THE husband of a woman killed in the 9/11 terror attacks will refuse to look New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani in the eye at this Friday’s emotionally charged 25th commemoration ceremony.
Giovanni Galante’s wife Grace was one of the 2,977 people killed in 2001 when al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four passenger planes, crashing two into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, another into the Pentagon and a fourth in Pennsylvania.
Galante told The U.S. Sun that when Mamdani was elected mayor earlier this year, he launched a petition calling for the Democrat to stay away from the 9/11 memorial.
The Change.org petition has now passed 100,000 signatures, as opposition to Mamdani’s planned attendance has grown ahead of Friday’s ceremony.
Galante believes New York City’s first Muslim mayor should not attend the commemoration.
Mamdani has previously spoken about the discrimination faced by Muslim Americans following the attacks.
He told The New York Times last year that September 11 marked a point when many Muslim New Yorkers were treated as outsiders.
Criticism has also centered on Mamdani’s appointment of Ramzi Kassem as the city’s top lawyer.
Critics have pointed to Kassem’s previous representation of a convicted al-Qaida operative whose brother-in-law was among the hijackers aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.
Galante said he has no interest in confronting Mamdani at the memorial.
“We haven’t spoken to the mayor’s office. I don’t want to talk to him — he knows how we feel,” Galante told The U.S. Sun.
“Do you want to talk to someone who is going to lie to your face? I don’t know how to be fake. You have to be like an actor and these people are performing.
“If he is there I won’t look at him. The politicians are in a corner, they can’t get to us and we can’t get to them.
“I won’t talk to him. I know what I know, he knows what he knows, we all have the same feeling. There is no reason to be in a circus.”
Galante said nothing Mamdani could say would change his mind.
“I don’t have the political power to keep him at home,” he said.
“I am just asking as civilians and people who had people who were murdered. Can he, if he has a heart, and sees 97k on the petition, maybe he should take it into consideration?
“Maybe he thought that he didn’t have to be there.
“If he did say that, I would have more respect for him. It would show that yes, maybe he does have feelings for us. I will step back and that is perfect.
“The best thing he can do is stay home and it would be a relief for all of us. It’s not an easy day. It is draining.”
Mamdani has made clear he has no intention of staying away.
The mayor said earlier this week that he plans to attend the main ceremony as well as several other events marking the anniversary of the attacks.
“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 11th, and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers.”
The U.S. Sun contacted Mamdani’s office for comment but had not received a response.
Galante, however, is not alone in opposing Mamdani’s attendance.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has also called on the mayor to skip the ceremony.
Speaking to Newsmax, Giuliani said Mamdani’s presence would offend him because he lost friends in the attacks and remained close to many victims’ families.
Asked whether Mamdani should attend, Giuliani said there was “no question” that he should not.
Mamdani revealed earlier this week that newly released documents suggest New York City officials may have withheld or downplayed information about the toxic air residents were exposed to in the aftermath of the attacks.
He released more than 170,000 pages of previously unavailable records Tuesday morning, just days before the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The animosity towards his attendance on Friday, however, remains.
Former New York Governor George Pataki, who was governor when the attacks took place, told City & State that Mamdani should not attend unless he distances himself from views Pataki described as extremist.
He specifically cited Mamdani’s association with online commentator Hasan Piker.
Mamdani condemned Piker’s comments about the 2001 attacks during a mayoral debate last year, although the two have continued to associate.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman has also called for protesters to turn their Fbacks on the Mayor if he attends.
But Galante’s opposition to Mamdani is rooted in a loss that remains as raw as ever.
Grace, who worked for a mortgage company, was in her office on the 105th floor at the World Trade Center on that fateful morning.
Just two days earlier, Grace surprised him with tickets to a Michael Jackson concert at Madison Square Garden.
“It was the best gig of my life,” Galante said.
That morning, Grace arrived at work at around 8:45am, as she did every day.
She would normally contact her family straight away, to let them know she had arrived.
That call never came.
“I worked for Con Edison at the time and my colleague mentioned that a plane had struck the building,” Galante said.
“He said, ‘You should go down there,’ because he knew my wife worked there.”
Galante took what he said was the last train into the area.
“Once I got out, we knew what was happening,” he continued. “You are scared, you don’t know how you will feel.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16976585/mayor-mamdani-9-11-memorial-giovanni-galante/