Top 5 moments from final New York City mayoral debate: ‘Knock him on his tuchas’

Candidates came out swinging at New York City’s final mayoral debate Wednesday night, with all three candidates launching personal attacks and spotlighting each other’s hottest controversies.

With just weeks until the election, socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani is highly favored to win. Despite this, the debate on Wednesday was every man for himself, with each candidate lobbing attacks and insults at one another.

Here are the top five moments from Wednesday night’s debate.

1. ‘Knock him on his tuchas’

Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, who led the state as a Democratic governor from 2011 until he resigned amid controversy in 2021, took aim at Mamdani’s lack of leadership experience, predicting that President Donald Trump would make short work of him if he were elected mayor.

“[Trump] has said he’ll take over New York if he wins, and he will, because he has no respect for him. He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuchas,” said Cuomo.

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Mamdani immediately shot back by calling Cuomo “Donald Trump’s puppet himself.”

“You could turn on the TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for Mayor is Andrew Cuomo, and he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him,” said Mamdani.

2. ‘You fled!’

Though far and away the dark horse candidate in the race, Republican Curtis Sliwa landed some of the hardest punches of the night. Early on in the debate, he fired at Cuomo’s controversial exit from office, saying, “Andrew, you didn’t leave. You fled from being impeached by the Democrats in the state legislature. You fled!”

Cuomo, meanwhile, reserved most of his ire for Mamdani. At another point in the debate, he addressed the 34-year-old socialist New York assembly member, saying, “You don’t know how to run a government, you don’t know how to handle an emergency, and you’ve literally never proposed the bill on anything that you’re not talking about in your campaign.”

“You had the worst attendance record in the assembly, and you gave yourself the highest raise in the United States of America,” he said, exclaiming, “Shame on you! Shame on you!”

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In response, a grinning Mamdani said, “It is always a pleasure to hear Andrew Cuomo create his own facts at every debate stage.”

“We just had a former governor say in his own words that the city has been getting screwed by the state. Who was leading the state? It was you!” said Mamdani. “You were leading the state for ten years, screwing the city!”

Cuomo immediately denied this accusation, blaming the current Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and saying, “That’s the past four years.”

3. The meme moment

Chaos erupted on the debate stage after Mamdani attempted to skirt around a question on whether he supports a set of housing ballot initiatives, with Cuomo, Sliwa and the moderators immediately pressing him to answer.

“What is your opinion, Zohran? Come on!” Sliwa shouted as Cuomo droned, “Yes or no?!”

Cuomo rocked back and forth with his hands, mocking Mamdani, saying, “It’s a TikTok dance,” producing the most meme-worthy moment of the night.

“They’re pointing out what I was about to say. Would you please answer the question?” a moderator asked.

Mamdani continued to deflect, saying, “I think on this stage you can see two people appealing for the Republican Party votes and myself speaking directly to New York City.”

“Answer the question for once,” Cuomo continued prodding as Sliwa waved his arms and smacked his forehead with his palm.

“My question to you was, do you support the three ballot amendment questions?” the moderator pressed.

Mamdani finally answered, “I have not yet taken a position on those ballot initiatives,” as both Cuomo and Sliwa moaned in protest.

“What a shocker!” Cuomo teased. “Don’t worry, once he takes it, he’ll change it anyway.”

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4. Support for global jihad?

Moderators and candidates alike pressed Mamdani on his controversial positions on Israel and rising fears amongst New York’s Jewish community.

Citing two sons who he said were raised Jewish, Sliwa said, “This issue is personal for me.”

“Let me speak on behalf of my two sons when they’ve heard some of the statements you’ve made, like in support of global jihad, and I hear some people out there saying, ‘the Jews that time is due,’ which means the same thing. They’re frightened; they’re scared. They view you as the arsonist who fanned the flames of antisemitism,” said Sliwa.

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, a lot of apologizing to do,” Sliwa went on. “My sons are afraid. Their family, their friends, many in the Jewish community are concerned if you become mayor, because they don’t think when antisemitism rears its ugly head, which it’s now doing more than ever before, that you will have the ability to come in and put out those flames of hate.”

Mamdani shot back, “I think there is room for disagreement on many positions and many policies, but I also want to correct the record: I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad.”

“That is not something that I have said, and that continues to be ascribed to me. And frankly, I think much of it has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election,” Mamdani went on, adding, “All the same, Curtis, I do still want to be the mayor that will keep your sons safe, that will keep every single New Yorker safe.”

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5. A stage full of scandal

Sparks flew when Cuomo and Mamdani were given free rein to question each other and, unsurprisingly, chose to press each other on their most controversial scandals.

Cuomo knocked Mamdani, who is an immigrant to the U.S. from Uganda, for being a “toxic” force in New York City, and pressed him for not advocating for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Uganda for its laws against homosexuality.

“You take a picture with Rebecca Kadaga, deputy prime minister of Uganda … She’s known as Rebecca ‘gay-killer’ Kadaga,” said Cuomo, asking, “How do you not renounce your citizenship, or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning people who are gay just by their sexual orientation, is that not a basic violation against human rights?”

Mamdani answered that “had I known that the first deputy minister was the architect of that legislation, I would not have taken that photo.”

In turn, Mamdani grilled Cuomo on 13 sexual harassment allegations filed against him while he was governor. Cuomo brushed this aside, saying, “The cases were dropped” and pressing further, “You have no problem with BDS against Israel, but no BDS against Uganda.”

At another point in the debate, Mamdani attempted to turn the question of experience on Cuomo, saying, “The issue is that we have all experienced your experience.”

“The issue is that we experienced you taking a $5 million book deal while you sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes. The issue is that we experienced you cutting funding for the MTA to send money to upstate ski resorts. The issue is that we saw you give $959 million in tax breaks to Elon Musk. The issue is your experience,” said Mamdani.

“The issue is you have no experience,” insisted Cuomo, adding, “You’ve accomplished nothing.”