Prime Large Apple mayoral contenders Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani continued flinging jibes at one another Thursday throughout a bruising debate — with third-place candidate Brad Lander additionally taking an enormous chew with a pointed stunt.
Assaults on the frontrunner Cuomo — who took the stage with six different Dem major candidates at John Jay School — landed extra forcefully than within the first debate final week.
Mamdani, a socialist state Assemblyman from Queens, rapidly landed a number of pointed physique blows in opposition to Cuomo because the messy two-hour meals combat kicked off.
But it surely was town comptroller, Lander, who arguably rattled the ex-governor essentially the most — as he refused to let up on the sexual harassment scandal that led Cuomo to resign in shame in 2021.
“All people right here is aware of that you simply sexually harassed girls, that you simply created a poisonous work surroundings,” Lander stated to thundering applause.
The comptroller famous many within the viewers had been younger girls attending CUNY, together with a valedictorian quickly going to work on the Division of Homeless Companies.
“I don’t need to have to inform her, ‘Don’t go work at Metropolis Corridor as a result of the mayor is a sexual harasser,’” Lander stated.
“These are simply bold-faced lies,” Cuomo shot again, arguing the accusations had been disproven.
The unrepentant Cuomo additionally got here beneath fireplace from Mamdani over the intercourse harass accusations and file as governor.
When Cuomo tried to hit Mamdani, the 33-year-old state Meeting member from Queens, over his lack of expertise, the Democratic socialist shot again: “I’ve by no means needed to resign in shame.”
The 67-year-old Cuomo had been making an attempt to deflect a pointed query about his age by seemingly turning the tables on Mamdani.
“Expertise issues, and I believe inexperience is harmful,” Cuomo stated.
Throughout a back-and-forth on Mamdani’s proposal to freeze rents throughout town, Cuomo stated the socialist pol “ought to learn” the legislation with reference as to whether it was within the mayor’s energy to take action.
“The legislation didn’t management you,” Mamdani quipped.
The mudslinging at instances obtained private — like when the lefty lawmaker corrected Cuomo’s repeated mispronunciation of “Mamdani,” which the ex-gov rhymed with “mother.”
“The title is Mamdani, M, A, M, D, A, N, I. It’s best to discover ways to say it, as a result of we’ve obtained to get it proper,” he stated.
Given the prospect to counterattack, Cuomo rapidly repeated his pronunciation mistake.
“Mr. Mamdani is correct,” Cuomo stated, however once more butchered his rival’s title’s first syllable.
Lander additionally gave a human face to the problems. He hammered Cuomo’s file on nursing dwelling deaths through the coronavirus pandemic in dramatic vogue — inviting Peter Arbeeny, whose father died from COVID-19 after a rehab stint at an area nursing dwelling, as a visitor.
It got here after Cuomo earlier Thursday made a surprising admission, lastly admitting that he noticed a controversial report on nursing dwelling COVID deaths whereas he was governor — and likewise could have doctored the doc.
Cuomo tried to dodge by dinging Lander for initially being from St. Louis, earlier than apologizing to Arbeeny — albeit with out providing a mea culpa for anything.
“Possibly the place you come from in St. Louis details don’t matter, however right here they do,” Cuomo stated.
“Mr. Arbeeny misplaced a father,”he added. “I’m very, very sorry for that.”
In one other fiery second, Lander contended that Cuomo “screwed” lots of of immigrants who had been contracted through the COVID pandemic to wash the subways.
Cuomo denied figuring out what Lander was speaking about — and made an eye-raising slip up.
“I don’t know what Mr. Lander is speaking about,” he stated earlier than referencing the MTA hiring “unlawful immigrants.”
“What did you name them?” Lander requested, prompting Cuomo to pivot to the time period “undocumented.”
The moderators at one level requested the candidates to ask one another questions, which Cuomo used as a chance to outsource an assault on Mamdani’s arguably pie-in-the-sky marketing campaign guarantees through longshot mayoral hopeful and Wall Road investor Whitney Tilson.
“You’re a monetary professional: Is it possible and financially attainable that he’s telling the reality?”
Tilson argued Mamdani’s plan would lead to crushingly excessive taxes that may trigger an exodus of jobs from New York Metropolis.
The tag group pointed to a brand new alliance within the race with Tilson later saying he’d rank Cuomo second on his poll.
One other union additionally emerged when former metropolis comptroller Scott Stringer and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie each heaped a great deal of reward on Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and teed her as much as make her pitch to voters when the candidates got the prospect to grill a rival.
After the controversy, Myrie admitted a cross-endorsement was within the works.
However each Lander and Mamdani appeared on their very own political islands because the factions began to type with simply 12 days left for the highest horses within the race to make a run on the long-standing frontrunner.
Mamdani did obtain a veiled dig from Stringer when the previous comptroller answered a query about Israel’s battle in opposition to Hamas.
“BDS is antisemitic,” Stringer stated — moments after Mamdani had once more doubled down on his assist of the boycott, divestment and sanctions motion in opposition to Israel.
Mamdani stated his assist of BDS was rooted in his perception in “nonviolence.”
The wounded Cuomo took practically the entire debate to swing again at Mamdani for repeatedly hitting the ex-governor on his huge battle chest from his marketing campaign and state PAC full of donations from Trump donors and large enterprise, comparable to Doordash.
“I’m not for lease and I’m not on the market,” Cuomo lastly spat out.
“So, we surprise who’s funding DSA and who’s funding his BDS motion,” he added, barely touchdown the hit.
Cuomo once more stumbled when pressed by the moderators on his political blunder of seemingly not as soon as visiting a mosque anyplace within the state over the previous 14 years whereas in workplace and on the marketing campaign trial.
“Not off the highest of my head. I can’t let you know the place I went, however I’ll test the file,” Cuomo was in a position to finally muster.
— Extra reporting by Hannah Fierick and Matt Troutman
