Some 9/11 families defend Mayor Mamdani's inclusion at upcoming remembrance ceremony

Some 9/11 families are defending New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inclusion in this year's solemn remembrance ceremony after an online petition asked he not attend. 

"The focus should be on where are we in this world, 25 years later?" Elizabeth Miller said. 

Miller's father was killed in the 9/11 terror attacks nearly a quarter-century ago. She's been attending the annual remembrance ceremony in Lower Manhattan since, and is now nearly the age he was when he died. 

Year after year, mayors, presidents and politicians on both sides of the aisle have paid their respects at the ceremony. 

"Mayor Mamdani has assured 9/11 families that he wants to be there to honor our loved ones, and I think he should be allowed to do that," Miller said. 

Miller is speaking out after an online petition garnered more than 72,000 signatures from the public asking ceremony organizers to carefully consider Mamdani's participation this year. 

Two petitioners whose spouses were killed in the attacks told CBS News New York's Lisa Rozner last week that their concern stems from the mayor's public positions and rhetoric. 

"We felt that having Mamdani there would show a disrespect to our family members because of the people he supports," Giovanni Galante told Rozner. Galante's wife died on 9/11. 

Miller is the project director of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which has over 250 members. In a statement, that organization responded, in part, "We strongly condemn the anti-American accusations and Islamophobic sentiment underlying the effort seeking to prevent him from being at Ground Zero."

"Clearly calling for the mayor of New York City to skip the 9/11 memorial because he's a Muslim, or because these guilt-by-association smears, is anti-Muslim bigotry, plain and simple," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. 

Mamdani has reaffirmed his commitment to attend. 

"I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside them," Mamdani said last week. 

Miller said she hopes this debate does not overshadow the true reason they're all there.

"The focus really shouldn't be on who's there, who's not there," Miller said. "It should be on our loved ones." 

A spokesperson for the 9/11 Memorial and Museum said, in part, "we have intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics because remembering those we lost on 9/11 should never be a partisan issue."