Andrew Cuomo and Zahran Mamdani opened Thursday’s New York mayoral debate by saying that a future headline about their first year in office will celebrate cutting costs for New Yorkers.
The next 50 minutes of the debate — which aired on NBC New York and Telemundo New York, in partnership with Politico — devolved into an all-out brawl over issues including crime, the war in Gaza and President Donald Trump, with the two candidates tearing each other apart in deeply personal ways.
During one conversation that focused on which candidate has the right experience for the job, Mamdani, the state Assemblyman, criticized Cuomo, the former governor, for his handling of nursing homes during the COVID pandemic. Cuomo, who resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies, had just said that mayorship is “not a job for on-the-job training.”
“What you don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity,” Mamdani said. “And what you don’t have in integrity, you can’t make up for in experience.”
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, and Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary in June, were joined on stage by Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, where the three clashed over how to handle the police department and mental health calls, the education system, taxes, and New York City’s business climate.
Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, enters the extended round of the election with a wide lead, though Cuomo has closed some ground since Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the contest.
Trump sought to influence the outcome of the race and repeatedly threatened to withhold federal funding from New York if Mamdani wins the race next month. The president’s influence in New York was a central discussion of the debate.
Each candidate was asked when they last spoke with Trump, with Cuomo saying he believed it was after the attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania last year. Saliwa said it had been many years, while Mamdani said he had never spoken to Trump.
But Mamdani expressed a willingness to work with Trump to cut costs — before attacking Cuomo over reports that he discussed the race with Trump.
“I don’t need the president’s help,” Mamdani said. “And what I would say to the president is that if he wants to come through for New Yorkers the way he used to, he’s going to have to deal with me as the next mayor.”
Cuomo said he had never had such a conversation with Trump before and talked to him about previous “bloody battles” during Covid.
“I would avoid them,” Cuomo said.
After the debate, NBC News asked Mamdani what he would say to New Yorkers who worry that Trump will follow through on his threats to punish the city by withholding additional federal funding if the state assemblyman wins next month.
“I think what we’re seeing now is that Donald Trump is a threat every day he wakes up,” Mamdani said. “He’s threatening to suspend funding to the city, like the $18 billion in infrastructure grants he’s already made, and he’s threatening to suspend more than $50 million because we refuse to give up on our transfer students, or $80 million because we actually wanted to take care of every person in the city, regardless of their status. I will actually fight all of these threats, and I won’t treat them as law because they come out of his mouth.”
He pointed to the legal battles in California, saying that “for every dollar they spent on legal fees, they recovered more than $30,000 in federal funds that would have been stripped from them.”
When contacted by NBC News minutes ago, Cuomo was emphatic when asked if the president would go through with his threats regardless of who wins next month.
“No,” Cuomo said. “no!”
During the debate, Mamdani also attacked Cuomo for not taking a strong enough stance in defending state Attorney General Letitia James, who was recently indicted on federal charges after Trump called for her prosecution.
“I said using the justice system as a political weapon is wrong,” Cuomo said. “Both sides are doing it. It’s wrong for Donald Trump to do it. It’s wrong for them to do it. It’s wrong for them to do it.” [James] Come. It’s wrong for Comey to do this to Hillary Clinton.
Sliwa chimed in and said New Yorkers would suffer if Cuomo or Mamdani confronted Trump.
“Look, you can be tough, but you can’t be tough if it’s going to cost the people who need the federal money the most,” Saliwa said. “Zahran Mamdani, the president has already said he will cut $7 billion from the budget from the beginning if you are elected mayor. The people in this city are going to suffer, the people who need that federal money. What I’m going to do is sit down and negotiate.”
As Sliwa looked for his opportunities in the debate, Mamdani and Cuomo were the main event, often ignoring his jibes — except in agreement when he was attacking the other candidate.
Democratic divisions
Meanwhile, Mamdani and Cuomo bicker over who is a real Democrat, too. Mamdani said voters who believe there is no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties should vote for Cuomo, while voters who want the mayor to stand up to Trump and his donors should support him.
Cuomo then said Mamdani is not a Democrat, focused on his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America, and accused him of not voting for Kamala Harris last fall. (Mamdani said voters should leave their presidential primary ballots blank if they disagreed with then-President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.)
“If you were to look for me on the ballot, you would find me as the Democrat,” Mamdani said.
The war in Gaza occupied a large part of the discussion. Mamdani accused Israel of carrying out “genocide,” and in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, he refused to say whether Hamas should give up its weapons after the recent ceasefire agreement.
“Of course I think they should lay down their weapons. I’m proud to be one of the first elected officials in the state to call for a ceasefire, and calling for a ceasefire means a ceasefire,” he said. He added: “This means that all parties must cease fire and lay down their weapons.
“The reason we are doing this is not only to end the genocide, but also to have unhindered access to humanitarian aid,” Mamdani said. “I, like many New Yorkers, hope this ceasefire holds.”
Cuomo responded that Mamdani refuses to “condemn Hamas” and separately said he was speaking “in code” with his answer — that code suggests Israel “has no right to exist as a Jewish state.” Mamdani responded that Cuomo served as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “legal defense team” during this genocide.
He added that conversations with Jewish New Yorkers led him not to use the phrase “globalization of the uprising,” a phrase he said he does not use.
“And what I’m looking to do as the first Muslim mayor of this city is make sure that we bring all New Yorkers together, Jewish New Yorkers, Muslim New Yorkers, everyone who calls the city home. They know that not only will they be protected, they will belong,” he said.
Cuomo attacked Mamdani for not explicitly condemning the statement.
“He is a divisive figure across the board,” Cuomo said.
Dealing with crime and costs
Regarding the crime, Mamdani said he spoke to police officers to apologize for past anti-police posts, said he is not running on those ideas, and attacked Cuomo for not focusing on his actual plans. Cuomo said Mamdani “doesn’t like the police” and “that’s why he won’t hire any more cops.”
“When everyone says we need more police, he wants to use social workers on domestic violence calls, which are very serious, and he’s told you what he believes. He believes the police are racist, evil, corrupt, and a threat to public safety,” Cuomo said.
Mamdani said that as a state Assemblyman, he learned “that delivering justice also means providing safety, and that means leading a city that recognizes the courage of the men and women who join the NYPD and put their lives on the line.”
“This means representing Muslims who have been illegally surveilled in my district, and Black New Yorkers and people of color who have been victims of police brutality,” he added.
The second half of the debate saw more discussion about the cost of living and affordability. Each candidate was asked what they paid for groceries and rent: $2,300 for Mamdani, $3,900 for Sliwa, and $7,800 for Cuomo.
Cuomo has sharply criticized Mamdani’s plans for affordable housing and free bus service, while speaking about his own experience as governor and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
“I would just say it’s been an hour and 20 minutes of this discussion, and we haven’t heard Governor Cuomo say the word ‘affordability.’ That’s why he lost the primary,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani criticized Cuomo for having the support of billionaire hedge fund executive Bill Ackman, to whom Cuomo told: “There are a lot of New Yorkers who support me, and there are a lot of Jewish New Yorkers who support me because they think you’re anti-Semitic.”
“So this is not about Trump or Republicans,” Cuomo said. “It’s about you.”
The candidates had one point of agreement when asked to identify New York City’s best mayor of all time. They both shouted at Fiorello LaGuardia.
“We agree,” Mamdani said.