Experience, integrity and Trump: key takeaways from New York’s mayoral debate

1. Trump’s threats to New York City loomed large

The Republican president’s threats to New York City dominated plenty of conversation during the debate.

In response to the first question, which asked candidates to provide a headline on their legacy as mayor, Mamdani answered: “Mamdani continues to take on Trump, delivers on affordability.”

All three candidates agreed they would not support Trump sending the national guard to the city. Mamdani repeated his assertions that he is the best candidate to “stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver”, while Cuomo argued that Trump would try to take over the city and become “Mayor Trump” if Mamdani wins. Sliwa suggested it was better not to be “tough” with the president or risk goading him.

Mamdani forcefully criticized Trump’s deportation efforts, but echoed his opponents by saying he would work with the president if elected. 

All three candidates were asked about the last time they spoke with Trump. Sliwa said that the last time spoke with Trump was “many years ago” when he was “praising him for saving the annual Veterans Day parade”. Mamdani said that he had never spoken with Trump, while Cuomo said that he believed he had spoken to him after the assassination attempt on the then presidential candidate last year. 

However, in August, the New York Times reported that Trump had recently spoken directly with Cuomo about the mayor’s race. On the debate stage on Thursday, Cuomo denied the report. 

2. Two main weaknesses were under fire: Cuomo’s character and Mamdani’s inexperience

Cuomo started the night by attacking Mamdani, calling him too unqualified and inexperienced to lead New York City.

“This is no job for on-the-job training,” Cuomo said. “If you look at the failed mayors, they’re ones that have no management experience.”

Mamdani, the 33-year-old state assembly member from Queens who is a self-described democratic socialist, pushed back on Cuomo and cited his years in the New York state assembly as well as his lived experience in New York City. 

Mamdani touted himself as “someone who has actually paid rent in the city” and “who has had to wait for a bus that never came, someone who actually buys his groceries in this city”.

Cuomo shot back: “What the assemblyman said is he has no experience.”

Mamdani fired back: “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity, and what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”

3. Tensions rose around Israel and the ceasefire in Gaza

The candidates sparred over Israel and Gaza, with Mamdani once again facing questions about his past remarks on Israel. Cuomo tried to demand Mamdani denounce Hamas, prompting Mamdani to say: “Of course I believe that [Hamas] should lay down their arms … All parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons.”

Mamdani also said that since the primary, he’s learned through conversations with Jewish New Yorkers more about antisemitism and how the phrase “globalize the intifada” could be hurtful.

Cuomo repeated his usual attack lines on Mamdani, suggesting he was a danger to Jewish New Yorkers while Mamdani called out Cuomo for failing to visit mosques.

After Cuomo was previously lambasted for being unable to name a mosque he visited as governor, Mamdani noted that the former governor had visited a single one and said on Thursday: “It took Andrew Cuomo being beaten by a Muslim candidate [in the primary] to set foot in a mosque.”

4. Sliwa attempted to stand out, sans red beret

Sliwa, the Republican nominee and founder of the Guardian Angels, spent much of the night taking shots at both Mamdani and Cuomo. He dismissed Mamdani’s plans and ideas as “fantasies”, mocked Cuomo for losing the Democratic primary and went after the former governor over allegations of sexual harassment.

Positioning himself as an outsider, Sliwa tried to distance himself from the political establishment.

“Thank God I’m not a professional politician, because they have helped create this crime crisis in the city that we face,” he said at one point. 

When Cuomo argued that he was the only candidate on stage who could handle Trump, Sliwa responded: “You think you’re the toughest guy alive. You lost your own primary.”

In another fiery moment from Sliwa during a discussion on policing, Sliwa said to Cuomo of his father: “I knew Mario Cuomo. You are no Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo.”

5. Mamdani evades having to endorse Kathy Hochul 

When the three candidates were asked if they supported the re-election campaign of New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, none of them raised their hands.

Mamdani’s response was notable, as the governor has publicly endorsed him for mayor. 

“I’m focusing on November, and I appreciate her support, and I appreciate her work,” the Democratic nominee said.