Takeaways from the first general election debate in the NYC mayoral race

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, Gloria Pazmino, CNN

New York (CNN) — Zohran Mamdani was pushed to provide specifics about his plans if he’s elected mayor of New York City in the campaign’s first fall debate, hammered by his two older rivals who painted him as unprepared and accused him of selling the city’s residents a fantasy.

Much of the two hours on stage centered on Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist and clear front-runner in the polls. But there were so many back-and-forths that Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, started an answer just 15 minutes into the event by saying: “First of all, there’s high levels of testosterone in this room.”

Mamdani didn’t answer exactly how he would afford his signature policies of freezing increases on rent-controlled apartments and making buses free, or how to square past comments on the police that he says don’t represent his current views. And he notably declined to back the reelection bid of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, one of the few major Democrats in the state to endorse him.

Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary, said Mamdani’s “whole plan is based on a myth” of believing that Albany would pass new taxes to enable his plans. Sliwa called his ideas “fantasies.” But Cuomo had his own struggles to explain what new ideas he would bring to City Hall or the questions about sexual harassment and his handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes that followed him when he resigned as governor.

“What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity,” Mamdani told Cuomo early on. “What you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”

Here are CNN’s main takeaways from the debate.

Cuomo says if Mamdani wins, NYC’s leader would be ‘Mayor Donald Trump’

Mamdani and Cuomo traded familiar barbs about the Queens native in the White House. But Cuomo debuted a new line to reflect his belief that President Donald Trump would overpower Mamdani and undermine his authority.

“If the assemblyman is elected, Mayor Donald Trump will take over in New York City, and it will be Mayor Trump,” Cuomo said.

Mamdani responded by accusing Cuomo of being a “coward.” He noted Cuomo failed to mention Trump in a statement he issued condemning the Department of Justice’s indictment of State Attorney General Letitia James.

Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa were all asked the last time they spoke with Trump.

Cuomo said he spoke with the president after an assassination attempt last year and again denied a New York Times report that the two had recently spoken about the mayoral race. Sliwa said he hadn’t spoken with Trump in years, saying he had last spoken with Trump years ago about the Veterans Day parade.

When asked if he had ever spoken with Trump, Mamdani answered with a curt “no.” (He did turn to a Fox News camera Wednesday to deliver a message directly to Trump.)

Mamdani was asked what he would say to Trump in a hypothetical first call if elected mayor. He said he would be willing to speak and work with the president as long as it was focused on issues of affordability.

“I would make it clear to the president that I am willing to not only speak to him, but to work with him if it means delivering on lowering the cost of living for New York,” Mamdani said. “That’s something that he ran his presidential campaign on, and yet, all he’s been able to deliver thus far.”

Israel and Gaza

Since becoming a Democratic sensation and as the party’s politics have broadly shifted against the Israeli government during the war in Gaza, Mamdani has proactively repeated the opposition to Israel he expressed consistently from college through his time as an assemblyman.

On the debate stage, Mamdani spoke of the conversations he has had with Jewish New Yorkers since becoming the Democratic nominee that have opened his eyes to the existence of antisemitism in ways he said he hadn’t fully realized existed and how the phrase “globalize the intifada” could be hurtful. He wouldn’t say whether he believes Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, saying only that he does not support any country that exists with racial or religious hierarchies.

Mamdani also backtracked on an answer he gave just Wednesday on Fox News. Pressed then about whether he would call for Hamas to lay down their weapons, as is called for in the ceasefire agreement, Mamdani said he didn’t have an opinion on the matter beyond following international law. On the debate stage, he did have an opinion: “Of course I believe that they should lay down their arms.”

Mamdani didn’t respond when Cuomo tried to make a moment of calling on him to denounce Hamas explicitly. He said while he hopes the ceasefire will hold, he will not stop denouncing “the siege, the occupation, and apartheid.”

Cuomo leapt on that answer, arguing that “the occupation” is a reference to Israel existing at all on the land and saying it’s equivalent to the Hamas-promoted slogan that a future Palestinian state should be “from the river to the sea.” Mamdani rejected that interpretation.

Mamdani in turn accused Cuomo of fanning anti-Muslim sentiment, arguing that Cuomo never visited a mosque until after losing the primary to him.

“What Muslims want in this city is what every community wants and deserves,” he said. “They want equality and they want respect.”

The forgotten Republican tries to make a mark

The Republican nominee came out swinging.

Free of his signature red beret, Sliwa leaned into the center-stage spot given to him to go after both of his opponents. He sought to separate himself from the political establishment, at one point countering a question about his lack of political experience by saying, “Thank God I am not a politician.”

Sliwa, best known as the founder of the crime watch group Guardian Angels, focused many of his attacks on Cuomo, questioning his toughness and at one point invoking his father with a particularly sharp zinger.

Sliwa alleged that the state parole board when Cuomo was governor released people accused of killing police officers.

“Your father, when he was governor, released none. I knew Mario Cuomo; you’re no Mario Cuomo,” Sliwa said.

Sliwa is hoping to appeal not just to Republicans but also moderate Democrats unwilling to support Cuomo or Mamdani.

He has repeatedly refused to leave the race as incumbent Mayor Eric Adams did, even as Cuomo allies argue Sliwa staying in the race helps Mamdani. Trump has refused to endorse Sliwa.

Sliwa called Mamdani’s ideas “fantasies.” Mamdani generally ignored Sliwa, other than repeatedly correcting the Republican’s mispronunciations of his first name.

Mamdani did snap at Sliwa when the Republican told him that “Jews don’t trust that you are going to be there for them when they’re subject to antisemitic attacks.”

“I will be a mayor who finally addresses that, not just the theatrics on this stage,” Mamdani retorted.

Mamdani again apologizes for ripping the police as racist

Since winning June’s Democratic primary, Mamdani has distanced himself from tweets referring to police officers as “racist” and “wicked,” though he has a long history of being critical of law enforcement. He’s also met with police officers and won a notable endorsement from a former high-ranking New York Police Department official.

He reiterated his apology Thursday to New York Police Department officers but also mentioned the names of Black men who have died in police encounters, including the five young men of color who were wrongfully accused and convicted in the Central Park jogger case in 1989.

Cuomo has tried to draw a contrast between him and Mamdani by proposing to increase the police officer headcount, casting himself as a tough on crime candidate and suggesting Mamdani would be soft.

Mamdani has proposed creating a Department of Community Safety which would in part dispatch social workers to calls involving people in mental health crises instead of solely relying on police officers.

“He wants to use social workers on domestic violence calls, which are very dangerous, and he’s told you what he thinks,” Cuomo said.

A brewing fight over taxes on millionaires – and a notable non-endorsement

There was a wide range of subjects discussed Thursday that will confront the city’s next mayor, everything from noise complaints to the city’s public school system, the largest in the nation.

Mamdani said he would be in favor of changing mayoral control over the school system, a surprising position considering it could limit his authority. Mayoral control allows the mayor near-complete authority over the city’s public school system, centralizing the power with the executive which is in turn seen as being directly accountable for the how the system performs.

Mamdani said he would not give up control in full, saying he wants a participatory system that gives parents and educators increased influence.

He also doubled down on his plan to raise taxes the city’s wealthiest residents despite Hochul’s opposition, saying he believed the same energy that buoyed his underdog campaign would create support for his push to increase taxes.

“A lot of people called even my campaign a nonstarter when we first began,” Mamdani said. “Now I stand before you proud to be the Democratic nominee who got the most votes in city primary history, and I believe we will see the same thing with our push to ensure that we are taxing the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations the fair amount that they should pay.”

As mayor, Mamdani would not have the power to raise taxes on his own. He would need the approval of the state legislature and for the governor to sign off on the increase – a politically difficult proposition for any executive, particularly in an election year, which Hochul will be facing next year.

Notably, Mamdani declined to endorse Hochul for reelection, saying he was focused on winning the mayoral race, even as Hochul became one of the first major New York Democrats to endorse him for mayor.

“I’m focusing on November, and I appreciate her support, and I appreciate her work,” Mamdani said when pressed by a moderator.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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