New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned appearance at the city’s 9/11 memorial amounted to “a message to Osama bin Laden” that “We conquered New York,” during a Fox News interview.
Paladino, 71, made the anti-Muslim comment while speaking with host Laura Ingraham.
The conservative Queens lawmaker had been attacking Mamdani, 34, over his decision to include Ramzi Kassem, a former attorney for an al-Qaeda operative, in a recent 9/11-related signing ceremony. Kassem, now Mamdani’s chief counsel, was handed the pen used to sign an executive order recognizing the terror attack.
“I am sick to death of all of this,” Paladino told Ingraham, who opened the segment by declaring: “Symbols matter.”
“We need to be able to see through this total, absolute farce that they’re trying to pawn off on New Yorkers and across the country,” Paladino continued.
She described the ceremonial pen being given to Kassem as “cryptic.”
“But it was a message.”
“The same way it’s a message when [Mamdani] goes down to [the] 9/11 [25th anniversary commemoration ceremony].”
New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s upcoming appearance at the city’s 9/11 memorial was “a message to Osama bin Laden” that “We conquered New York” during a Tuesday appearance on The Ingraham Angle.
The politician also criticized the 34-year-old mayor for allowing Ramzi Kassem, a former lawyer for an al-Qaeda operative who now serves as Mamdani’s chief counsel, to participate in a 9/11-related signing ceremony last Friday aimed at strengthening city security against future terrorist attacks.
Paladino Warns New Yorkers to ‘Wake Up’
Paladino went on to warn, ‘I hate to even say this, Laura,’ before making the remark about Bin Laden.
‘That’s how scary all of this really is to each and every one of us.
‘New Yorkers need to wake up. [Mamdani] won this election not with born-and-bred New Yorkers. He won this election with transplants, ages 18 to 30 years old, making promises he could never keep.’
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The councilwoman declared she was ‘furious,’ before Ingraham pointed out that the mayor’s approval scores have been, to her surprise, noticeably high.
‘Is that surprising to you, or do you think no one is answering the surveys or what?’ she asked Paladino, who is leading a group of 9/11 family members in a protest of the mayor’s plans to attend the commemoration ceremony on the Memorial plaza this Friday.
‘Look. You got find out who is surveying. All right?’ Paladino said. ‘[Mamdani] is not surveying people like myself, average, middle white, working class people.’
‘He’s not doing that. He is tending his nest with these young people.’
A recent Siena University poll, conducted in late June, showed Mamdani with an approval rating of 58 percent with 26 percent disapproval. The school has no affiliation with Mamdani.
‘I am sick to death of all of this,’ Paladino told Ingraham. The host had started the segment by asserting,’Symbols matter.’
Bin Laden was the founder and leader of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the attacks. He was killed by US Navy SEALs in a 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Mamdani’s Rise Followed Upset Victory Over Cuomo
Other polls in recent months have shown similar results.
Mamdani beat out then-candidate Andrew Cuomo in November 2025, after defeating the disgraced former governor in the Democratic primaries.
The primary win was widely seen as an upset, as Cuomo received endorsements from dozens of high-profile Democrats – and even Republicans.
The cornerstone of the former state assemblyman’s campaign was affordability, despite previous statements rooted in democratic socialism.
The memorial event later this week, meanwhile, is exclusively for 9/11 victims’ families and will consist of the traditional reading of the names. Friday marks 25 years since the devastating attacks.
Bin Laden was the founder and leader of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the attacks. He was killed by US Navy SEALs in a 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.