Several Democratic lawmakers blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday for his statement on the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel — which focused primarily on condemning Israel, the war in Gaza and Jerusalem’s alleged “ongoing genocide” and “apartheid.”

“He basically said ‘The Jews that died, sad, but it’s their fault,’” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said on X. “He needs the city’s antisemitism policy for himself. Just an atrocious statement.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) accused Mamdani of “[d]esecrating the memory of murdered, innocent Jews today of all days and refusing to even condemn Hamas,” calling the mayor’s statement “obscene.”

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), who lost his primary race in part due to his support for Israel, said that Mamdani’s statement was “reprehensible.”

“In the guise of ‘grieving’ with those mourning that day, Mayor Mamdani asserts as fact hotly disputed allegations that he knows full well will offend and further upset those same people he pretends to grieve with,” Goldman said. “On this day of all days, the Mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel embraces extreme activism instead of balanced leadership.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) accused Mamdani of worsening Jews’ pain.

“Mr. Mayor, you’re right that today is painful for Jews. You’re also the one making it worse,” Gottheimer said. “Blame the victims. Trash Israel. Wife likes posts cheering the attack. Thanks for the clarity.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) did not explicitly mention Mamdani, but condemned critics of Israel who used the anniversary as an opportunity to bash Israel.

“The world demonizes Israel 365 days a year,” Torres said. “Perhaps, for just one day—October 7th—the critics of Israel could take a vacation from their hysterical hatred of the world’s only Jewish State and find it within themselves to express condolences for the thousands of Israelis murdered, maimed, mutilated, raped, and abducted at the hands of Hamas.”

Other Democratic leaders have also spoken out.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran against Mamdani, also criticized him, saying that Oct. 7 “should be sacred.”

“Yet even today, @NYCMayor cannot put aside his ideological obsession with Israel long enough to simply let Jews mourn,” Cuomo said. “At a time of rising antisemitism, words matter, and rhetoric has real-world consequences. There are 364 other days for politics. Today, remember the victims. Condemn Hamas. Stand with the Jewish community. It should not be difficult.”

Former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop, who now leads the business advocacy group Partnership for NYC, called Mamdani’s statement “inappropriate and unnecessarily inflammatory.”

“At a time when heightened antisemitism is a real concern — one the Mayor himself has acknowledged — New York’s elected leaders should be focused on bringing our city together and addressing the urgent challenges facing New Yorkers, not creating further division,” Fulop said.

Former Florida Senate candidate Alex Vindman issued an implicit condemnation of Mamdani, saying, “You could save your selective ahistorical biased opinions on the whole history of Israel and Palestine (seemingly justifying October 7th) until say tomorrow. Your empathy could exceed your biases.”

Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s former ambassador to monitor and combat antisemitism under the Biden administration, also criticized Mamdani’s statement.

New York-based and national Jewish groups have condemned Mamdani’s statement as well.

The UJA-Federation of New York said that the anniversary “should have been a day” to stand with the victims and survivors of Oct. 7.

“Instead, Mayor Mamdani chose to respond to the grief of Jewish New Yorkers by advancing false and inflammatory attacks against Israel — not only inappropriately shifting the focus away from the victims of Hamas’s cruelty, but also placing Jewish New Yorkers at risk, the group continued.

William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively CEO and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said similarly in a joint statement, “There is a time for debate over Middle East policy. The anniversary of the October 7 massacre is not that time. Exploiting a day of profound grief to accuse Israel of genocide dishonors the memory of those who were murdered, deepens the pain of survivors and hostage families, and further alienates Jewish New Yorkers at a moment that should unite us in remembrance.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said he’s spoken directly with Mamdani about his rhetoric, “but he once again found an opportunity to be callous toward Jewish pain.”

“He gave Hamas a single sentence and then spent the rest of his statement condemning Israel,” Jacobs said. “You cannot proclaim empathy and care for the Jewish community and then fail to show basic humanity toward us in our grief. Turning this anniversary into an indictment of the Jewish state is not only hurtful, and deeply offensive, but it also makes Jewish New Yorkers less safe.”

Democratic Majority for Israel said Mamdani’s statement “diminishes the gravity of the day and disrespects the victims.”

A slew of Republicans have also spoken out to condemn Mamdani, including Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rick Scott (R-FL); Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Jason Smith (R-MO) and Rudy Yakym (R-IN); U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Board Chair Jeff Miller; Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders; U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley; and former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY).

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter also condemned Mamdani’s “dangerous lies” and called him a “defender of Palestinian terrorism, a promoter of antisemitism, and an advocate of anti-Americanism” as well as an ally of Hamas.

In spite of his staunch anti-Israel stance, Mamdani is still facing protests from further-left anti-Israel demonstrators today, accusing him of genocide and of betraying the anti-Israel movement.