NYC Councilwoman accused Mayor Mamdani of sending a ‘message’ to Osama bin Laden. But bin Laden has been dead since 2011: ‘We conquered New York’

City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of sending a message to Osama bin Laden while appearing on Fox News. The Republican lawmaker spoke on Tuesday’s broadcast of The Ingraham Angle. She made the remarks hours after the mayor put his signature on two executive orders connected to the September 11 attacks.

Some Republicans have voiced anger over plans by the city’s first Muslim mayor to take part in a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attacks. New York mayors and other local officials routinely attend those events. Still, a group of 9/11 family members and others has called on Mamdani to stay away.

According to Mediaite, Mamdani signed two executive orders tied to September 11 last week. One creates a yearly day of remembrance and service on Sept. 11. The other aims to strengthen preparedness among New York agencies against future attacks.

Paladino called the pen exchange cryptic symbolism in a Fox News interview

At the signing, Mamdani handed one of the pens to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Tisch then passed that pen to Ramzi Kassem, who serves as the city’s chief legal counsel. The mayor’s allies have faced public criticism, as when Rudy Giuliani demanded that Mamdani be barred from a 9/11 ceremony.  Kassem previously worked as an attorney for al-Qaeda operative Ahmed al-Darbi, according to the account of the ceremony.

Laura Ingraham told Paladino that symbolism is important to everyone and is “super important in the Islamic world, for Muslims.” Ingraham said, “Symbols matter. Commemorative, it matters to people. But they’re defending his decision to give Ramzi Kassem the pen.”

Ingraham then read a statement from the mayor’s office. The office said Kassem was at the signing “to perform his official responsibilities.” The city’s 9/11 transparency history includes Mamdani releasing previously undisclosed records showing city officials misled New Yorkers about air quality around Ground Zero.  The same statement said he was “personally invested in these executive orders” as a New Yorker who was in the city on 9/11.

Paladino answered, “I am sick to death of all of this. Sick to death of all of this. And I have tried– we have come out there. Today, I pounded that home so well. And I said, ‘This is enough.’”

She went on to say New Yorkers and people nationwide need to see through what she called a “total, absolute farce that they’re trying to pawn off on New Yorkers and across the country.” Paladino said, “I’m telling you, this was symbolism. It was cryptic. But it was a message. The same way it’s a message when he goes down to 9/11 – I hate to even say this, Laura – but you know, it’s a message to Osama bin Laden that, look, “We conquered New York.””

Paladino added, “That’s how scary all of this really is, to each and every one of us. New Yorkers need to wake up. He won this election not with born-and-bred New Yorkers. He won this election with transplants, ages 18 to 30 years old, making promises he could never keep. So, I am furious.”  U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid on a safehouse in Abbottabad, Pakistan.