Vance slams Mamdani’s 9/11 speech

Focus should be on victims, VP argues

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Vice President JD Vance attacked Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic front-runner in the New York City mayor's race, using a social media post Saturday to taunt him for his comments about his aunt feeling unsafe after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Mr Mamdani, who is running to become the city’s first Muslim mayor, gave a 10-minute speech Friday to address what he and others have characterised as a rise in Islamophobia during the campaign. In his speech, he grew emotional as he recounted how his aunt stopped taking the subway after the Sept 11 attacks “because she did not feel safe in her hijab”

Mr Vance and Republicans pounced on his comments, arguing that his focus should be on the victims who died during the attacks.

“According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks,’ Mr Vance wrote on social media, posting a video of Mr Mamdani’s comments.

Mr Vance’s attacks follow similar ones regularly hurled by President Donald Trump, who has threatened to arrest Mr Mamdani and has called him a communist. (He is a democratic socialist.)