Bill Spade, one of the first responders featured in National Geographic‘s new docuseries 9/11: Reunited, has a message for those seeking to turn today’s 25th anniversary commemoration into a political battle: “Leave politics out of it.”
Spade, the only member of Staten Island’s FDNY Rescue Company 5 crew to return home on Sept. 11, 2001, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter after former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called on current Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stay away from the ceremony at Ground Zero.
“As firefighters, we always got a call, and if it was a fire, we responded into a building,” Spade says. “Most of the time, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, and we were searching for victims and survivors. We never asked the color of their skin, their nationality, their beliefs or anything like that, political affiliations. We just went in and tried to save a life and help people.”
“The same thing on 9/11,” he continues. “You didn’t know who you were saving or who you were helping, and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. You were just trying to help people.”
Giuliani, who led New York during the attacks, said during a Newsmax appearance that there was “no question” Mamdani should skip the commemoration and that his attendance offended him. He also drew a connection between the Muslim mayor’s faith and the ideology of the 9/11 hijackers, claiming Mamdani was concealing a desire to make Islam the country’s dominant religion.
