On the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were caught laughing together at Ground Zero while families read the names of the nearly 3,000 people murdered on September 11, 2001.
The broadcast cut from a man crying over the memorial, face in his arms, to the two Democratic Socialists sharing a joke as the roll of the dead continued. That is the picture. That is the record.
The ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial is built around one ritual: family members standing at the podium and speaking the names of husbands, wives, children, and first responders who never came home. Relatives stood silent. Others wept. Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez did not; laughing.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz asked the question millions were thinking: "How the hell do you laugh while the names of those murdered on 9/11 are being read aloud? Why would you do so?" Not hard to guess.
https://modernity.news/2026/09/11/theyre-showing-you-exactly-who-they-are/