Actress Patricia Heaton has thrown her weight behind a fast-growing petition from 9/11 victims' families to keep New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani away from the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, a push the mayor has so far brushed aside.
Heaton, the 68-year-old star of "Everybody Loves Raymond," reposted the Change.org petition to her more than 500,000 followers on X this week with a blunt caption: "Keep it going New Yorkers." Alongside the link she shared a screenshot of a comment from a family member who lost a brother in the September 11, 2001 attacks, the New York Post reported.
That family member did not hold back:
"I am incensed that a terrorist excuser is now Mayor, and outspoken sympathizer for terrorist perpetrators. He is disqualified from attending the 9/11 remembrance ceremony and ought to be barred."
The petition, organized by Giovanni Galante, a 55-year-old widower whose wife Grace was killed when al-Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center, had collected almost 45,000 signatures by midweek. It demands that Mamdani stay away from Ground Zero on September 11, 2026, when the city marks a quarter-century since the attacks that killed 2,753 people at the trade center site.
Mamdani dismissed the effort. In a statement this week, the mayor said he plans to "proudly honor" those impacted by 9/11 by "standing alongside them" in September.
The petition does not rest on vague objections. It cites Mamdani's reluctance to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," a slogan that critics say calls for spreading violent conflict against Israel and its allies worldwide. It also flags the mayor's decision to install Ramzi Kassem as his chief counsel, a lawyer the petition identifies as having previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, described as an al-Qaeda tanker bombing pilot.
Those are not the only concerns. Newsmax reported that the petition also points to old social media posts in which Mamdani discussed radicalized cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and to his past appearance with Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj. Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor of New York City, and organizers framed his record as disqualifying, not his faith.
Galante is not alone in the effort. Just The News reported that roughly 300 family members of 9/11 victims have signed on, with the number still climbing. The petition calls Mamdani an "unwelcome guest" whose past statements and political associations make him an unsuitable participant.
This is hardly the first time the mayor's associations have drawn organized backlash. Jewish leaders have previously demanded Mamdani "stop fanning the flames" after violent incidents in the city, and the pattern of community groups publicly confronting his record continues to widen.
Fox News reported that the mayor's father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, authored a book arguing moral equivalency between the United States and al-Qaeda and contending that suicide bombers should be "understood" rather than "stigmatized." The same report noted that imam Siraj Wahhaj, with whom the mayor has been associated, once hosted the Blind Sheikh, the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
A consortium of 9/11 victims' families issued a joint statement framing the stakes plainly:
"For 9/11 families, this is not simply a public ceremony, it is a deeply personal day of mourning. The presence of individuals whose words or associations are perceived as conflicting with the solemn purpose of the event risks detracting from that focus and causing additional pain."
Janlyn Scauso, whose firefighter husband was killed on September 11, was among those who came forward to support the petition. The families have directed their appeal to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which oversees the annual ceremony. But Newsmax noted that the memorial's standing policy admits every sitting mayor, meaning Mamdani's exclusion would require a formal policy change, not just public pressure.
The mayor's office has faced a drumbeat of similar controversies. The State Department recently shut down a planned meeting between a Mamdani official and Iran's UN ambassador, adding to a growing list of episodes that have put the administration on the defensive.
Heaton's involvement is personal. The Ohio-born actress, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Nashville, was in New York City with the "Everybody Loves Raymond" cast on the morning of the attacks. On the anniversary in September 2024, she posted a two-minute video on X reflecting on that day and connecting it to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed roughly 1,200 Israelis.
In that post, Heaton wrote:
"I happened to be in New York City on September 11, 2001 with the cast of 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' It was a terrifying experience. It's hard to believe now that Israel is experiencing the same horrors. It needs to end."
In the accompanying video, she went further:
"It's 9/11 again and here we are. The same terrorists are back in full force, this time going after Israel, but really they're going after all of us. Anyone who calls for Israel to lay down its arms, you are supporting the same people who took down the Twin Towers."
Heaton had a stint living in New York City in the 1980s, years before her breakout role as Debra Barone, the Long Island wife and mother on "Everybody Loves Raymond." Her connection to the city is longstanding, and her willingness to speak plainly on matters of terrorism and national security has made her one of the more outspoken conservative voices in Hollywood.
The petition to bar Mamdani from Ground Zero now sits at the center of a broader reckoning over the mayor's fitness to represent a city still scarred by the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Galante and the families behind the effort are not asking for a political debate. They are asking a man whose record raises serious questions about his posture toward radical Islam to stay away from their day of mourning.
Mamdani's administration has already drawn fire on multiple fronts, from standing by a scandal-linked political strategist to policy decisions that have left longtime New Yorkers feeling targeted. The 9/11 petition is different in kind. It comes from people who buried husbands, wives, brothers, and children, and who believe the mayor's own words and associations disqualify him from standing at the place where their loved ones died.
September 11 belongs to the families. If Mamdani cannot understand that, nearly 45,000 petition signers, and counting, are prepared to remind him.