A casual viewer could be forgiven for mistaking Democrats’ first New York City mayoral debate for the roast of Andrew Cuomo.
All eight of his primary opponents took turns throwing verbal daggers at the former New York governor on Wednesday evening, who arrived on the debate stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza with multiple suitcases of baggage to go with his status as the polling frontrunner.
Cuomo has consistently led polls of the nine-candidate field, leveraging his name recognition as a longtime public official in New York and the scion of a storied political family. He resigned the governorship in 2021 amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations and an investigation into those claims, but he is now attempting a comeback in New York City, where Democratic Mayor Eric Adams is running for re-election as an independent.
Cuomo’s frontrunner status in the Democratic primary made him a constant target Wednesday night at the debate hosted by NBC 4 New York, Telemundo 47 and Politico. When Cuomo sidestepped a question about a 2021 report from New York’s state attorney general accusing him of undercounting nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, his opponents laughed in his face and jeered him.
When Cuomo cited “the state of the Democratic Party” when asked to name his biggest regret in his political career, Adrienne Adams, speaker of the New York City Council, pounced.
“No regrets when it comes to cutting child care?” Adams asked. “No regrets when it comes to slow walking PPE and vaccinations in the season of COVID to Black and brown communities? Really, no regrets?”
And when Cuomo was asked about allegations of sexual harassment and responded by attacking his opponents for calling for the defunding of police, former state Assemblyman Michael Blake turned to the cameras to speak directly to the women of New York.
“Every woman watching tonight. He was just given a chance to actually address the clear claims that were stated and ignored it,” said Blake. Cuomo would later repeat his denial of the allegations that mushroomed into an investigation spearheaded by state Attorney General Letitia James, which found that Cuomo had harassed 11 women and subjected some of them to unwanted touching and groping.
Each candidate took a different tack attacking the 67-year-old former governor. His most viable opponent, according to recent polls, is democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, who cast Cuomo as bought and paid for by billionaires.
“The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C.,” said the 33-year-old state legislator.
After Cuomo dodged difficult questions about his controversies, Mamdani said the frontrunner is “allergic to any accountability or acknowledgement of a mistake.”
Cuomo did not hang back, instead trying to give as good as he was getting when he was attacked. And Mamdani, the youngest candidate on stage, also received his own slew of barbs. After confidently proclaiming “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” Cuomo replied, “Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani me like a hot knife through butter.”
“He’s been in government 27 minutes. He passed three bills. That’s all he’s done,” Cuomo said, contrasting his own experience to his opponent, who is less than half of his age.
Jessica Ramos got a jab in Mamdani when asked about her own biggest regret. “I regret not running for mayor in 2021,” said Ramos, a state senator.
“I had been in the Senate for two years. I’d already passed over a dozen bills. I thought I needed more experience, but turns out, you just need to make good videos,” she said, poking fun at Mamdani’s social media strategy, which has propelled his candidacy.
Issues, including the city’s housing crisis and public safety, took a back seat to bickering, which saw debate moderators struggling to control the nine candidates speaking over one another and jousting for airtime ahead of the June 24 primary.
In addition to Cuomo and Mamdani, who has burst onto the New York City political scene on a progressive platform, candidates jockeyed for position in the city’s unpredictable ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to choose multiple candidates and rank them on their ballots. The stage also included the current and former city comptrollers, Brad Lander and Scott Springer; state Sens. Ramos and Zellnor Myrie; Blake; and former hedge fund executive Whitney Tilson.
