Tag-teaming rivals gang up on the frontrunner in their last big chance to dent his double-digit lead.
NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa made the most of the final New York City mayoral debate Wednesday night, their last big chance to ding frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
And ding him they did.
The former governor and the Republican nominee repeatedly ganged up on the Democratic nominee, who’s polling ahead of Cuomo, his closest rival, by double digits. They mocked him for dodging questions, including one on whether he supports ballot initiatives aimed at speeding affordable housing production. They belittled the 34-year-old backbench state lawmaker’s lack of experience, and they took turns hitting him on his criticisms of Israel, saying he would make the city less safe for Jews, a claim Mamdani has rejected.
“You have never had a job. You’ve never accomplished anything,” Cuomo, who’s running as an independent, said to Mamdani. “You don’t know how to run a government. You don’t know how to handle an emergency.”
The former governor, seeking redemption after a brutal June primary loss to Mamdani, sought to portray the democratic socialist as big talk, with a big smile, but little substance. He claimed his opponent’s pledge to freeze rents is all “political blather.”
Mamdani got his end in too.
“If you want a candidate for mayor who tells you everything that he cannot do, then Andrew Cuomo should be your choice,” he responded at one point. “If you want a candidate for mayor who will use every tool at their disposal … then I am the candidate for you.”
The sharp barbs fired by the ex-governor and Guardian Angels founder underscored their desperation to grind Mamdani’s momentum to a screeching halt. But time is running short in this rip-roaring race to lead the Big Apple. Early voting is set to begin Saturday and Mamdani has held a durable, double-digit polling lead since his upset June primary victory over Cuomo.
The next mayor will face a Republican president who is eager to impose his will on Democratic-led cities. President Donald Trump has threatened to cut federal aid to New York City if Mamdani wins and has not ruled out sending in the National Guard to patrol the streets. The race, though, has been dominated by how to address the cost of living in a deeply expensive city.
The candidates are vying to succeed incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who dropped his reelection bid in September while polling in single digits. Adams had been urged to leave the race in order to aid Cuomo’s cause, given that both men share an overlapping base of support.
It’s unlikely that the blows Cuomo and Sliwa landed will knock Mamdani off his path to City Hall, but the lively debate did allow them to expose where the democratic nominee remains vulnerable.
Cuomo, 67, appeared more energetic and animated than last week, at one point moving his hands in an exaggerated fashion to suggest Mamdani was speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
Mamdani spent much of the debate hosted by Spectrum News NY1 in Queens on his heels — more so than in last week’s debate, which he handily won by meeting each Cuomo attack with his own — but he got in his zingers Wednesday night, at one point highlighting sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.
“You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience as if the issue is that we don’t know about it. The issue is that we have all experienced your experience,” Mamdani said, listing the former governor’s $5 million pandemic book deal, pandemic nursing home deaths and his management of the MTA as scandals.
The three candidates faced questions on how they would challenge Trump and where they would work with him, a paradox thrust more prominently into the spotlight this week when masked federal immigration agents raided street vendors on Manhattan’s Canal Street, a chaotic scene that included protesting New Yorkers.
“Call them back, or I’m going to have the NYPD step in and stop them,” Cuomo said he would tell Trump, a move that would potentially set up a clash between law enforcement agencies.
The former governor also mocked Mamdani’s readiness to handle the notoriously combative and unpredictable president.
“He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuchus,” he said of Trump’s view of Mamdani. “Donald Trump, I believe, wants Mamdani. That is his dream because he will use him politically all across the country.”
Mamdani called for an end to “the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government” and the passage of street vending reform bills in the City Council.
As he has in the past, Mamdani also disparaged Cuomo as “Donald Trump’s puppet.”
“He wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him,” he said of Trump.
The state assemblymember noted that on affordability — a platform both he and Trump have run on — he “will always be ready and willing” to talk with the president, but not on deportation and targeting his political enemies.
Cuomo is trying to mount a comeback bid after his scandal-induced resignation four years ago after a state attorney general report determined he sexually harassed 11 women, which he denies. The forum Wednesday night stands to be his last appearance on a debate stage as a candidate if he loses next month’s general election.
Mamdani is attempting what was considered unthinkable less than a year ago — leading City Hall despite a thin resume, hard-left policy prescriptions for the nation’s largest city and anti-Israel views.
Sliwa, who is being pushed to quit by many of the same wealthy New Yorkers who wanted Adams out, is a long-shot candidate: A Republican hasn’t won in deep blue Gotham since billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s successful campaigns more than 15 years ago.
As Cuomo appeals for Republican votes to close his gap with Mamdani — while pressuring Sliwa to drop out of the race — Mamdani has sought to broaden his support and offer an olive branch to his skeptics, including political centrists and business leaders.
To that end, Mamdani confirmed he plans to keep the popular NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on if he is elected. The New York Times first reported his commitment just before the debate began.
During the debate, Cuomo attacked Mamdani for his earlier calls to “defund the police,” on his hesitation to denounce the phrase “globalize the intifada” and on his photo with an anti-LGBTQ Ugandan official, pressing him on why he doesn’t call for a BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions protest, of Uganda, as he has for Israel.
Mamdani said he didn’t know the Ugandan minister was the architect of anti-LGBTQ legislation and would not have posed with her if he did. He has said he no longer wishes to slash NYPD funding and would keep the police headcount steady. He has also said he would “discourage” the use of the pro-Palestinian “globalize” rallying cry, which is viewed by many Jews as a call to violence.
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Cuomo noted that 650 rabbis jointly opposed Mamdani in a statement. Mamdani countered later in the debate that “I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad.”
“That is not something that I have said and that continues to be ascribed to me,” Mamdani said. “And frankly, I think much of it has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election.”
After the debate, Cuomo posted a photo of himself sitting next to Adams, the outgoing mayor, cheering on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“No better way to celebrate winning tonight’s debate than making it to the @nyknicks game in time for the 2nd half,” Cuomo wrote.