Zohran Mamdani’s tearful campaign speech about his aunt “stopping taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab” was always going to be a lightning rod, and that’s exactly what it became when critics said his words downplayed the slaughter of nearly 3,000 Americans on that awful day. To many patriotic New Yorkers and every family who lost someone on 9/11, this wasn’t empathy — it was tone-deaf political theater that shifted the focus from American victims to a grievance narrative.
What makes the moment more galling is how the mainstream press handled the fallout. On CNN’s panel, host Abby Phillip repeatedly framed the controversy in a way that seemed to give Mamdani the benefit of the doubt, even asking Republican Scott Jennings whether it was fair to accuse Mamdani of cheering on 9/11 rather than calling out the uncomfortable optics of his comments. That exchange showed once again how cable hosts bend over backward to shield progressive favorites from honest scrutiny.
Scott Jennings did what conservatives should always do: he pushed back hard and kept the focus on facts rather than feelings. Jennings reminded the panel that Mamdani posed with an imam who has been publicly connected to the 1993 bombing and is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator — a point the left-leaning anchors wanted to gloss over rather than discuss. That line of questioning cut through the rhetorical fog and exposed the real issue voters should care about: judgment and associations, not manufactured victimhood.
The predictable chorus followed: pundits on the left defended Mamdani’s framing as a matter of identity politics, while conservatives and ordinary New Yorkers rightly called it disrespectful to the dead and their families. Commentators across the country called the remarks what they were — a political ploy to turn a national tragedy into a personal grievance play — and many demanded accountability from a candidate who seemed more interested in scoring cultural points than in honoring American sacrifice.
But the bigger scandal here is media complicity. Instead of pressing Mamdani on why he would center his own pain over thousands murdered on American soil, outlets like CNN spent airtime debating the nuance of whether his opponents were being “Islamophobic.” That’s not journalism; it’s advocacy masquerading as balance, and it leaves everyday Americans outraged and unrepresented.
Voters should remember that leadership demands judgment, especially on matters of national security and the memory of our dead. A candidate who stages emotional appeals while cozying up to controversial figures and dodging direct answers about competence is not the steward we want for our cities or our country. Conservatives who love this nation must keep holding the line: respect the victims, demand accountability, and refuse to let identity politics rewrite common-sense standards of decency.
At a time when our institutions already show alarming bias, this episode is a reminder that the media won’t protect American memory for us; citizens must. We owe it to the victims of 9/11 and their families to call out relativism wherever it appears, to reject political theater that diminishes sacrifice, and to elect leaders who put the safety and dignity of all Americans above their own career narratives.
