New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani continued his string of malicious ignorance when it comes to the anniversary of 9/11 earlier this week.
On the surface, the Communist pol was simply taking part in a dedication of the NYPD’s new 9/11 Memorial Wall. But Cathy Hanson is furious about it.
Why? Because Mamdani quoted her late husband at the somber event.
“In the words of ESU Detective Mike Hanson, who before he passed gave his younger officers a rule to work by: ‘Do what you can for who you can, with whatever it takes,’” he said.
Detective Mike Hanson spent nine months at Ground Zero and later died of ALS. His name does not appear on the memorial, despite the likely link between his work there and the progressive neurological disease.
The city has denied his widow survivor benefits 13 times. Hanson said people watching the speech would think her husband was being honored. He wasn’t.
“People that didn’t know anything and watched that conference would assume that the guys mentioned by Mamdani are up on that wall,” Hanson said. “All they had to do was Google Mike’s name and that he was denied.”
“All they had to do was look up on that wall and know that Mike’s name wasn’t there."
9/11 WIDOW OUTRAGED: Mayor Mamdani quotes late Highland Mills NYPD Detective Mike Hanson at dedication of new NYPD 9/11 memorial — after the city denied his widow’s survivor benefits 13 times.
— Blaise Gomez (@BlaiseGomez12) September 10, 2026
His widow’s reaction — at 4:30 on @News12HV pic.twitter.com/T7XVoM5jy4
Hanson says the city denied her 9/11 survivor benefits repeatedly because ALS is not recognized as a qualifying condition.
“I’m really upset. We were denied 13 times. This has been an eight-year battle,” she told News 12, though she vowed to keep fighting in her husband's name.
“It keeps me going because I promised Mike that I would fight for him and for all others that came after him,” Hanson said, fighting back tears. “I have never broken a promise.”
The widow explained that many others are in the same situation.
“So many of his friends have come down with Parkinson’s and dementia and all of these neurological illnesses, and their families are going through the same thing that I’m going through,” Hanson said. “I know it’s from that day. From his time down there. I just know it.”
The widow did offer some level of praise for Mamdani after he recently released more than 170,000 pages of previously unpublished records on air quality around Ground Zero in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“I’m very happy that they released all these files the other day that showed about the air quality, which we knew all along,” Hanson said.
Critics have called the move a diversion away from what happened on 9/11.
Mayor Mamdani, joined by 9/11 survivors, electeds, activists & Jon Stewart, announces release of air quality records showing officials knew the air around Ground Zero was dangerous.
— Josie Stratman (@JosieStratman) September 8, 2026
“People got sick bc the leaders they trusted lied & told them it was safe to breathe, he says. pic.twitter.com/f0V2Cv8QZg
To be clear, the Mamdani administration is not responsible for the multiple denials of benefits for Hanson and other ALS sufferers. His comments, however, show a lack of interest in actually researching people the Mayor is quoting and, in his mind, honoring through their own words.
City Hall Deputy Press Secretary Sam Raskin responded to the 9/11 widow's criticism by suggesting they "are looking into the details of (her late husband's) case.”
RedState will keep you updated should they ever get around to that.