Chris Hayes
Role at the time: Broadcaster and host, posting on his own Bluesky account
Statement summary
Hours after the 25th-anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero, broadcaster Chris Hayes posted that Mamdani had shown how to combine a principled political position with civility, citing his decision to attend and to shake Giuliani's hand despite Giuliani having said his presence would be offensive.
“Too many people online seem to conflate left politics with being obnoxious and scathing and Mamdani is such a model for combining a principled ideological vision with civility and grace. You shake hands, you act like a grown up even whether others aren't. You show up.”
The speaker's own post on Bluesky, published hours after the ceremony and quoting a post about the handshake with Giuliani.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Hayes endorses the attendance and the manner of it, answering the objection that his presence was inappropriate by praising him for showing up. The closest competing label is “Mixed or conditional”, because the post opens as a criticism of people on the left rather than a defence of Mamdani. That loses because the criticism is the setup for the praise; the operative claim is that Mamdani's conduct at the ceremony was a model, which endorses the conduct under scrutiny.