Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa spar over Trump and cost of livingpublished at 03:25 BST
Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from New York
Media caption,
Grocery bills, Trump and Gaza – How NYC mayoral debate unfolded
It was a fiery two hour debate between the three candidates up for New York City mayor.
Leading the polls is Democrat Zohran Mamdani, and he was the focus for much of the debate – be it questions from moderators or attacks from his rivals. Independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa also faced some tough questions.
Let’s look at some of the major moments:
A tense atmosphere
It was a night full of personal jabs and charged exchanges between the candidates.
“He has literally never had a job,” Cuomo said of Mamdani, who has been a state assemblyman since 2020. He also accused him of not being a true Democrat.
Mamdani criticised Cuomo’s record as governor and brought up his sexual harassment allegations. He also corrected Sliwa several times on pronouncing his name.
Trump was the elephant in the room
Trump has had some choice words about this mayoral race, threatening to pull funding from New York City and send federal troops in. He frequently criticises Mamdani.
All candidates said they would defend New York from Trump’s actions.
Gaza and Israel
Moderators honed in on Mamdani, whose strong support of Palestinians and criticisms of Israel goes further than most of the Democratic establishment.
“Of course I believe they [Hamas] should lay down their arms…a ceasefire means ceasing fire,” he said tonight.
Sliwa and Cuomo praised Trump for ending the war and said Mamdani won’t help Jewish people in New York.
Cost of living
The three candidates have very different ideas on how the city’s affordability crisis should be addressed.
Mamdani repeated his campaign promise to raise taxes on the wealthy 1% to provide more free services to New Yorkers.
Cuomo says tax hikes will cause people to “flee” to Florida, Sliwa agreed.
