From Trump tirade to Gaza war: 5 takeaways of the NYC mayoral debate

The New York City mayoral debate witnessed yet another clash between former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Democratic Party’s face for the race, Zohran Mamdani. Much of the two-hour debate was centred around Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist and clear front-runner in the polls.

Given the intense back-and-forth between the three candidates, Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, started an answer just 15 minutes into the event by saying, “First of all, there are high levels of testosterone in this room.” It is pertinent to note that Cuomo has been running as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.

Here are the key takeaways from the debate

1. The Trump question

Throughout the debate, Mamdani and Cuomo traded familiar barbs about the Queens native in the White House. However, Cuomo went on to say that the US President Donald Trump would end up dominating Mamdani and undermining his authority if he became the NYC mayor.

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

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Interestingly, Mamdani, Cuomo and Silwa all asked the last time they spoke to Trump. Cuomo said he spoke with the American 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. Meanwhile, Sliwa said he hadn’t spoken with Trump in years, saying he had last spoken with Trump years ago about the Veterans Day parade.

Mamdani, on the other hand, said that he had never spoken to Trump. When 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.

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“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.”

2. The Gaza crisis

The Israel-Hamas war also found a place in the NYC mayoral debate. It is pertinent to note that Mamdani has proactively repeated the opposition to Israel he expressed consistently from college through his time as an assemblyman.

During the debate, Mamdani recalled the conversations he 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 realised existed. He went on to acknowledge how the phrase “globalise the intifada” could be hurtful.

However, he did not 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 his remarks at a Fox News interview.

When pressed 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 then directed his attack at Cuomo and accused him 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.”

3. In a Cuomo vs Mamdani show, Silwa attempted to mark his presence

Before the debate, it was expected that the discussion would more or less surround Mamdani and Cuomo. However, the Republican nominee came out swinging. Free of his signature red beret, Sliwa leaned into the centre-stage spot given to him to go after both of his opponents.

Interestingly, he separated himself from the political establishment as he countered 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.

The Republican candidate alleged that when Cuomo was the governor, the state parole board 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. When it comes to Mamdani, Silwa called his Democratic rival’s ideas “fantasies.” Mamdani generally ignored Sliwa, other than repeatedly correcting the Republicans’ mispronunciations of his first name.

4. Tax the rich

While the three Mayoral candidates discussed a wide range of issues, one of the major areas of contention was taxing the rich. Mamdani doubled down on his plan to raise taxes for 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.”

However, it is pertinent to note that 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. The taxes have remained a politically difficult proposition for any executive, particularly in an election year, which Hochul will be facing next year.

Interestingly, 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.

5. Mamdani apologises for referring to the police as ‘racist’

Since winning the June Democratic primaries, 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.

In the Thursday debate, he repeated his apology 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 colour who were wrongfully accused and convicted in the Central Park jogger case in 1989.

Cuomo used the opportunity to draw a contrast between himself and Mamdani by proposing to increase the police officer headcount, calling himself a tough-on-crime candidate. Mamdani, on the other hand, 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 replied.