New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R) accused Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday, September 8, of sending a message to Osama bin Laden. This came hours after Mamdani signed a pair of executive orders regarding the September 11 attacks.
Republicans slammed the city’s first Muslim mayor for planning to attend a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Although attending ceremonies like these is standard fare for New York mayors and other city politicians, a group of 9/11 family members and others urged Mamdani not to.
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Paladino was one of those people. She appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, where she tore into Mamdani, who signed a pair of 9/11-related executive orders last week.
The first order establishes an annual day of remembrance and service on September 11, and the second enhances New York’s agency preparedness to prevent attacks in the future. Mamdani, during the signing ceremony, gave one of the pens to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who gave it to the city’s chief legal counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who was an attorney for al-Qaeda operative Ahmed al-Darbi.
‘It’s a message to Osama bin Laden’
“Symbolism,” host Laura Ingraham told Paladino, “It’s important to everyone, but it’s super important in the Islamic world, for Muslims. Symbols matter. Commemorative, it matters to people. But they’re defending his decision to give Ramzi Kassem the pen.”
Ingraham then went on to read a statement from the mayor’s office stating that Kassem attended the signing ceremony “to perform his official responsibilities” and that he was “personally invested in these executive orders” as a New Yorker who was in the city on 9/11.
“I am sick to death of all of this,” Paladino said in response. “Sick to death of all of this. And I have tried– we have come out there. Today, I pounded that home so well. And I said, ‘This is enough.’”
Paladino later added, “We need to be able to see through this total, absolute farce that they’re trying to pawn off on New Yorkers and across the country. I’m telling you, this was symbolism. It was cryptic. But it was a message. The same way it’s a message when he goes down to 9/11 – I hate to even say this, Laura – but you know, it’s a message to Osama bin Laden that, look, “We conquered New York.”
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She further said, “That’s how scary all of this really is, to each and every one of us. New Yorkers need to wake up. He won this election not with born-and-bred New Yorkers. He won this election with transplants, ages 18 to 30 years old, making promises he could never keep. So, I am furious.”
U.S. Navy SEALs killed bin Laden during a 2011 raid on a safehouse in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Laura Loomer sent a message to Vice President JD Vance following Paladino’s comments.
“I’m saying this from a place of concern,” Loomer said, addressing Vance in an X post. “Do not shake @ZohranKMamdani’s hand when you attend the 9/11 ceremony in New York. It will be a photo you live to regret forever if you shake his hand at the 9/11 memorial. Take my advice. It’s the best advice you will get all week.”
