New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch issued a pointed warning against blurring the distinction between 9/11 terrorists and first responders Wednesday, while Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood beside her, comments some observers interpreted as a veiled rebuke of the mayor.
Tisch delivered the remarks during the unveiling of a new 9/11 Memorial Wall at One Police Plaza honoring more than 469 NYPD members who have died from illnesses connected to their service following the terrorist attacks.
“Preserving that history also means preserving its moral clarity,” Tisch said. “The men who attacked this city were terrorists. The men and women who ran into the towers to save innocent lives were heroes. Twenty-five years cannot be allowed to blur that distinction and shame on those who do.”
Many who watched her speak on Wednesday immediately assumed that she was speaking to the mayor, even if indirectly.
“Jessica Tisch said this with Zohran Mamdani sitting beside her. Public officials must show ‘moral clarity’ about 9/11 and never blur the distinction between heroes and terrorists. ‘Shame on those who do.’ She didn’t say his name. She didn’t have to,” former financial exec Sam Antar posted.
While the police commissioner did not mention anyone by name, Tisch’s remarks come just a few days after Mamdani signed official orders designating September 11 as a Day of Remembrance and addressing security concerns ahead of the 25th anniversary events.
After signing the orders, Mamdani gifted the ceremonial pen to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem — who has been directly linked to al-Qaeda terrorists — but because Tisch was standing between them at the time, he first gave the pen to her and asked her to “pass it” to Kassem. Witnesses noted that Tisch made an abrupt exit from the room after that.
Critics were quick to suggest that Mamdani had not done that by accident — that he knew the optics of such a move and did not care.
“This childish, calculated display of passive aggression was missed by no one, and will not be forgotten by Tisch or by NYC’s millions of 9/11 survivors,” Fox Business anchor David Asman said.
Matthew Hennessey wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “Everyone deserves a lawyer. But by deliberately handing his ceremonial pen to this man, Mr. Mamdani mocked the loss his city suffered on 9/11. And he forced Ms. Tisch to participate in that mockery. He might as well have turned to the cameras and winked.”
