Cuomo and attacks against ex-gov takes center stage in rowdy NYC Democratic mayoral debate
Ex-Gov.Andrew Cuomo was at the center of a pile-on during a rowdy mayoral debate Wednesday night — as flailing Democratic candidates seized their first chance to attack the primary’s frontrunner in a public forum.Cuomo literally stood mid-stage between the other eight candidates, who repeatedly pelted the thrice-elected Democrat — with COVID nursing home deaths and his checkered record leading the Empire State hijacking much of the NBC-Politico debate.“The people who don’t feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,” shot the Rev.
Michael Blake, a former Obama administration official, who scathingly evoked the sexual harassment accusations that led to the former governor’s resignation.“That’s the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.”An often-heated Cuomo responded to the attacks, as well as pointed questions by debate moderators, with barbs of his own and conspicuous dodges for the chaotic more than two hours.He directed fire of his own at the candidates closest to him in the polls: Democratic socialist Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and City Comptroller Brad Lander.Cuomo, 67, cast Mamdani’s plan to offer $10 billion of freebies for hardworking New Yorkers as not rooted in “reality.” He also argued that Mamdani, a 33-year-old who was elected to the state Legislature in 2021, lacked the experience to stand up to a hostile President Trump, if elected mayor.“Donald Trump would go through Mr.Mamdani like a hot knife through butter,” Cuomo said.
“He has been in government for 27 minutes”Mamdani, who is rising to within single digits of Cuomo in the polls, hammered the longtime politician as not being on the side of working-class New Yorkers.The Democratic Socialists of America lawmaker skewered Cuomo’s super PAC, Fix The City, for cashing in on a $1 million donation from the popular app DoorDash — for which the former governor’s top-ranking aide Melissa DeRosa’s father works as a l...