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zohran mamdani
Mamdani Denounces Cuomo 'Cowardice,' Pledges to Defend NYC From Trump in Mayoral Debate
Capitulation to the president, said the Democratic mayoral candidate, is "what we would see from Donald Trump's puppet."
Oct 17, 2025
New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani did not have to reach far back into the past to remind viewers of Thursday night's debate that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has displayed a refusal to stand up to President Donald Trump—which he argued could put the city at risk as the president continues to threaten cities in blue states.
When Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, addressed Trump and said, "I will fight you every step of the way if you try to hurt New York," Mamdani was quick to jump in.
"Unless he weaponizes the justice system to go after the attorney general of the state, in which case you'll issue a statement that doesn't even name the president," said the state Assembly member. "And no matter what you think about Donald Trump, you know that not even being able to name him is an act of cowardice."
Andrew Cuomo acts tough on TV. But when Donald Trump came after our Attorney General, Cuomo couldn't even name him. That's cowardice. pic.twitter.com/kThCkhFBye
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 16, 2025
Mamdani was referring to a statement released last week by Cuomo after Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged bank fraud. James has been a target of the president, especially since she successfully prosecuted him for financial fraud, and he forced a US attorney out of his job over his refusal to file charges against New York's top law enforcement official.
In his initial statement after the indictment, Cuomo did not mention James or Trump by name, saying only that "when the law is weaponized or manipulated to advance political agendas, it erodes public trust and weakens the very foundation of justice."
He named the president and attorney general, who is a close ally of Mamdani, in a subsequent statement, but when asked by a PIX 11 reporter this week whether he would condemn Trump for using the DOJ to target James, he replied, "Condemn him for what?”
"Both sides, Democrats and Republicans believe there’s too much politics in the justice system," added the former governor, who was forced to resign in 2021 after being accused of sexual harassment by multiple women.
The interview led Mamdani to warn that "Andrew Cuomo is incapable of speaking clearly and directly about Trump’s authoritarianism," and the mayoral candidate doubled down on that assertion during the debate, saying that capitulation to the president is "what we would see from Donald Trump's puppet."
The exchange comes as Trump is ramping up federal law enforcement operations in cities including Chicago and Portland, Oregon, which he has claimed are overrun with undocumented immigrants who commit crimes and violent left-wing protesters—allegations that are not supported by statistical data and have been rejected by courts, local residents, and officials.
The president has threatened to deploy the National Guard to multiple Democratic-led cities—which both Mamdani and Cuomo said they oppose during the debate—but Mamdani warned the president will "have to get through me as the next mayor of the city" if he attacks New York City as he's threatened to, should the progressive Democrat win the election.
Trump has also threatened to rip federal funding away from the city if Mamdani wins, and has reportedly spoken to Cuomo about the race in a recent call, weighing the possibility of getting involved in the election to try to sway the vote toward the former governor. Both Cuomo and Trump have denied the call took place.
As the debate aired, Mamdani reminded New Yorkers of previous comments Cuomo has made about Trump's deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Los Angeles, when he said officers were "going to do things that are illegal and unconstitutional, but let's not overreact"—a reference to protests against the deployment.
"This is how Andrew Cuomo thinks we should respond to authoritarianism," said Mamdani, who was filmed earlier this year joining other New Yorkers in confronting Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, on the abduction of former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil.
He also talked about the terror that's unfolded in recent months at the city's immigration court, where federal officers have detained people attending asylum hearings, threw a woman to the ground as she was pleading with agents not to take her husband away from her and her children, and arrested Democratic officials who were helping immigrants and protesting the enforcement actions.
"I agree that we need more legal representation," said Mamdani. "I also think we need to actually be able to stand up to Donald Trump."
What used to be a place of joy or simple routine check-ins has become a horror house of fear and separation under this federal government.
As someone who would be the first immigrant Mayor in generations, I refuse to stand for it. pic.twitter.com/AIDt6WuxGc
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) October 17, 2025
During the debate, Mamdani also hammered home his campaign's central message regarding the need to make the city more affordable for working people—lambasting Cuomo for his focus on the rent-stabilized apartment Mamdani and his wife live in, which the former governor has said the couple should leave to allow low-income New Yorkers to live there.
"You've heard it from Andrew Cuomo that the No. 1 crisis in the city, the housing crisis, the answer is to evict my wife and I," said Mamdani. "He thinks you address this crisis by unleashing my landlord's ability to raise my rent. If you think the problem in this city is that my rent is too low, vote for him. If you know that the problem in this city is that your rent it too high, vote for me."
When Cuomo invoked Mamdani's lack of experience in an executive role and suggested he would be ill-prepared to lead the city through a crisis, Mamdani responded with a barb regarding Cuomo's March 2020 order that nursing homes allow residents to be readmitted after a Covid-19 diagnosis, which was followed by efforts to undercount the death toll in the facilities.
"If we have a health pandemic then why would New Yorkers turn back to the governor who sent seniors to their death in nursing homes?" said Mamdani. "That's the kind of experience that's on offer here today."
"What I don't have in experience I make up for in integrity," he said, turning to his rival, "and what you don't have in integrity you could never make up for in experience."
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Mamdani Delivers a Direct Message to Trump During Contentious Fox News Interview
"I will not be a mayor, like Mayor Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail," Mamdani said.
Oct 15, 2025
Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday went on Fox News on Wednesday to deliver a direct message to President Donald Trump.
During an appearance on "The Story With Martha MacCallum," Mamdani looked directly into the camera and addressed Trump on the off chance he was watching the show.
"I will not be a mayor, like Mayor Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail," he said, just weeks after Mayor Eric Adams ended his reelection campaign. "I won't be a disgraced governor, like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own."
Mamdani then listed issues that he would happy to speak with the Republican president about in future conversations.
"I will, however, be a mayor who's ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living," he said. "That's the way that I will lead the city and the partnership I want to build not only with Washington, DC, but anyone across this country. I think it's important because too often the focus on the needs of working-class Americans are put to the side as we talk more and more about the very kinds of corrupt politicians, like Andrew Cuomo, that delivered us into this kind of crisis."
Mamdani: Trump might be watching right now. I want to speak directly to the president. I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail or be a disgrace governor like Andrew Cuomo who will call you to ask how to win this election. I… pic.twitter.com/cPaaaTC8XD
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 15, 2025
Elsewhere in the interview, Mamdani directly addressed Cuomo, who is running as an independent and is his top rival in the New York City mayoral election.
"Andrew: You had your chance to lead this state," he said. "You took that time to sell out working-class New Yorkers to your billionaire donors. And instead of actually meeting the needs of people who couldn't afford to live in this city, you gave $959 million in tax breaks to Elon Musk."
Mamdani: "Andrew Cuomo is gonna say a lot of things tomorrow night on the debate stage. And frankly, I wish it was more like Nascar so New Yorkers could see the billionaires that were sponsoring him right on his suit jacket. He watches Fox News as well. So I'll just speak to him… pic.twitter.com/8T3k14lbeW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2025
Mamdani is scheduled to square off against Cuomo and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa on Thursday night in the penultimate debate ahead of next month's election. Early voting begins October 25.
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Raucous Mamdani Rally Reveals Political Battle Stretches Beyond New York City
"We are here tonight because we are ready to turn the page on the cynical, broken, politics of the past,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Oct 14, 2025
Standing at a podium that displayed the words, "Our Time Has Come," Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and allies made clear on Monday night that the sign referred not only to working people across the five boroughs, but to people across the US whose interests have been abandoned by the political establishment in favor of corporations and billionaires.
Speakers at the rally included leaders who have emerged as targets of the Trump administration, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, and people who have worked in government at the federal level, in the case of former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, and their comments suggested a focus that goes beyond the city and its upcoming election on November 4.
Khan, who spearheaded the Biden administration's efforts to protect Americans from corporate greed in the form of "junk fees" and megamergers, spoke out against "modern-day robber barons," and made clear that both major political parties are to blame for an economy where corporations and the ultrarich "wield extraordinary power."
"They hold enormous control over our paychecks, our bills, our time, and our futures," said Khan, who has sharply criticized the Trump administration for settling with Amazon in a customer deception case and for letting oil executives "off the hook" in a price-fixing scandal.
"But the good news is that nothing about any of this is inevitable," added Khan.
Mamdani has centered his campaign on making the city more affordable by expanding his fare-free public bus pilot program, providing universal no-cost childcare, and establishing a city-run network of grocery stores to compete with for-profit companies—and has reached out to New Yorkers from all walks of life, spending a day walking the length of Manhattan as well as using social media to engage with voters.
With top Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) refusing to endorse the party's candidate to lead the largest city in the nation, the mayoral race has teed up one of the latest battles between the party's progressive wing and the entrenched establishment—one that will hopefully send a resounding message to the party's leadership, said Khan.
"The days of Democratic leaders choosing to ally with titans of industry over working people are over," she said.
Despite his decisive loss in the Democratic primary in June, disgraced former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is running as an independent and is trailing Mamdani by double digits as he strives to make the state Assembly member's support for Palestinian rights a centerpiece of the campaign.
The tactic, also employed by Cuomo during the primary, has proven unsuccessful so far, with polls showing that support from the city's Jewish voters helped Mamdani win in June by more than 13 points. At the rally on Monday night, the crowd at one point erupted in cheers of, "Free, free Palestine!"
Mamdani turned his attention to Cuomo's enthusiastic participation in the oligarchic political system that's seen the former governor court the wealthy, including billionaire financier Bill Ackman, and tell rich donors in the Hamptons that he expected help from President Donald Trump to win the general election.
In the city and nationwide, Mamdani said, "we are an existential threat to billionaires who think they can buy our democracy."
The mayoral campaign represents “a choice between a mayor for those straining to buy groceries or those straining to buy an election," he said.
The state lawmaker condemned the president's anti-immigrant escalation, which has been on display in recent weeks in cities including Chicago and Portland, Oregon, and his attacks on protesters who hold anti-fascist views as well as left-wing groups that dissent against the president's agenda.
"We are in a period of political darkness,” Mamdani said. “Donald Trump and his [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents are snatching our immigrant neighbors from our city right before our eyes. His authoritarian administration is waging a scorched-earth campaign of retribution against any who dared oppose him.”
"And again and again," he added, "Trump has broken the promise he made to the American people that he would fight for the working class by taking on the cost-of-living crisis."
James joined the rally in her first public appearance since she was indicted by Trump's personal-attorney-turned-federal-prosecutor, US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, last week on allegations of bank fraud. Having successfully prosecuted the president for fraud, James has been a top target of Trump during his second term.
Along with defiantly speaking out against the indictment, which she called the weaponization of "justice for political gain," James said that as mayor, Mamdani would come to the defense of freedoms and institutions that are under attack across the US.
JUST IN: New York Attorney General Letitia James raises her fist in the air after being criminally indicted for bank fraud.
“We are here tonight because we are ready to turn the page on the cynical, broken, politics of the past,” she said at Zohran Mamdani’s rally.
lol. pic.twitter.com/FFSLJupvtl
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 14, 2025
"We are here tonight because we are ready to turn the page on the cynical, broken, politics of the past,” said James. "We are witnessing the fraying of our democracy, the erosion of our system of government... This, my friends, is a defining moment in our history."
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