{"id":328741,"date":"2025-10-24T09:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328741\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:10:16","slug":"cuomo-lets-racism-against-mamdani-slide-nyc-deserves-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/328741\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuomo lets racism against Mamdani slide. NYC deserves better"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is abhorrent behavior from a former elected official. It is embarrassing and deeply telling about how far Andrew Cuomo is willing to go to win over conservative voters.<\/p>\n

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Candidates for New York mayor face off in final debate<\/p>\n

Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, and Curtis Sliwa clashed over Trump, housing, crime, and sexual harassment claims.<\/p>\n

Disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo just displayed several instances of Islamophobia toward Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani following the final New York City mayoral debate \u2013 making it clearer than ever that the city deserves better.<\/p>\n

During the debate, Cuomo\u2019s campaign posted an artificial intelligence video<\/a> depicting Mamdani eating rice with his hands, a Black man in a keffiyeh shoplifting, another Black man trafficking white women, and other \u201ccriminals\u201d voicing their support for the state legislator.<\/p>\n

Then, on Oct. 23, Cuomo stopped by \u201cSid & Friends In The Morning<\/a>,\u201d a conservative radio show hosted by Sid Rosenberg. Early in the interview, Rosenberg said he only speaks with Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, before adding, \u201cI don\u2019t talk to the terrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani would be the first Muslim mayor<\/a> in New York City history\u00a0if polls hold<\/a>\u00a0until the Nov. 4 general election. It\u2019s a bad sign that Cuomo fails to challenge this clearly racist remark, but it gets worse. When Cuomo tried highlighting Mamdani\u2019s inexperience, it quickly veered into horrific territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod forbid, another 9\/11,\u201d Cuomo said<\/a>. \u201cCan you imagine Mamdani in the seat?\u201d<\/p>\n

“I could,” Rosenberg replied. \u201cHe’d be cheering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of immediately calling out the host\u2019s Islamophobic remark, Cuomo chuckled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s another problem,\u201d the former governor said.<\/p>\n

This is abhorrent behavior from a former elected official and onetime leader within the Democratic Party. It is embarrassing and deeply telling about how far Cuomo is willing to go to win over conservative voters. Most of all, the fact that he has failed to call out racism against his opponent is indicative of his character \u2013 and a sign that he has no place in New York City politics.<\/p>\n

Opinion: <\/strong>Zohran Mamdani’s bold ideas won’t fix all of New York, but they’re why he’ll win<\/a><\/p>\n

Buckle up for more Islamophobia against Mamdani<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t even the first time Cuomo and his supporters have veered into Islamophobic territory. In a proposed mailer from a super PAC supporting the independent candidate, Mamdani was depicted with a thicker, darker beard<\/a>. While the image was never sent out, it doesn\u2019t change the fact that it existed in the first place.<\/p>\n

This is a clear sign that Cuomo has tried so hard to appeal to conservatives that he has lost the plot entirely. Right-wing politicians across the country have been blatantly Islamophobic<\/a> to Mamdani since he received the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, implied that his rise meant that people had \u201cforgotten\u201d<\/a> the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Some have even called for Mamdani\u2019s deportation<\/a>. For Cuomo to stoop to their level is classless.<\/p>\n

A Cuomo spokesperson has said<\/a> that the comment on Rosenberg\u2019s radio show was a reference to political commentator Hasan Piker, whom Mamdani has distanced himself from<\/a> in recent weeks. This makes no sense to me, as Piker\u2019s name had not been mentioned in the interview to that point. The reality seems to be that Cuomo failed to call out a racist remark, and instead of owning up to it, is trying to find a way to blame Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Opinion: <\/strong>Trump is using the DOJ to go after enemies, and we’re barely talking about it<\/a><\/p>\n

Cuomo could make his case while calling out racism. We might even respect him for it.<\/p>\n

I would have more respect for Cuomo if he were willing to call out racism and Islamophobia against his opponent. At the very least, he shouldn\u2019t be adding to bigoted depictions of Mamdani and other New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

After all, nearly 1 million Muslims<\/a> live in New York City, and I doubt they are endeared by these remarks.<\/p>\n

Opinion alerts:<\/b> Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don’t have the app? Download it for free from your app store<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were already myriad reasons not to vote for Cuomo, given the allegations of sexual harassment<\/a> against him and his blunders during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>.<\/strong> Even if he had a good appearance at the final debate, he immediately ruined what little goodwill he might have earned by coming out and condoning racist comments.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t take much to stand up to Islamophobia. Had Cuomo done this, instead of disparaging Mamdani, he would have at least come off as someone with integrity. Instead, he seems content proving he has none.<\/p>\n

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Peque\u00f1o on X, formerly Twitter:\u00a0@sara__pequeno<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is abhorrent behavior from a former elected official. It is embarrassing and deeply telling about how far…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":328742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,931,10887,5297,9642,10898,3953,11330,8541,11332,3189,5706,10889,9124,16956,27387,90,454,18769,11327,425,10894,163467,5708,51826,118949,451,635,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,1269,11336,8614,5622,450,457,10669,11326,11333,80,27384,5378,5381,3190,290,10900,5379,646,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11331,11337,636,5709,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-328741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-andrew","11":"tag-andrew-cuomo","12":"tag-campaigns","13":"tag-campaigns-u0026-elections","14":"tag-center","15":"tag-collection","16":"tag-columnists","17":"tag-columnists-opinions","18":"tag-content","19":"tag-cuomo","20":"tag-democratic","21":"tag-democratic-party","22":"tag-discrimination","23":"tag-discrimination-u0026-identity-relations","24":"tag-elections","25":"tag-government","26":"tag-identity","27":"tag-left","28":"tag-local","29":"tag-local-elections","30":"tag-mace","31":"tag-mamdani","32":"tag-nancy","33":"tag-nancy-mace","34":"tag-negative","35":"tag-new","36":"tag-new-york","37":"tag-new-york-city","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-newyork","40":"tag-newyorkcity","41":"tag-ny","42":"tag-nyc","43":"tag-opinion","44":"tag-opinion-collection","45":"tag-opinion-content","46":"tag-opinions","47":"tag-overall","48":"tag-overall-negative","49":"tag-party","50":"tag-politically","51":"tag-politically-center-left","52":"tag-politics","53":"tag-relations","54":"tag-sensitive","55":"tag-sensitive-subjects","56":"tag-sharing","57":"tag-state","58":"tag-state-and-local-elections","59":"tag-subjects","60":"tag-u0026","61":"tag-united-states","62":"tag-united-states-of-america","63":"tag-unitedstates","64":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","65":"tag-us","66":"tag-usa","67":"tag-usat","68":"tag-usat-content-sharing-opinion","69":"tag-york","70":"tag-zohran","71":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328741","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=328741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}