The second and closing mayoral debate on Thursday featured clashes between frontrunners Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani as Brad Lander, who’s polling in third place, sought to boost his profile after a New York Occasions opinion panel backed the town comptroller.
Cuomo and Mamdani traded assaults on age, expertise and donor bases, with exchanges typically delving into the non-public. Lander took jabs at Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations and dealing with of the pandemic as governor.
The controversy, hosted by NY1, WNYC Radio and The Metropolis, was the final showdown among the many candidates earlier than early voting begins Saturday. Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, former Comptroller Scott Stringer and ex-hedge fund proprietor Whitney Tilson additionally appeared on the talk stage.
Listed here are 5 key takeaways from the night:
Inexperience v baggage
Cuomo, 67, attacked Mamdani as inexperienced and unprepared for the challenges of Metropolis Corridor, a theme Cuomo’s marketing campaign has been hitting exhausting within the closing stretch of the marketing campaign.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks in the course of the New York Metropolis Democratic Mayoral Major Debate on the John Jay School of Felony Justice within the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on June 12, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by VINCENT ALBAN/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
“To put a person in this seat at this time with no experience is reckless and dangerous,” Cuomo stated.
Mamdani, he added, has “accomplished nothing.”
Mamdani, 33, countered by saying he would rent the “best and the brightest” in his mayoral administration and pointed to his administration of over 36,000 marketing campaign volunteers. He stated he’s had conversations with former Adams administration official Maria Torres-Springer and de Blasio administration alum Steve Banks.
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani speaks in the course of the New York Metropolis Democratic Mayoral Major Debate on the John Jay School of Felony Justice within the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on June 12, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by VINCENT ALBAN/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
“I have never had to resign in disgrace,” Mamdani stated, biting again at Cuomo.
Afterward, Speaker Adams chimed in with a pointed query at Mamdani, asking if he believes he was extra certified to be mayor than her.
Mamdani replied that, like all of the candidates onstage, he believes himself the perfect choose for mayor, and that his marketing campaign particularly labored to deal with affordability.
An energized Lander laces into the frontrunner
Lander got here to the talk stage with new power after receiving an endorsement from a New York Occasions opinion panel.
He admitted in his opening remarks that he was not the “flashiest” candidate on the stage, however landed a sequence of blows on Cuomo on the 2 points that helped chase the governor from workplace: Sexual harassment allegations and COVID controversy.
“I don’t want to have to tell her don’t go to work at City Hall because the mayor is a sexual harasser,” the comptroller stated, referring to his daughter.
”Let’s be clear, he has expertise, however management is just not inviting 25-year-old younger ladies into your workplace, as he admitted he did, after which ask them … whether or not they would date older males,” Lander stated.
Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander speaks in the course of the New York Metropolis Democratic Mayoral Major Debate on the John Jay School of Felony Justice within the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on June 12, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by VINCENT ALBAN/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Cuomo stated 5 district attorneys regarded on the allegations in opposition to him however that “nothing has come of them whatsoever,” and he identified that no fees resulted from it. He has apologized to anybody he stated felt uncomfortable.
Lander additionally introduced Peter Arbeeny, whose father died from COVID after a keep in a nursing residence, to the talk. In a tense second, as Arbeeny stood up within the viewers, Lander requested Cuomo if he would “finally apologize to Peter and other grieving New Yorkers?”
Israel, Gaza and antisemitism fees
The frontrunners confronted questions from moderators and one another on supporting each Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers, with every candidate accusing the opposite of sowing division.
A moderator pressed Cuomo on allegations from the Muslim group that he has by no means visited a mosque throughout his time in public workplace. Cuomo stated he does “believe I have,” however when pressed on that stated that he couldn’t bear in mind “off the top of my head,” and that he’d need to examine the document.
“I welcome them, I love them, I’m not Mr. Mamdani, I’m not antisemitic,” the previous governor stated.
Mamdani countered by citing a flier ready for a brilliant PAC in help of Cuomo that appeared to have been altered to make his beard seem darker and bushier. The flyer was not despatched out.
“The reason he doesn’t have a message to Muslim New Yorkers is because he has nothing to say to us,” Mamdani stated.
Mamdani, was criticized by Cuomo and Tilson for his pro-Palestinian stance and help of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion.
He responded to a query on his stance by the moderators by saying he would defend Jewish New Yorkers and stated his marketing campaign prioritized “unity and not division,” in contrast to Cuomo’s.
Mamdani defended his use of the time period “genocide” to explain the struggle in Gaza, saying that to disregard what is occurring there results in “dehumanization in our city.”
Coalitions forming
Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund supervisor, acted as a wingman for Cuomo all through the talk. When moderators requested for a present of arms on whether or not the candidates had chosen their second-place alternative, solely Tilson raised his hand, answering that he would rank Cuomo.
Former hedge fund supervisor Whitney Tilson speaks in the course of the New York Metropolis Democratic Mayoral Major Debate on the John Jay School of Felony Justice within the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on June 12, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by VINCENT ALBAN/POOL/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Cuomo didn’t point out he would rank Tilson.
“I’m well aware of where I’m pulling, and so it doesn’t really matter. And so I didn’t ask for his endorsements,” Tilson stated after the talk.
Mamdani and Lander shaped an alliance, as effectively. When Cuomo slammed Lander for being from St. Louis, Missouri, Mamdani got here to his protection.
“Brad Lander is more of a New Yorker than Andrew Cuomo is,” Mamdani stated.
Lander and Mamdani introduced on Friday, after the talk, that they had been cross-endorsing one another.
Cross-endorsements have grow to be more and more frequent in New York, given the ranked-choice voting system the town adopted for the primary time in the course of the 2021 native elections. Below that system, candidates who path after the primary spherical of vote tabulations might ultimately prevail if they’re ranked on sufficient ballots that includes different candidates within the No. 1 slot.
Cuomo geese out, suffered verbal missteps
The previous governor, whose marketing campaign has been marked by an absence of media entry, slipped out of the theater as different candidates spoke to reporters to recap the talk.
Not like in final week’s first debate, through which he largely prevented verbal flubs, Cuomo stumbled a number of occasions Thursday night time, together with by utilizing the phrase “illegal immigrants.” After a jab from Lander, Cuomo corrected himself, utilizing the phrase “undocumented immigrants” as an alternative.
Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist, hopped in entrance of the cameras in Cuomo’s place after the talk. In response to questions on Cuomo’s whereabouts and why he had left early, Reinish enumerated Cuomo’s achievements on homosexual marriage and gun security.
Initially Printed: June 13, 2025 at 2:46 PM EDT
