Andrew Cuomo faces a pile-on and other takeaways from New York City mayoral debate

By Arit John, Eric Bradner, Edward-Isaac Dovere and David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — Andrew Cuomo faced a two-hour pile-on Wednesday as eight other Democrats vying for the party’s nomination for New York City mayor spent their first debate attempting to knock the former governor off his perch.

Cuomo faced attacks over his management of the coronavirus pandemic and the sexual harassment allegations that drove him out of the governor’s office. In particular, he sparred with his biggest progressive rival, state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.

All of them sought to demonstrate that they’d be best able to stand up to President Donald Trump, a native New Yorker who has frequently targeted his hometown. The Trump administration earlier in the day escalated its fight with Columbia University, on the city’s Upper West Side, declaring the school doesn’t meet accreditation standards due to its failure to protect Jewish students.

Many used the current mayor, Eric Adams, as a foil after Trump’s Justice Department dropped its corruption investigation against him. Adams dropped out of the Democratic primary and is seeking re-election as an independent.

Ultimately, in the first of two debates before the June 24 primary, there was no obvious breakout moment to change the dynamics of the race, with Cuomo as the front-runner and Mamdani seen as a leading progressive challenger.

The underdogs often talked over each other — and the moderators — as they vied for attention. They wouldn’t answer when asked who they plan to rank second on their primary ballots, even though second-place votes could be crucial as low performers are winnowed out by New York’s ranked-choice system.

Here’s a look at what happened.

Progressives gang up against Cuomo

Cuomo’s more progressive rivals piled on early and often.

Mamdani repeatedly cast Cuomo as beholden to his campaign’s donors, accusing Cuomo of caring more about “billionaires and wealthy corporations” than working-class New Yorkers.

City Comptroller Brad Lander said he would rid New York City of corruption, taking seemingly a shot at both Cuomo and Adams.

Cuomo positioned himself as the moderate on a stage of far-left candidates — the same thing Adams is trying to do against Cuomo. The mayor is casting the former governor as to blame for progressive cannabis and bail reform laws that Adams says have made it tougher to combat crime.

At times, Cuomo sought to redirect blame for New York City’s problems to his opponents, many of whom have held offices in city government. And he insisted his campaign finances won’t affect his actions in office.

Even when Cuomo was talking tough about taking on Trump — “If you give into him today, you will be giving him your lunch money for the rest of your life,” he said — his rivals jumped in.

Cuomo said that “the way you fight him is not by suing him. Yes, of course you sue him, but he gets sued ten times before he gets out of bed in the morning.”

Lander jumped in and said: “Kind of like you.”

“And the lawsuits, we’re winning, by the way,” said Adrienne Adams, the city council speaker.

Cuomo vs. Mamdani

Mamdani tore into Cuomo repeatedly. Cuomo returned the favor often.

The former governor said Mamdani is “very good on Twitter and with videos,” a nod to his virality on social media, but said he “produces nothing.” Cuomo, whose lead in the race has been powered by Black voters, brought up old Twitter posts Mamdani made in 2013 in which he said former President Barack Obama had shown that “that the lesser evil is still pretty damn evil.”

And he said Mamdani, whose name he occasionally mispronounced, was too inexperienced and would be no match for the current president.

“Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani like a hot knife through butter,” Cuomo said. “He’s been in government 27 minutes, he’s passed 3 bills, that’s all he’s done, he has no experience with Washington, no experience with New York City – he would be Trump’s delight.”

Mamdani responded that he doesn’t have experience with “corrupt Trump billionaires” – a dig at Cuomo’s donors – and pointed to his work winning debt relief for taxi drivers.

During a discussion about holding food delivery services accountable for the way delivery drivers use e-bikes, Mamdani pointed to a $1 million donation made to a super PAC backing Cuomo.

“I find it ridiculous to hear Andrew Cuomo talk about how we need to regulate the apps,” Mamdani said. “How are you going to regulate DoorDash when they are giving you a million dollars to influence your street safety regulations and your labor regulations?”

Cuomo reiterated that he thinks the apps should be held responsible.

“I work for the people of the state of New York, the people of the city of New York,” he said. “I don’t care who gave me what, I do what is right.”

Cuomo takes heat on sexual harassment allegations

Cuomo faced pointed questions about the sexual harassment allegations that forced him out of the governor’s office in 2021.

Former state assemblyman Michael Blake, a little more than half an hour into the debate, was the first to raise them.

“The people who don’t feel safe are the young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,” Blake said. “That’s the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.”

Cuomo ignored Blake’s attack, instead criticizing rivals for backing calls to “defund the police.” Blake immediately highlighted Cuomo’s non-answer.

Later, moderators asked Cuomo, during a portion of the debate focused on the candidates’ biggest regrets, what he would say to voters who wonder if the same situation would happen again.

“I said at the time that if I offended anyone, it was unintentional, but I apologize, and I say that today,” he said.

The field backs away from “defund the police”

Six years after New York Democrats passed bail reform and five years after “Defund the Police” became a rallying cry among progressives in the city and nationwide, the rare thing that most candidates could agree on was distancing themselves from both.

That included Cuomo, who as governor signed the bail reform law, which stopped prisoners from being held on bail for most misdemeanors and non-violent offenses, including drug charges, and state senators Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos as well as Blake, who all voted for the bill.

That criminal justice reform change was a huge priority for progressives at the time but has been blamed for spiking crime rates in the city and raising recidivist rates. It has already been amended several times.

“We had to do that, but we need to make it different and stronger now,” Blake said. “That means we have to hold repeat offenders more accountable, be much more attentive to that degree.”

Most candidates spoke about the need for more police on the beat.

“We need to put cops on the beat, working with the small businesses to root out the people who are constantly coming back to do this. But we also have to make sure that the people who are doing the stealing also have opportunities to get them the housing and the services that they need,” former comptroller Scott Stringer said.

“I have never called for defunding the police and I never will,” Adams said.

The exception was Mamdani, who has opposed any of the rollbacks to the bail reform laws and supported the Defund calls.

Mamdani called for sustaining the head count at the Police Department, but said, “I want to listen to police officers who are leaving in droves from the department because they’re being asked to do the work of mental health professionals and social workers.”

Alignment on immigration

The candidates also aligned on immigration and opposing Trump’s plans to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The candidates were asked how they would respond to a hypothetical situation in which ICE notified city-run hospitals that they would be cut off from federal funding unless they stop offering care to undocumented migrants.

“You cannot give in to Mr. Trump and his demands,” Cuomo said. “You cannot.” He said he would not just sue the administration but work to build a national coalition against it.

Investor Whitney Tilson said he was “appalled by what Trump is doing to terrorize immigrant communities” and he would “fight him tooth and nail” on the issue.

Lander said he was “proud” to co-sponsor the city’s sanctuary laws. “Forty percent of the 8 million New Yorkers are foreign born, 50% live in mixed-status households, including 1 million children,” Lander said. “This is the future of New York City that we’re talking about.”

Ramos said that she wants to make sure that immigrants in the city can work.

“It will be my responsibility as mayor of the city of New York to create entry points into the economy, so that they can stay busy, provide for themselves and for their families, and honor the fabric of this city and of this country which cannot function, whose future won’t be brighter, without our immigrants,” she said.

Several candidates mentioned their own ties to immigration. Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and is a naturalized US citizen, noted he would be the first immigrant mayor of the city and referenced a recent attack from a Republican city councilwoman who called for him to be deported. Blake said that he is the son of Jamaican immigrants and Myrie said his parents, who were in the U.S. illegally at the time, relied on city hospitals when he had an asthma attack as a child.

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