'Absolute travesty:' House Intel chairman slams AOC-Mamdani 'giggle-gate' moment at 9-11 ceremony

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rick Crawford, who is leading efforts to gird America against future terror threats, is blasting fellow Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for failing to display appropriate decorum during Friday's solemn commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"It's an absolute travesty," Crawford, R-Ark., told the Just the News, No Noise television show Friday night hours after the Big Apple's mayor and AOC were seen light-heartedly greeting each other and laughing in the midst of the names of the New York City's victims being read aloud at Ground Zero.

The scene lit up a debate on social media, with conservatives crying foul and liberals suggesting it was much adieu about an innocent greeting such as former presidents laughing during a state funeral.

Crawford left little doubt about where he stood.

"You know you're spitting on the ground of 2,977 Americans who died that day," he said of the way the two Democrat politicians acted. "So I don't really think that I will be giving much quarter to those folks who have that perspective."

Crawford said the reaction must be seen in the larger context of Mamdani's association with influencer Hasan Piker, who allegedly claimed Americans deserved the terror attacks a quarter century ago, and the mayor's recent decision to gift a ceremonial pen from a signing of a Sept. 11 executive order to a lawyer who represented an al-Qaida terrorist.

 "I think the voters of New York really need have something to atone for. The fact that they put a guy like Mamdani in a position to lead that city is inexplicable to me. I can't imagine. And there he sits with his partner in crime, AOC, laughing as families are reading the names of their dead, as if there's something funny taking place that we're not aware of.

"I mean, if you can't maintain some sort of solemn decorum on a day like today. Then go back to your office and chortle with your friends. But don't do that in public. That was a complete an utter debacle, in my opinion," he added.

Crawford said he doubted House Republicans would do it but he would vote for a resolution condemning AOC over the episode.