Vice President Vance criticized New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s remarks on Islamophobia in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“According to Zohran, the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks,” Vance said Saturday on the social platform X, responding to a video of Mamdani’s comments shared by a user on the social platform.
Mamdani, during an address on Islamophobia on Saturday, referenced his late aunt, who he said stopped taking the city subway after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks due to feeling unsafe while wearing her hijab.
The Hill has reached out to Mamdani’s campaign and the vice president’s office for further comment.
Mamdani’s remarks came after independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo laughed at radio host Sid Rosenberg, suggesting last week that the Democratic nominee would be “cheering” if an incident similar to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“God forbid, another 9/11. Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo said on WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning.”
“I could, he’d be cheering,” Rosenberg replied.
“Ha ha. That’s another problem,” Cuomo responded.
Mamdani called the exchange “disgusting” on X, while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who is backing the 33-year-old state assemblyman, said on the platform that “fear-mongering, hate speech and Islamophobia are beneath New York.”
According to a report from the Department of Justice a decade after the attacks, the FBI reported a 1,600 percent increase in Islamophobic hate crime incidents in 2001, nearly reaching 500. Through 2010, between 100 and 200 anti-Muslim hate crimes occurred annually, according to the FBI data.
