JD Vance Just Mocked A NYC Mayoral Candidate’s Emotional 9/11 Story, And His Response Is Brutal

Vice President JD Vance is facing backlash after he made fun of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s personal story about his aunt and the September 11 attacks. Mamdani, who is leading in the race for mayor, did not hold back in his response to Vance’s comments.

Last Friday, Mamdani gave a speech outside a mosque in the Bronx where he talked about Islamophobia. He shared a story about his aunt who had passed away. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, she stopped riding the subway because she was scared to wear her hijab in public. Vance saw a video of this speech and reposted it on X, writing that Mamdani was saying his aunt was the real victim of 9/11 because she got some bad looks from people.

According to MSNBC, the next day, Mamdani sat down for an interview with Ayman Mohyeldin and hit back hard at the vice president. “This is all the Republican Party has to offer. Cheap jokes about Islamophobia, so as to not have to recognize what people are living through.” Mamdani believes Vance is trying to turn people against each other on purpose.

This Isn’t Just About One Comment Anymore

Things got worse for Mamdani before Vance even made his comment. Just before his Friday speech, another person running for mayor, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, was on a conservative radio show. The host made a joke saying Mamdani would celebrate if another 9/11 attack happened, and Cuomo laughed along with it. Mamdani says both Cuomo and Vance are using the same playbook.

Mamdani told Mohyeldin that it does not matter if the attacks come from Vance or Cuomo because they both play the same game. They try to win support by making one group of people afraid of another group. He even called Cuomo a puppet for Donald Trump, pointing out that they get money from the same rich donors and think the same way about politics. This is not the first time Vance has been involved in heated political exchanges that have drawn public attention.

Since he started running for mayor, Mamdani says other candidates have used his Muslim faith to scare voters. 

“Whether it’s JD Vance or it’s Andrew Cuomo, it is the same kind of politics,” Mamdani said. “It’s a politics of division. The reason that I called Andrew Cuomo Donald Trump’s puppet is not just because they share the same billionaire donors. It’s not just because they see themselves in each other. It’s also because their vision of leading a city, or a country, is one where you are only able to build a constituency by pitting it against another one, and that’s what we’re seeing in this moment.”

Mamdani explained that these comments help people see what Muslims in New York City deal with every single day. He believes it is important to call out racism when you see it instead of just accepting it as normal.

He told the interviewer that if people stop being shocked by this kind of hate, then they are basically saying it is okay, and he will never agree with that. The candidate said Islamophobia is now so common in city politics that people cannot even tell which political party it is coming from anymore.

“It was, in fact, a reflection of Islamophobia within our political system that has become so endemic that when we hear it, we do not know from which party it comes. We just know that it is a fact of life in our city’s politics,” he said. It has just become something that happens all the time. Even with all these attacks on his religion and background, Mamdani is still leading in the race with only a little more than a week left until people vote.