The three candidates for NYC mayor — Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa — lobbed sharp attacks at each other during Wednesday’s second, and final, mayoral debate in Queens.
Mamdani, the Democratic frontrunner, came into the evening with polls showing him solidly in the lead. Cuomo, an independent candidate, was seeking to tear into lead wherever he could, often attacking Mamdani’s lack of experience in government.
Cuomo accused Mamdani of being immature and of sowing division in New York City, while Mamdani knocked Cuomo as a “desperate man lashing out” and “Trump’s puppet.”
Republican Sliwa, who’s been facing pressure to drop out of the race with the aim of handing his voters over to Cuomo, played a spoiler role, doling out attacks to both candidates.
Early voting begins in just three days, with Election Day on Nov. 4.
Here are some takeaways from the night:
Clashing on experience
Mamdani and Cuomo sparred over the issue of experience, with Cuomo saying the 34-year-old assemblymember doesn’t have enough to lead the city.
“If you want to work in government, then you have to be serious and mature,” Cuomo said.
“You don’t know how to handle an emergency, and you literally never proposed a bill on anything that you’re not talking about in your campaign,” Cuomo said in one exchange.
Mamdani tried to turn the argument back onto Cuomo by saying his experience as governor, including sexual harassment allegations and the Covid nursing home scandal, were disqualifying.
“The issue is your experience,” Mamdani told the ex-governor.
Mamdani said Cuomo was “creating his own facts.”
“We just had a former governor say in his own words that the city has been getting screwed by the state,” the candidate said. “Who was leading the state? It was you, governor.”
Sliwa pilled on the issue, as well, saying Mamdani’s resume could “fit on a cocktail napkin.”
Mamdani skirts questions, get mocked
Mamdani was repeatedly pummeled by his opponents for not giving clear answers or sidestepping tough questions during the campaign.
Early in the evening, Cuomo pivoted from a question on means-testing for rent-stabilized housing to slam Mamdani’s “freeze the rent” agenda item.
“It’s all this,” Cuomo said, flapping his hand to mime a hand talking. “It’s all political blather.”
When asked about his position on ballot propositions on housing, Mamdani, unlike Cuomo and Sliwa, said he hadn’t yet made up his mind on the issue. Councilmembers, many of them allies to Mamdani, are staunchly opposed to the measures, which would put a dent in the ability of council members to exert control over development in their own districts..
“What a political answer, what is your opinion?” Sliwa shot in response.
“What a shock,” Cuomo jeered, flapping his hands again.
The moderators touched on this, too, with NY 1’s Errol Louis asking Mamdani why he’s avoided questions on mayoral control, ballot questions and his stance on sex work.
Who’s tougher on Trump?
Asked how he would handle a situation like the Tuesday federal immigration raids on Canal Street, Cuomo said he would met aggression with aggression by putting his “finger right back in [Trump’s] chest.”
“I would have called the President and I would say, ‘Look, you’re way out of bounds,’” Cuomo said. “They are way out of bounds. Call them back, or I’m going to tell the NYPD to step in and stop them.’”
Mamdani, for his part, said he would be open to working with Trump on affordability but would put up a fight when it comes to immigration enforcement. If faced with ICE raids, Mamdani said he’d first focus on strengthening local protections like street vendor reforms.
”That’s an example of how we can both protect, ensure quality of life and leave no stone unturned in delivering for the people of the city,” Mamdani said.
Sliwa said he would look to negotiate with Trump or “his minions” when dealing with the president.
“With Trump, it’s always the art of the deal,” he said, referring to a book Trump wrote by the same title.
Hard questions, no answers
At one point in the debate, each candidate was allowed to ask a question of an opponent.
Mamdani asked Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 after being accused of sexual harassment, what he would say to one of his accusers, Charlotte Bennett, who sat in the audience.
“What do you say to the 13 women you harassed?” Mamdani asked.
Cuomo responded by slamming Mamdani as immature and reiterating that the criminal cases against him were dropped,
He ten pivoted to attack Mamdani on his dual citizenship in Uganda, asking why he won’t renounce it. Cuomo pointed out the country’s anti-gay policies and then attacked the candidate for taking a picture with a top Ugandan official who pushed harshly-anti LGBTQ+ legislation.
Neither candidate answered the other.
Mamdani wants Tisch to stay
Onstage at the debate, Mamdani — who has come under fire for past calls to defund th police – confirmed reports he intends to ask current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on in the same role.
But Mamdani didn’t answer when asked whether Tisch, who’s spoken out about criminal justice reforms Mamdani’s a proponent of like bail reform, has indicted she’d take him up on his offer.
“This is a decision that I’ve made to further the agenda that I have been running on,” Mamdani said. “A decision that will also deliver the creation of a Department of Community Safety, a decision that will also ensure that safety and justice are being delivered to New Yorkers.”
Tisch, who was appointed by Mayor Adams after cascading scandals tore through his administration and the upper ranks of his public safety officials, is widely respected in the city.
“Commissioner Tisch took on a broken status quo, started to deliver accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the five boroughs,” the candidate said at the debate.
Israel question stirs fiery exchanges
Cuomo and Sliwa laced into Mamdani’s stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, claiming the democratic socialist was amplifying anti-semitism through his positions. Mamdani has sparked anger and concern with a number of his positions, including not recognizing the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
Sliwa claimed Mamdani is seen as someone who “fans the flames of anti-semitism” and even said the candidate had praised “global jihad.”
“I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad,” Mamdani punched back.
“That is not something that I have said and that continues to be ascribed to me. 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,” he said.
Mamdani has come under fire over the volatile phrase “globalize the intifada,” which he has not condemned but said he would no longer encourage.
