Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani shook hands with Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Ground Zero on Friday morning ahead of the solemn ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The cordial encounter came just days after Giuliani, who led New York City during the 2001 attacks, publicly called on Mamdani to stay away from the anniversary ceremony.

Giuliani had accused Mamdani of failing to acknowledge the nature of the 9/11 attacks, saying Mamdani “doesn’t agree that September 11 was an Islamic terrorist attack on the United States of America.”

Asked whether Mamdani’s attendance offended him, Giuliani responded, “No question.”

“The reality is this ceremony is for the families and for America to remember historically,” Giuliani said.

Mamdani rejected calls for him to stay away and said the commemoration should remain focused on those directly impacted by the attacks.

“I think that the focus of memorial services should be on the New Yorkers who were killed that day, their families, the survivors, the first responders – I don’t think it should be on politicians,” Mamdani said.

Despite the sharp disagreement leading up to Friday’s ceremony, there was no visible confrontation when the two came face-to-face. Giuliani and Mamdani briefly shook hands as New York marked a quarter-century since the attacks that killed 2,977 people.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)