at the time of the attack and made a name for himself as "America's mayor" was one of the most vocal critics of Mamdani's presence at the ceremony last week. “The fact that he is there insults me personally,” Giuliani told the pro-Trump, right-wing propaganda channel Newsmax.

Giuliani's reservations, like those of many Mamdani critics, hinged on the personality of Ramzi Kassem, the chief legal officer of Mamdani's government. The law professor at Columbia University and former legal advisor to Joe Biden on immigration issues campaigned against the blanket prosecution and criminalization of Muslims after 9/11. He also defended inmates at the Guantánamo prison camp, which Kassem considers to be illegal.

Mamdani's critics, including former New Jersey Governor George Pataki, were particularly offended by the fact that Kassem had, among others, defended Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda member. He confessed to being involved in the bombing of a French oil tanker in 2002.

Giuliani went further in his tirade against Mamdani on Newsmax and attacked his beliefs. “Islam is not just any religion,” he claimed. “They are taught from day one that they should destroy and dominate us all.”

Mamdani declined to comment on Giuliani's comments. Giuliani has fallen low since being hailed as an American hero in the years after 9/11. He steered the city through the crisis surrounding 9/11 with inner calm and a clear head. His popularity, he believed, would automatically make him a front-runner for the presidency.

However, after his early departure in 2008, he fell into a deep depression and struggled with alcohol problems. His problems got worse when he tied his own political fate to that of Donald Trump. He emerged as an overzealous supporter of the president during the 2016 election campaign when his sexist comments came to light.

After Trump's 2020 election defeat, he was one of the most vocal proponents of the theory that the election was stolen. Giuliani even went so far as to directly accuse two election workers of manipulation. They successfully sued him for $148 million in damages. Giuliani then had to file for personal bankruptcy and sell his properties.

Giuliani's offensive is not least a reaction to what he undoubtedly sees as an attack on his person by Mamdani. Mamdani published 170,000 documents last week. They show that long after the attack, the air quality in lower Manhattan was far worse than those responsible at the time had claimed. Giuliani let residents back into the area immediately after the attack, and workers at Ground Zero were unprotected.

The documents are a belated satisfaction for many residents and rescue workers. Some of them had to fight a long, hard political battle for compensation and care because of serious long-term health consequences.

Regarding his visit to the memorial event on Friday, Mamdani said confidently: "I am proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country. I want this week to be about the people who lost a loved one during the horrific attacks 25 years ago and about the many helpers who risked their lives."

In previous interviews, Mamdani had often spoken out against a blanket association of Muslims with Islamist terror. His election was not least a sign that the city of New York is largely immune to widespread Islamophobia.