{"id":325567,"date":"2025-10-23T04:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T04:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/325567\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T04:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T04:17:11","slug":"nyc-mayoral-candidates-clash-in-last-fiery-debate-before-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/325567\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC mayoral candidates clash in last fiery debate before Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City’s mayoral candidates debated again Wednesday<\/a> in their last clash before Election Day.<\/p>\n

Early voting is just days away<\/a>, and New Yorkers had one last chance<\/a> to see Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo face off.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidates don’t hold back<\/p>\n

It was a night for slings and arrows as all three men vying to be the next occupant of Gracie Mansion searched for a knockout punch that would convince voters that they can not only run the city, but deal with President Trump.<\/p>\n

“You’re going to have to confront President Trump,” Cuomo said. “He has said he’ll take over New York if Mamdani wins, and he will because he has no respect for him. He thinks he’s a kid and he’s gonna knock him on his tuchus.”<\/p>\n

“We heard from Donald Trump’s puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said. “He spent more money on a singing water fountain at LaGuardia Airport than he did on the average cost of an affordable housing unit.”<\/p>\n

“Zohran, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin, and Andrew, your failures could fill a public school library,” Sliwa said.<\/p>\n

Sliwa punched hard to prove he deserves to be on the ballot, Mamdani smirked at Cuomo’s attacks and Cuomo made mocking hand gestures when Mamdani refused to take a position on housing issues on the ballot.<\/p>\n

There was also an extended debate on Mamdani’s position on Israel. Sliwa spoke about his two sons, who are being raised Jewish.<\/p>\n

“They’re frightened. They’re scared. They view you as the arsonist who fanned the flames of antisemitism,” he said. “They cannot suddenly accept the fact that you’re coming in like a firefighter and you’re gonna put out these flames.”<\/p>\n

“I think there is room for disagreement on many positions and many policies,” Mamdani said. “All the same, Curtis, I do still want to be the mayor that will keep your sons safe, that will keep every single New Yorker safe.”<\/p>\n

There was one thing the three men agreed on:\u00a0 all would like to continue to employ Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. When asked if she wanted to stay on, a spokesperson for the commissioner referred to her previous statement that it is not appropriate for her to be “directly involved or seem to be involved in electoral politics.”<\/p>\n

Mamdani, Cuomo ask each other questions<\/p>\n

The most intense moments came when Mamdani and Cuomo got to ask each other a question.<\/p>\n

There was an audible gasp inside the auditorium when Mamdani said he brought\u00a0Charlotte Bennett<\/a>, the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, to the debate. He also invited Karen Hinton<\/a>, a former consultant to Cuomo who has accused him of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

“What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?” Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

“There were allegations of sexual harassment. They were then, went to five district attorneys, fully litigated for four years. The cases were dropped<\/a>,” Cuomo said.<\/p>\n

Cuomo slammed Mamdani for posing with the Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda, Rebecca Kadaga, who has supported anti-gay legislation.<\/p>\n

“How do you not renounce your citizenship or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning people who are gay?” Cuomo said.<\/p>\n

BDS is a referencing to economic sanctions against Israel, a program Mamdani has supported.<\/p>\n

“Had I known that the first deputy minister was the architect of that legislation, I would not have taken that photo,” Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani expands on debate answers<\/p>\n

Hinton joined Mamdani in the spin room after the debate.<\/p>\n

“As governor and now as candidate, Andrew lost the trust of these people,” Hinton said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani explained why he would ask Tisch to stay on if elected, despite their ideological differences.<\/p>\n

“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,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani didn’t directly answer a question about if he had asked Tisch if she would stay on, only saying they last spoke after Det. Didarul Islam was killed over the summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also explained his reasoning for ranking Sliwa second in the moderators’ hypothetical question about ranked choice voting.<\/p>\n

“There is only one other candidate on that stage who seems to love this city,” Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

Sliwa says he’ll be Mamdani’s “worst nightmare,” Cuomo skips spin room<\/p>\n

Sliwa, though, fiercely rejected Mamdani’s support even in a hypothetical.<\/p>\n

“If, God forbid, Zohran Mamdani was the choice of the people, and we will leave it up to them, is I will organize resistance because I will improve, I will not move. Zohran Mamdani can bet that I will be his worst nightmare,” Sliwa said.<\/p>\n

As for Cuomo, who attacked Mamdani’s attendance record in the State Assembly during the debate, he played hooky himself from the post-debate debrief, instead racing over to join Mayor Eric Adams at the Knicks game.<\/p>\n

He posted pictures posing with Adams to social media<\/a> 26 minutes after the debate ended. According to Google Maps, it takes about 20 minutes to drive to Madison Square Garden from LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, where the debate was held.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City’s mayoral candidates debated again Wednesday in their last clash before Election Day. Early voting is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":325568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5297,5340,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-325567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-curtis-sliwa","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115421553821714184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}