Exclusive | FDNY commish during 9/11 attacks slams Mamdanis signing ceremony with terrorists lawyer, urges him to stay away from memorial
The city fire commissioner during the Sept.11, 2001 terror attacks urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to skip Friday’s 25th anniversary memorial ceremony, claiming his presence will offend victims’ families.“It’s a rough day.
The families don’t need any more angst and Mamdani is going to bring angst,” ex-FDNY boss Tom Von Essen told The Post.Von Essen, who saw 343 of his firefighters die trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center towers following the terror attacks, referred to a recent action by Mamdani as another slight against the families.“Mamdani had the pen for his 9/11 executive order handed to his attorney [Ramzi Kassem]” — who once represented an al-Qaeda terrorist with links to the attack on the Pentagon, Von Essen noted.Mamdani signed two 9/11-related executive orders last week and then gave the symbolic pen to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and whispered “Can you pass this?”Tisch then awkwardly handed the ceremonial pen to Mamdani’s chief counsel, Kassem.Von Essen thought the pen hand-off was an intentional insult.“He’s a very smart guy.He’s a genius at manipulating people,” he said of the social media-savvy Hizzoner.More than 100,000 people have signed a change.org petition urging Mamdani not to go to the ceremony, which he repeatedly said he will attend to pay his respects.“The families don’t want him there.
One hundred thousand people signed a petition telling him to stay away.I signed the petition,” said Von Essen, who also helped oversee the national response to the COVID-19 outbreak as the NY-NJ regional head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.“He’s not big enough to stay away knowing he will be a distraction.”Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and then-Gov.
George Pataki also said Mamdani should stay away from the ceremony at the memorial site.Giuliani — whose steady leadership in the aftermath of 9/11 earned him the nickname “America’s mayor” — said the notion of Mamdani attending the m...