Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani and his chief rival, Andrew Cuomo, tore into each other Wednesday on the debate stage over their respective careers in state government, with both men accusing one another of being ineffective in wielding power in Albany to address New York City’s affordability crisis.
Affordability has been a central issue in this year’s mayoral campaign as soaring rents, grocery prices and other costs of living put a squeeze on working-class New Yorkers.
Wednesday night’s second and final mayoral debate — which came just before early voting starts this weekend — focused heavily on how Mamdani, Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa would as mayor try to tackle the spiraling crisis. The event was hosted by NY1, The City and WNYC/Gothamist.
Another recurring theme during the 90-minute debate in Queens was Mamdani’s reluctance to offer straight answers on some pressing questions, such as whether he supports or opposes the housing development-related referendum questions on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Mamdani’s wavering when questioned prompted both Cuomo and Sliwa to accuse Mamdani of being untrustworthy, with Cuomo on several occasions flapping his hands to mimic someone’s mouth running while Mamdani spoke.
Compared with last week’s first general election debate, Cuomo and Mamdani interrupted each other more frequently. Cuomo, who’s running as an independent, needed to make a splash as he continues to poll behind Mamdani with the Nov. 4 election looming less than two weeks away.
The former governor hit hard on Mamdani’s limited experience. The flareup between the two over their Albany careers erupted after the ex-governor argued the city has been “getting screwed” by the state government for years.
Mamdani seized on that comment to make the case that Cuomo failed New York on securing more affordable housing for the city.
“By his own words that means he must have run an incompetent governor,” Mamdani said, a reference to Cuomo serving as the state’s governor between 2011 and 2021 before resigning amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies.
That prompted Cuomo to say he actually meant the city’s only been getting shafted over the past four years — during Gov. Hochul’s tenure. Despite that, Cuomo said at another point in the debate he’d as mayor work well with Hochul.
Getting back to the housing issue, Cuomo told Mamdani he “doesn’t really understand government,” noting the state generally provides funding for affordable housing, as opposed to developing it.
Cuomo also then sought to flip the script by saying Mamdani has as an Assembly member “not even proposed a bill on affordability or housing.”
“Shame on you, shame on you,” Cuomo fumed at Mamdani on the stage of the performing arts center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City.
Mamdani, who has served as an Assembly member representing northwestern Queens since 2021, said Cuomo was creating “his own facts,” but did not directly address the jab about his legislative record in Albany.
Sliwa, who is polling in third place far behind both Cuomo and Mamdani, has been facing intense pressure from Cuomo and his allies to step out of the race in order to increase the ex-governor’s chances at beating the Democratic nominee.
But Sliwa put to rest the idea that he might do so, going on the attack against both Cuomo and Mamdani, repeating a line he used in the first debate saying they are, respectively, “the architect and the apprentice” of the city’s problems.
“Zohran, your résumé can fit on a cocktail napkin,” Sliwa said in a dig at the 34-year-old’s relatively light experience in government.
“Andrew, your failures can fit a public school library,” he added in a jab at Cuomo’s various controversies as governor.
Throughout the debate, Mamdani came under fire from both Sliwa and Cuomo for failing to directly address a number of issues, like the Nov. 4 ballot questions and how exactly he’d handle the issue of sex work as mayor from an enforcement perspective.
Cuomo has in recent days sought to make what he sees as Mamdani’s wishy-washiness a key focus, arguing it shows New Yorkers should not trust the front-runner’s promise to not pursue certain left-wing policies embraced by the Democratic Socialists of America, an organization Mamdani is a member of.
“Is he lying to the DSA, is he lying to New Yorkers, is he lying to everybody? Who knows,” Cuomo said on stage.
The ex-governor and Sliwa also once again laced into Mamdani’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war, contending he is amplifying antisemitism. Sliwa even claimed Mamdani has endorsed “global jihad” and voiced concern about his Jewish sons being safe in New York if he’s elected.
Mamdani punched back, saying he has not “once spoken in favor of global jihad” and said he believes that criticism might be leveled at him because he’s “on the precipice” of becoming the city’s first Muslim mayor.
“I still want to be the mayor who keeps your sons safe,” Mamdani told Sliwa, vowing to as mayor fight all types of hate.
Since becoming a mayoral candidate, Mamdani has distanced himself from many DSA policies he previously used to trumpet, like pledges to defund the NYPD, walk-backs that could anger some of his progressive allies.
Shortly before the debate Wednesday, news broke Mamdani would as mayor seek to keep Jessica Tisch, Mayor Adams’ NYPD commissioner, at the helm of the department, another move that could assure some critics while also potentially disillusioning the left-wing movement he has to thank for his political rise.
In an apparent attempt to assuage some of those concerns from his fellow lefties, Mamdani said on the debate stage he does not support Tisch’s call to water down the state’s Raise the Age law even as he confirmed he would seek to keep her on as commissioner.
There were some areas of agreement between the candidates on Wednesday’s stage, including all three of them condemning the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration raid on Canal St. in Manhattan the day before.
Cuomo, who has faced accusations of being too chummy with President Trump, even said he would as mayor deploy the NYPD to try to stop Trump’s ICE from engaging in certain immigration raids such as the ones on Canal St.
“I would have called the president and I would say, ‘Look, you’re way out of bounds. They are way out of bounds. Call them back, or I’m going to tell the NYPD to step in and stop them,’” he said.
After the debate, Mamdani and Sliwa stopped to take questions from reporters.
Cuomo, though, left without taking questions and zipped over to Madison Square Garden to catch the second half of the season’s first Knicks game together with Adams, who dropped his reelection bid last month and is now considering endorsing the ex-governor’s campaign.
“No better way to celebrate winning tonight’s debate than making it to the @nyknicks game in time for the 2nd half,” Cuomo posted along with a picture of himself sitting courtside with Adams.
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