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9 Things You Missed at the Final New York Mayoral Debate

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Thecut.com 
Photo: Hiroko Masuike/Pool/Getty Images

With Election Day less than two weeks away, time is running out for New York mayoral candidates Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa to take down front-runner Zohran Mamdani — and that’s exactly what they tried to do at the second and final debate of the race. It was hosted by NY1 on Wednesday night and moderated by an all-star team of Errol Louis, Brian Lehrer, and Katie Honan. Things repeatedly got heated. Here are some highlights and takeaways.

Mamdani brought one of Cuomo’s accusers to the debate — and directly confronted him about what happened to her

Effectively taking a page from the Trump playbook, Mamdani invited one of the women who has accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, his former executive assistant Charlotte Bennett, to the debate. He directly addressed the former governor about her case during the cross-examination section. Mamdani noted how Cuomo had gone after her and other accusers in court, that his lawyers had sought her gynecological records, and that she was barred from speaking about the allegation because of Cuomo’s defamation case against her. Speaking on her behalf, Mamdami asked Cuomo: “What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?” Though Cuomo by that point in the debate had already been forced to address the multiple sexual-harassment allegations and lawsuits against him, he still somehow seemed blindsided:

The Mamdani team quickly highlighted the exchange on social media.

Cuomo’s repeated claim that all of the cases against him have been dropped is false:

Cuomo finally showed up

After what were widely considered lackluster, low-energy performances in his previous debate appearances this year, Cuomo showed a lot more fire and seemed less flummoxed in this final debate. His attacks on Mamdani had more bite, his policy answers were sharper, and in general he seemed more like the politician people probably remember from before he was forced to resign as governor. He also seemed to feed off the live audience, which included a vocal contingent of his supporters cheering after many of his answers.

How much a good debate performance matters at this point in the race is not clear, but Cuomo did about as well as his supporters could have hoped.

Things got extra personal

There were some brutal personal attacks during the debate.

Cuomo repeatedly derided Mamdani as both a know-nothing kid out of his depth and a slick-talking politician, and at times seemed visibly disgusted by his rival. There were also weird moments like when Cuomo characterized one of Mamdani’s responses as him doing a “TikTok dance,” which Cuomo said while imitating a little dance himself:

Mamdani didn’t dance when talking about Cuomo, but he did throw some rhetorical roundhouses, and one of the most memorable moments of the debate was when he directly confronted Cuomo with specific sexual-harassment allegations made by one of the former governor’s accusers, who was in the audience (more on that in a minute).

Sliwa, again both beret-less and partially relegated to the sidelines as Mamdani and Cuomo went after each other, at one point shouted at his rivals about their support for raising the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 18, citing an attack his son suffered last year and insisting the city throw the book at younger violent offenders.

Mamdani was on the ropes a few times

The moderators and the other candidates all treated him like the front-runner, and at times Mamdani looked more uncomfortable than he has in debates past.

One notable example of Mamdani getting cornered was when he was pressed on his position on this year’s ballot initiatives regarding housing policy. Both Cuomo and Sliwa loudly and simultaneously hounded him about not having a position, and when asked by a moderator how he planned to vote, Mamdani responded, with what seemed like a knowing half-smile, “I have not yet taken a position on those ballot questions.”

“Oh, what a shocker!” Cuomo quickly responded. Sliwa howled, as did some in the audience.

Later, Mamdani again declined to take a position on a different ballot question, prompting a similar response from Cuomo and Sliwa.

As Bernadette Hogan at NY1 noted, “This is also a little taste of what reporters on the campaign trail experience when asking Mamdani questions. He goes out of his way to not answer certain questions that could lead to controversy.”

Though he struggled a bit, Mamdani didn’t lose the debate, either. He still effectively centered his campaign messages about affordability and optimism, and he took multiple opportunities to go after Cuomo (and Mayor Adams).

After the debate, Cuomo joined Eric Adams at the Knicks game

When all of the candidates were asked if they would accept Mayor Adams’s endorsement, Mamdani firmly said no and Sliwa said Adams should be in jail.

Only Cuomo said he would accept it, and immediately after the debate, Cuomo tweeted out a photo of him at the Knicks home opener sitting next to Adams.

Adams — who, to be clear, repeatedly called Cuomo a “snake and a liar” before he dropped out of the race — later tweeted his own photo of the two of them together at the game:

Update: This was clearly a staged precursor, since Adams endorsed Cuomo on Thursday.

Mamdani confirmed he’d ask Tisch to stay on as police commissioner

Mamdani was asked about Wednesday’s New York Times report that he intended, if elected mayor, to ask Jessica Tisch to stick around as New York City police commissioner — and he confirmed that he would and praised the job Tisch has done battling corruption.

Sliwa got the Mamdani nod as a second choice (but it was an attack on Cuomo)

When each candidate was asked whom they would rank if this were a ranked-choice election, Cuomo and Sliwa said they would only vote for themselves. Mamdani said he’d rank Sliwa second, and that was it. Sliwa quickly retorted, with a big smile, “Please don’t be glazing me here Zohran. Are you kidding?”

Sliwa took his shots

Just like in the first debate last week, the Republican didn’t hold back on the one-liners, and once again some of his biggest hits were on Cuomo.

“You didn’t leave — you fled,” Sliwa offered after one Cuomo response:

Another line:

At another point, Sliwa turned to Mamdani and said: “Your résumé could fit on a cocktail napkin.” Then to Cuomo: “Your failures could fill a New York public-school library.”

(He also still can’t pronounce “Zohran,” but Mamdani only corrected him once.)

Cuomo suggested Sliwa was mentally ill

Cuomo backers want Sliwa to drop out so Cuomo can be the sole non-Mamdani choice. Cuomo indicated there was somewhere else Sliwa should be:

This post has been updated.

More on the city politic



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