New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were filmed laughing together during Friday’s 25th-anniversary 9/11 memorial service as relatives read the names of those killed in the attacks.

The two Democrats appeared to break into laughter during the solemn Ground Zero ceremony in lower Manhattan, while mourners around them remained silent.

Seconds before the camera turned to Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez, a victim’s relative was shown weeping at the memorial as loved ones on stage continued reading the names of the dead.

The footage rapidly spread on social media, where critics said the pair’s reaction was “a slap in the face” to 9/11 victims and their families.

The controversy follows calls from 9/11 victims’ groups for Mamdani not to attend the commemoration, requests the mayor declined.

Mamdani also drew sharp criticism this week for giving a ceremonial pen from a 9/11 remembrance event to an attorney who previously represented a convicted al-Qaeda member and whose brother was among the attack hijackers.

A petition organized by relatives of 9/11 victims calling on the mayor to skip the annual ceremony collected more than 100,000 signatures. Former New York Gov. George Pataki also urged Mamdani to stay away.

Asked this week about the demands that he avoid the event, Mamdani said he would attend and that he wanted “the focus to be on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th.”

At the event at Ground Zero on Friday, Mamdani was also seen greeting former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in an awkward exchange. 

The pair got into a public spat after Giuliani also joined the calls for Mamdani to avoid this week’s 9/11 ceremonies.

Giuliani has said the Muslim mayor’s presence ‘offends’ him, and claimed Mamdani is ‘disturbing the people who are the most important people at that celebration.’

‘He stands in direct support of the movement that killed their children,’ he told Newsmax last week.

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As a result, Mamdani released hundreds of thousands of previously unseen records that allegedly confirmed Giuliani’s administration knew about the toxic dangers of the city’s air quality following the September 11 attacks.

New York City councilwoman Vickie Paladino also joined calls for Mamdani to avoid the event, as she said his presence would sent a ‘message to Osama bin Laden that, look, “We conquered New York.”‘

Paladino cited Mamdani’s decision to allow former attorney for an al-Qaeda operative, Ramzi Kassem, to take part in a recent 9/11-related signing ceremony, and specifically handing him a pen used to sign an executive order recognizing the terror attack.

‘I am sick to death of all of this,’ Paladino complained to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. ‘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.’

Ahead of the event, the Port Authority Retired Police Association sent an open letter to Mamdani urging him to avoid Friday’s event, saying his attendance would inflict ‘deep pain’ on victims’ families.

John McDevitt, president of the retired first responders’ association, wrote in the letter to the mayor: ‘For us, September 11 is not a political occasion, a photo opportunity, or a platform for public officials.

‘It is a solemn day of remembrance for those who were murdered, those who responded, those who survived, and the families who have carried these losses for twenty-five years.’

The police union said officers have ‘profound concerns’ over Mamdani’s public statements and positions, which they say ‘risk shifting attention away from the people whose lives, courage, and sacrifice the ceremony exists to honor.’

‘This is our day to remember,’ he wrote. ‘Please allow us to remember in peace.’ 

The Daily Mail has contacted Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez’s representatives for comment.  

Dave Regan, a prominent union leader and architect of California’s proposed billionaire tax, has been accused of threatening women and attempting to “extort” backing for the controversial proposal.

Regan, the president of SEIU United Health Workers West, is being investigated over allegations that he sought to pressure an SEIU state council into endorsing the measure, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The accusations include claims that Regan threatened and intimidated women working for the council and physically assaulted a former SEIU executive.

MORE STORY: 9/11 Widow Terry Strada Says US Shielded Saudi Arabia

According to the Los Angeles Times, Regan has denied the allegations.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Terry Strada, who lost her husband in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001, said at Friday’s 25th anniversary observance at Ground Zero that Saudi Arabia has yet to be held accountable for its alleged role in the terrorist attacks.

Strada also accused the U.S. government of shielding Saudi Arabia, arguing that successive administrations have let down families of the victims for a quarter-century.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe, and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones,” said Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United.

“But for 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” she added.

Her remarks also directly addressed Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Trump administration official present at the Lower Manhattan ceremony.

President Donald Trump delivered remarks separately at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

“It has been one betrayal after another. President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this,” Strada said. “Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back. Stand with the families. Stand with the survivors. Stand with Americans.”

Strada’s husband, Tom Strada, was working on the 104th floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building, she told WPTV in an interview marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Tom Strada, 41, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. Just days before the attacks, he and Terry had returned home from the hospital with their third child. After the plane hit the tower, he called his wife and told her he was making his way toward the stairwell.

Since her husband’s death, along with the deaths of nearly 3,000 others at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard the hijacked planes, Strada has become a leading advocate for accountability and transparency surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.

Strada is among thousands of Sept. 11 family members and survivors who sued Saudi Arabia, alleging the kingdom provided material support to the al Qaeda hijackers. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied the allegations.

During her remarks Friday, Strada reminded the crowd that a federal judge ruled last August there was “reasonable evidence” that two Saudi government employees supported two future al-Qaeda hijackers who came to the United States in early 2000 and took flight lessons.

The judge, George B. Daniels, allowed the lawsuit to go forward, denying Saudi Arabia’s attempt to dismiss it.

For more than a decade after the Sept. 11 attacks, victims’ families were barred from pursuing a lawsuit against a foreign government because of sovereign immunity protections.

That changed in September 2016, when Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), allowing Americans to sue foreign governments accused of providing material support for terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

In her speech, Strada criticized President Barack Obama for vetoing JASTA.

At the time, he argued the legislation went too far by threatening “to strip all foreign governments of immunity from judicial process in the United States based solely upon allegations by private litigants.”

Congress overrode his veto days later, making JASTA law and paving the way for the lawsuit against Saudi Arabia to be filed in March 2017. The case remains pending in federal court.