Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (left) and Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani (proper). Mamdani took purpose at Cuomo’s responses to the Trump administration’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil throughout a press convention exterior Metropolis Corridor. Friday, March 14, 2025.
Photographs by Lloyd Mitchell and Ethan Stark-Miller
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Friday criticized rival Andrew Cuomo’s response to the Trump administration’s detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and inexperienced card holder, calling it weak.
Mamdani, a Muslim Meeting member representing a part of western Queens, has raised considerations this week about Khalil, who was arrested final Saturday with out cost and positioned in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for deportation
The White Home says it detained Khalil and is shifting to revoke his everlasting residency standing, alleging that he promoted antisemitic rhetoric and supported the militant group Hamas throughout pro-Palestine protests at Columbia College final 12 months.
The Trump administration’s actions have drawn widespread condemnation from native and nationwide Democratic pols alike — who cost it’s unlawful and a violation of Khalil’s Freedom of Speech rights. Many additionally accuse Trump of utilizing Khalil’s arrest as a pretext to suppress speech the administration opposes.
Nevertheless, Mamdani took purpose at Cuomo, arguing his preliminary assertion on Khalil’s detainment Tuesday was weak. Within the assertion, Cuomo stated there are “real questions” in regards to the arrest, however didn’t explicitly condemn it or name for Khalil’s launch.
Mamdani additionally criticized a press release from Cuomo on Wednesday, accusing the previous governor of backtracking on his earlier remarks whereas nonetheless claiming that “antisemitic agitators” on faculty campuses have gone “unchecked for too long.”
Mamdani stated Cuomo’s statements didn’t make it clear the place he stands on Khalil’s detainment and exhibits that he wouldn’t stand as much as Trump as mayor.
“It took him more than three days to say a word about the unlawful detention of a New Yorker, and then he issued the kind of statement that left all of us wondering whether or not he actually opposed this detention, only after to walk it back within 24 hours,” Mamdani stated of Cuomo’s statements on Khalil. “That is what Andrew Cuomo has to offer in this moment, a moment when we need leadership that is willing to fight and stand up to Donald Trump.”
In response, Cuomo spokesperson Wealthy Azzopardi insisted the previous governor’s “statement was clear.” He additionally painted Mamdani, who’s a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and fiercely essential of Israel, as having radical views.
“As is his opponent’s fringe extreme left anti-Israel pro-DSA platform that is out of step with a vast majority of New Yorkers,” he stated of Mamdani.
Azzopardi additionally refuted Mamdani’s competition that Cuomo’s second assertion, made in a social media submit, walked again his first.
The Meeting member additionally blasted Mayor Eric Adams’ response to Khalil’s detainment, through which he stated immigration enforcement is the federal authorities’s duty and never his personal.
Political observers say Cuomo’s feedback on Khalil’s arrest seem aimed toward not alienating the town’s non secular Jewish voting blocks, whose assist is vital to his path to Metropolis Corridor. The previous governor has additionally lengthy been a steadfast Israel supporter.
Moreover, Cuomo has additionally confronted assaults from his critics over his posture towards Trump. In an interview with sportscaster Stephen A. Smith earlier this month, Cuomo expressed an openness to working with the president.
“I dealt with him as governor, he knows our situation, he knows the situation in New York City,” Cuomo stated. “It is his hometown. I think that he wants New York City to appreciate him. I think he thinks there’s an opportunity for him to do good things in New York City. And really we have to see what he does, what posture President Trump takes.”
