Zohran Mamdani and Andrew M. Cuomo clash over crime, experience in lively NYC mayoral debate

With early voting beginning next week, New York City mayoral race front-runner Zohran Mamdani and Andrew M. Cuomo clashed Thursday night in their first face-off since Mamdani crushed Cuomo in the Democratic primary...

Also debating: Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee. The three wrangled over how to respond to President Donald Trump’s threats against New York, how to combat crime, how to police protests, who is qualified to be mayor and how to make the city more affordable, as well as Israel, education, housing and how to attract business to the city.

Mamdani said that Cuomo, who resigned as governor in scandal, is a tool of billionaire donors, a politician bereft of ethics and judgment and the wrong man to lead the city.

Experience debated

"What I don't have in experience, I make up for in integrity. And what you don't have in experience, you could never make up for in experience," said Mamdani, a state assemblyman representing Astoria, Queens, who's been on the job for about five years.

Cuomo said that Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is an inexperienced newbie with pie-in-the-sky policy proposals and a dangerous worldview that would imperil New York and lead Trump to tighten his grip on the city.

"This is no job for on-the-job training," Cuomo said, adding: "If the assemblyman is elected mayor, Donald Trump will take over New York City, and it will be Mayor Trump."

In a portion of the debate about education, Mamdani said he was against mayoral control of schools, which Cuomo said he supports keeping.

The debate — in which candidates are required to participate as recipients of public matching funds — was the first of two during the general election season and lasted two hours. The next one is Wednesday. Early voting begins Oct. 25, and Election Day is Nov. 4.

Polls have consistently shown that Mamdani, who turns 34 in the coming days, is likely to beat Cuomo, 67, who was once favored to win until he lost the primary. A poll released by Fox News late Thursday showed Mamdani cracking 50% for the first time.

Sliwa knocked Cuomo’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and cited allegations of sexual harassment, but also criticized Mamdani for his support of looser bail laws and other left-leaning policies. Sliwa said that although he has no government experience, he’d hire the best bureaucrats to run the city.

"Thank God I’m not a professional politician," Sliwa said.

The candidates also argued over how to address police calls involving mentally ill people and who should have final say in disciplining police officers. Mamdani said he would defer to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, whose recommendations to police commissioners under the current and past mayors have sometimes disregarded in favor of lesser punishment. Cuomo would keep the commissioner as the final arbiter. 

Dealing with Trump

The candidates disagreed on how to deal with Trump, who has already yanked billions from key programs in the city and threatened to withhold even more if Mamdani — whom he called earlier this week a "down and dirty" communist — were elected.

Most accommodating to Trump would be Sliwa, who said, "what I would do is sit and negotiate."

Cuomo said he’d worked with, and beaten, Trump in the past, and would do so again as mayor.

Mamdani said he’s willing to work with Trump when it comes to making New York City more affordable — a pillar of Mamdani's campaign and now Cuomo's — but not when it comes to deportations or sending National Guard troops into the city. Mamdani said the city needs "leadership that will stand up to" Trump. All three candidates oppose Trump's use of the National Guard in the city.

None of the candidates would commit to endorsing Gov. Kathy Hochul for reelection — including Mamdani, whom Hochul endorsed last month.

Cuomo faulted the state for concentrating in New York City the tens of thousands of foreign migrants who came during the most recent wave.

“The state should have put them all across the state: Nassau, Suffolk, upstate.”

Referring to how some of the migrants were bused to New York by Red State leaders, Cuomo said: “You could have brought some to Nassau.”

Moderators also asked the candidates about their positions on Israel, Gaza and the plan that Trump announced earlier this week that could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

In one of several lighter, rapid-fire moments of the debate, the candidates were asked how much they spend on groceries each week.

Cuomo said $150 per a week, depending on whether his daughters were coming over. Sliwa said $175, and Mamdani said between $125 and $150.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.