A brief video clip showing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appearing to smile and laugh together at Friday’s 9/11 Memorial ceremony in lower Manhattan has drawn sharp criticism online, with some accusing the pair of disrespect during the solemn reading of victims’ names.
The footage circulated widely after a television feed cut from a young man sobbing at the memorial to the mayor and the congresswoman appearing to grin as they spoke. Their conversation was not audible in the clip, and it was not immediately clear what the two were discussing.
Mamdani had already faced pressure over his attendance at the ceremony. A campaign backed by roughly 110,000 signatures from victims’ families had urged him to stay away.
Critics reacted swiftly. Steve Guest, a former top staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the moment “disgraceful,” adding that “AOC and Mamdani look happy.” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked bluntly why “these two” were laughing.
Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, said the timing was inappropriate. “There is a time and a place for politics. This isn’t it. Ground Zero is sacred ground,” he said, adding that “September 11 is not a photo op, it is not a networking event.”
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., referred to the mayor as “Jihad Mamdani” in his criticism, writing that he and Ocasio-Cortez “do not mourn this country, they mock it.”
New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, R-Brighton Beach, said she was outraged. “After thousands of families of victims of terror beg Mamdani not to show up, he stands there and laughs while families weep,” she said. “This is NYC’s Mayor.”
Other reactions came from radio producer Richard Sementa, who called the moment “un-freaking believable,” former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, and Juanita Broaddrick, who described the pair as “two disgusting degenerates.” The Pittsburgh Republican Committee suggested the moment illustrated why victims’ families had opposed the mayor’s presence.
A dispute over context
Not everyone accepted the video at face value. Michael Ragusa, reportedly the head of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s security detail as of 2025, said he was standing near the two at the time.
“The videos of [them] laughing are not true. I was standing next to them the whole time,” Ragusa wrote, according to WPIX-11. “The camera just caught her greeting him hello. Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me. Republicans and Democrats.”
Separately, Mamdani was photographed at other points in the ceremony standing somberly between New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and New York first gentleman William Hochul Jr. Critics nonetheless pointed to what one described as a “jarring split-screen” contrast between the mayor’s laughter and a mourner seen sobbing moments earlier near the memorial’s reflecting pool.
Former Trump White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson asked, “What exactly is funny?” Former NYPD officer and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro offered a sarcastic guess at the exchange, imagining a dismissive conversation between the two about the meaning of “never again.”
Fox News Digital said it reached out to both Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez for comment.
