New York Metropolis mayoral race front-runner Andrew Cuomo was pressured to fend off a volley of assaults from his Democratic major rivals in a debate Wednesday, along with his opponents unleashing pent up barbs on the former governor in an try and chip away at his lead.
Cuomo was on the defensive from the opening bell.
From a crowded stage, Cuomo’s opponents swiped at him over the sexual harassment scandal that pressured him from the governor’s mansion, his coronavirus response and the federal investigation into whether or not he lied to Congress about his dealing with of the pandemic in nursing houses.
At one level, Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist state lawmaker who has emerged as one of many main candidates within the race, pressed Cuomo on the overlap between the previous governor’s political donors and people who donated to Republican President Donald Trump.
“The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C.,” Mamdani stated, calling himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.”
Weathering the onslaught, Cuomo began flicking out his personal jabs.
“Mr. Mamdani is very good on Twitter, with videos, but he actually produces nothing,” Cuomo stated. “Donald Trump would undergo Mr. Mamdani like a sizzling knife via butter. He is been in authorities 27 minutes, he is handed three payments. That is all he is achieved.”
The pile-on got here after Cuomo, who has led each ballot since coming into the race, has largely averted his opponents in public, giving them nearly no alternatives to satisfy him face-to-face.
That every one modified Wednesday evening.
The previous governor and present state meeting member had been requested questions on resisting the Trump administration if elected mayor of New York Metropolis.
The previous governor’s opponents had him of their sights all through the talk, working in criticisms of Cuomo of their responses to questions or interjecting at factors to get in one other fast dig on the former governor of New York. The cross discuss was heavy on a stage that hosted 9 whole candidates.
Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who pulled out of the first to as an alternative run for a second time period on an impartial poll line, didn’t take part within the debate.
Cuomo had been thought-about one of many Democratic Get together’s rising stars earlier than his dramatic downfall in 2021 following a sexual harassment scandal.
The previous governor has stated he didn’t deliberately mistreat the ladies and had fallen out of step with what was thought-about acceptable office conduct, although his attorneys and consultants have labored to discredit his accusers. Cuomo repeated an identical chorus on Wednesday in the course of the debate.
Throughout his comeback run for mayor, Cuomo has confronted renewed questions on his selections in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and is below investigation by the Justice Division over whether or not he lied to Congress about how he dealt with the virus because it unfold via nursing houses.
In the course of the debate, moderators tried to pin Cuomo down on the truthfulness of his congressional testimony a few state report on nursing dwelling deaths in the course of the pandemic, however he sidestepped the query.
“I was very aware of the report,” he stated, drawing amusing from one of many different candidates.
The previous governor confronted questions in regards to the report on undercounting nursing dwelling deaths in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 in New York.
