De Niro Defends Mamdani's 9/11 Memorial Attendance Despite Calling Police Comments 'Ridiculous'

Robert De Niro sat down with The Hollywood Reporter this week and found himself defending a man he barely knows against critics he seemed not fully to understand. The question was straightforward: Should New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attend Friday's 25th anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center memorial? De Niro's answer was equally simple. "I don't see why he shouldn't come," the actor said. "He's the mayor. I haven't heard him say or do anything yet that would disqualify him from being there. Maybe I'm naive, but you have to give the guy a chance. He's not a part of what happened."

What followed was a collision between De Niro's instinct toward generosity and a record that his critics say he had not examined. The controversy surrounding Mamdani's attendance centers on statements he made in 2020, during the George Floyd protests, when he called to "defund the police" and described the NYPD as "racist, anti-queer, and a major threat to public safety." When pressed on whether families of 9/11 victims might find such rhetoric troubling, De Niro acknowledged the pain but held his ground: "I still think he should be there." Asked directly about the defund-the-police comments, he conceded they were "ridiculous." "You can't defund the police. It's not going to happen," he said. Yet even as he dismissed the rhetoric, he argued Mamdani deserved the chance to attend the memorial, suggesting the mayor could use the occasion "as a bridge" to unite people.

The backlash has been swift and organized. An online petition led by families of those killed on September 11 has gathered more than 100,000 signatures calling on Mamdani to stay away. The petition details a pattern of associations and endorsements that its signers view as disqualifying. Mamdani has praised Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as an alleged co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and served as a character witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the "Blind Sheikh" convicted in 1995 of plotting terror attacks against the United States. During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani posed for photographs with Wahhaj and endorsed candidates including Aber Kawas, who described the 9/11 attacks as something "a couple of people did in the context of U.S. capitalism, racism, White supremacy, and Islamophobia." Mamdani has also been scrutinized for his association with activist Hasan Piker, who once stated that the United States "deserved" the attacks—a comment Piker later walked back, though it continues to shadow his political circle. Mamdani himself has condemned that remark.

Another controversy involves a ceremonial pen from a 9/11 remembrance event. Mamdani gave the pen to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, a man who pleaded guilty to war crime charges tied to al Qaeda plots against commercial ships. Al-Darbi was the brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon and killed 184 people.

Conservative critics and policy experts have argued that De Niro's defense misses the full weight of Mamdani's record. Rafael Mangual, head of research for the Manhattan Institute's Policing & Public Safety Initiative, said De Niro and his interviewer "sorely missed the mark." Mangual pointed out that Mamdani, as a rapper, praised the Holy Land Five, a group convicted of providing material support to Hamas. He also noted that during his campaign, Mamdani "palled around" with Hasan Piker, who praised the mujahideen for shooting and wounding then-Navy SEAL and current Congressman Dan Crenshaw. "When coupled with his vitriolic criticisms of the very institutions tasked with keeping us safe from terrorist threats, the wishes of the families De Niro was asked about become much harder to ignore," Mangual said.

Mary Marslender, a former Trump appointee and now a Republican consultant, argued that Mamdani cannot simply walk back his defund-the-police stance. "Mamdani has spent years portraying New York's brave first responders as the problem, and Robert De Niro knows that," she said. "Mamdani ran for mayor on a platform of defunding the police, only walking back his stance for political gain—not out of genuine conviction." She added that Mamdani has refused to distance himself from extremist voices who blame America for 9/11 and declined to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," claiming he would not police language.

Former RNC National Spokesperson Elizabeth Pipko suggested De Niro was operating from incomplete information shaped by his own political alignment. "Robert De Niro is again showing his privilege and ignorance," she said. "He has decided because he aligns politically with Mamdani, he will defend him without knowing the facts." She pointed to Mamdani's praise for a man federal prosecutors named as a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, his campaign appearances with Piker, and his refusal to condemn "globalize the intifada." "Just once, I'd like to see De Niro confronted with these facts and the sad reality of his own ignorance," Pipko said.

When asked about President Trump during the same interview, De Niro shifted into sharper rhetoric. "We have to stop him. It's insane," he said, calling for vigilance at voting booths and protection of elections. Entertainment commentator Christian Toto seized on the contrast, arguing that The Hollywood Reporter had failed to fact-check De Niro's claims about Mamdani and had amplified the actor's views because they aligned with the outlet's own politics. "The actor hasn't a clue about the mayor's past comments, his toxic associations or why his 'defund the police' beliefs are so damaging," Toto told Fox News Digital. "He's a Useful Idiot for the Left, and The Hollywood Reporter is all too happy to magnify his idiocy."

As the 25th anniversary ceremony approaches, the question of Mamdani's attendance remains unresolved. His office did not respond to requests for comment. What is clear is that De Niro's defense has crystallized a deeper divide: between those who believe a sitting mayor deserves the presumption of good faith and those who believe his record of associations and rhetoric makes his presence at the memorial a wound rather than a bridge.