Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the final New York mayoral debate to a close.
We will have analysis from our politics team shortly.
Overall, the 90-minute event seemed unlikely to have changed many minds, with the main focus being an extended argument between Zohan Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, and Andrew Cuomo, the former governor he defeated in the primary, now running as an independent.
Cuomo kept hammering the point that his experience should make him the right choice, given his long career in government at the state and federal level, as opposed to Mamdani, the state assemblyman who is almost exactly half his age.
Mamdani, for his part, cast himself as the candidate of change, focused on affordability and trying to reverse a situation in which New York is becoming “a museum of where working-class people used to be able to live”.
Sliwa is an engaging presence on television, but did little to change the perception that he remains more of a quirky cultural figure than a likely government administrator.
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Debate ends
The final debate of the campaign just came to an end with an exchange in which the candidates were asked to name one thing that New York got right during the pandemic.
Sliwa says Cuomo got nothing right.
Mamdani says it only took 15 minutes to get his covid-19 vaccine shot. “That was an efficient experience,” he says.
Cuomo says, “Thank you for the compliment.” Mamdani replies: “That was a city-run vaccine site.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Cuomo says.
Cuomo and Mamdani had yet another heated exchange in the first half of the second hour of the debate after a question was raised on whether, if elected, the candidates would close Rikers Island, a prison in the Bronx that houses more than 7,500 people. A bill in 2019 approved by the New York city council in has mandated its closure by 2027.
If elected, Sliwa said he would keep Rikers open. Cuomo answered by immediately firing a shot at Mamdani, saying he would not close Rikers as Mamdani has said he wants to because Cuomo wouldn’t release 7,000 criminals into New York City.
Mamdani pushed back, noting that the current mayor, Eric Adams, has made it “nearly impossible” to close the prison by the stipulated timeline but that he would do his best to meet it. He also called the prison a “stain on the history” of New York City.
Things devolved shortly thereafter with Cuomo and Mamdani fighting again about the former’s history and the latter’s inexperience. Cuomo aggressively listed some of his achievements in managing projects, including the Second Avenue subway and the Mario Cuomo Bridge, to contrast Mamdani. Mamdani responded with: “You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience as if we don’t know about it. We experienced your experience! The issue is your experience!”
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Mamdani turns to Cuomo to ask him about the 13 women who worked in his administration who accused him of sexual harassment.
“You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private gynecological records,” Mamdani says. “She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?”
“If you want to be in government, you have to be serious and mature,” Cuomo replies after a brief pause. “There were allegations of sexual harassment. They were then, went to five district attorneys, fully litigated for four years, the cases were dropped, right? You know that as a fact, so everything that you just said was a misstatement.”
“Everything I said was a misstatement?” Mamdani says.
“Yes, because the cases were dropped,” Cuomo says.
Given an opportunity to ask a question of another candidate, Cuomo presses Mamdani on why he posed for a photograph with an anti-LGBTQ+ Ugandan leader, and why he would not support a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Uganda on its anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Mamdani says that he would not have posed for that photograph had he been aware of the Ugandan figure’s anti-LGBTQ+ politics.
He then accuses Cuomo of having no policies to support LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. “All you have are the insults that you have lobbed,” he adds.
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In response to one lightning-round question that asked “What is your favorite live music venue?”, a brief moment of levity broke up some of the tensions among the three candidates. Sliwa emphatically shouted: “Chainsmokers! EDM!” Notably, the Chainsmokers are a musical group, not a venue.
Mamdani said Forest Hills, a stadium located in Queens, while Cuomo said Under the K Bridge, a park venue in an industrial part of northern Brooklyn.
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The candidates were just asked in a lightning round if they support increasing ticketing by the police in line with a recently enacted a 15mph speed limit for e-bikes.
Mamdani says that he would rather crack down on the app-driven delivery services that put pressure on the people driving the bikes too fast.
Asked if they would accept the endorsement of Eric Adams, Cuomo says yes, the others no. Sliwa says that he wants Adams to be in jail.
They were also asked if the mayoral election between the three of them was ranked-choice, how they would vote. Mamdani says that he would rank himself first and Sliwa second. Sliwa responds: “Zohran please don’t be glazing me!” He says he would vote for just himself. Cuomo also says he would only vote for himself.
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Things hit an apex between Cuomo and Mamdani nearly halfway through the debate after the latter was questioned on being evasive or unclear on his ideology.
Mamdani initially said: “When it comes to our schools, I believe that every single child should have an excellent public education.” He then mentioned public school funding and a need for greater literacy levels, but did not further explain his plan for overhauling schooling in New York City. He switched gears and called out Cuomo specifically for taking so long during his tenure as governor to establish more housing.
Cuomo immediately fired back to note that the governor doesn’t build housing, prompting Mamdani to interject with: “Not if it’s you!”
Things quickly escalated to a moment of chaos as the candidates talked over each other with increasingly louder comebacks. Cuomo, again, mentioned Mamdani’s inexperience while Mamdani took aim at Cuomo for his shortcomings as governor.
“You don’t know how to run a government and you don’t know how to handle an emergency,” Cuomo said to Mamdani at one point.
After being told by moderators to keep order, Sliwa weighed in and said his fellow candidates were “fighting like kids in the school yard”. Of Mamdani, Sliwa said, “Your résumé could fit on a cocktail napkin,” while of Cuomo he said, “Your failures could fill a public school library.”
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In a discussion of public safety, on the question of prosecuting misdemeanor quality-of-life crimes, Andrew Cuomo just said: “Mayor David Dinkins did it.”
He goes on to accuse Zohran Mamdani of being in thrall to the democratic socialists of America.
Cuomo did not note that Dinkins, the former New York mayor, was also a member of the democratic socialists of America.
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On social media, Mamdani’s account just shared video of Sliwa telling Cuomo, “You’re in the back pockets, Andrew, of the developers who wined, dined and pocket-lined you.”
“This happens to be true,” the account added.
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Cuomo accuses Mamdani, who has been critical of Israel, particularly its war on Gaza, of being among those who “stoke the flames of hatred against Jewish people”.
The former governor has previously pushed the idea that Jewish New Yorkers, who make up a significant share of the city’s population, should not feel safe with Mamdani as mayor, given his views on Palestinian rights.
Sliwa, apparently also equating support for Palestinians with support for terrorism, then suggests that Mamdani supports “jihad”, or holy war.
“I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad,” Mamdani says, suggesting that this attack is being fabricated because he is the first Muslim to be on the verge of leading the city.
Mamdani has previously refused to say that he supports the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state by saying that, as an American, he supports a state that grants equal rights to all, regardless of ethnicity or faith.
Mamdani adds that he wants to be a mayor that will keep Sliwa’s Jewish children safe.
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Zohran Mamdani’s campaign team is live-tweeting the debate as it unfolds, giving him a virtual chance to reply to Andrew Cuomo online even at points where he does not do so on stage.
“Andrew Cuomo didn’t just watch from the sidelines as the homelessness crisis grew,” the account posted moments ago. “He was in power – and made political choices, time and again, that made it worse.”
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Andrew Cuomo suggests that Zohran Mamdani will not be able to freeze rents for New Yorkers because he does not control the rent guidelines board.
“If you want a candidate for mayor who tells you everything he can’t do, then Andrew Cuomo is your choice,” Mamdani replies. He then argues, correctly, that the mayor chooses members of the board.
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“The number of homeless since I left has more than doubled,” Cuomo says of his time in office as New York governor.
“Andrew, you didn’t leave, you fled from being impeached,” Sliwa says, looking across the stage at Cuomo. “Leave? You fled!”
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Asked about dealing with Donald Trump, Curtis Sliwa says, “You can’t beat Trump, he has all the cards,” suggesting that he is the candidate who can deal best with the president.
“I’ve confronted him and I have beaten him,” Cuomo says, and suggests Trump “will take over New York City” if Mamdani wins.
Mamdani is withering in his response, telling viewers they just heard from the Republican candidate and “Donald Trump’s puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo”.
Mamdani argues that Trump has made it clear that he wants Cuomo to win, amid reports that the former governor has consulted the president on strategy in the race.
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The first question deals with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on street vendors on Canal Street in Manhattan on Tuesday.
All three candidates criticize the ICE raids, with Cuomo saying he would have pushed the White House to pull back the federal officers.
“ICE is a reckless entity that cares little for the law,” Mamdani says.
Sliwa also says the raids were a bad idea, but calls the reaction of New Yorkers, who pushed back on the officers as the raid was taking place, wrong.
Opening statements
“It’s us versus them,” Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, says in his brief opening statement, in which he claims that he is the true representative of New Yorkers.
Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, begins by urging the Knicks to win, and then pivots to attacking “my main opponent”, Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani, the Democratic candidate – who according to Cuomo in his latest attack ad “has no new ideas” and is merely a rehash of Bill de Blasio, the former mayor – says: “I have plans for our future, my opponents only have fear.”
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Final New York mayoral debate begins
Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa have taken the stage for a two-hour debate in Queens, New York, before city residents head to the polls to decide who will become their next mayor.
The debate, which is likely to focus on public safety, the rising cost of living, housing and Donald Trump, is the last time candidates will be able to make their pitch to New Yorkers before early voting begins on Saturday, 25 October.
Why have top Democrats not endorsed Mamdani?
He’s the hottest politician in the US, one who managed to attract thousands of young and first-time voters to the Democratic party in his unexpected win in the New York City mayoral primary.
With the Democrats suffering from historically low approval ratings, one might have thought the party would rally round Zohran Mamdani, to learn lessons from the media-savvy 33-year-old and bask in his soaring popularity.
That hasn’t happened.
The most influential political figures in New York state politics have instead studiously avoided any public endorsement of Mamdani, the self-described democratic socialist who has a 22-point lead over his nearest challenger.
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The New York Times is reporting that Zohran Mamdani is planning to ask the New York City police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, to remain in her role if he wins the election.
As the Times notes, deciding who should lead the 50,000-person department is one of the biggest choices a New York mayor must make. Mamdani, who has been critical of the NYPD and has said he wants to build a community safety agency, might have been swayed by fierce lobbying since winning the Democratic primary.
It is unclear if Tisch would agree to stay in the position.
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Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate and mayoral race frontrunner, was seen preparing for tonight’s debate at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens.
Sliwa quits radio show in argument with station's billionaire owner
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa has stepped down from his role hosting a local New York radio show after the station’s owner asked him to drop his mayoral bid, according to reports.
Sliwa, famous for his red beret, hit back at 77 WABC owner John Catsimatidis – himself a Republican – and complained the station was giving preferable treatment to former governor Andrew Cuomo.
The New York Post reports that Sliwa said: “You will never see me at the studios of WABC again, never, no matter how this election turns out.”
Catsimatidis denied he asked Sliwa to quit the race but insisted Cuomo’s chances to win far outstripped those of Sliwa. Speaking to the Post, the billionaire businessman said: “I’ve never asked that he leave the race but recommended that a lot of other people have said he should.”
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As it was in last week’s debate, Israel and Gaza may become a point of contention tonight.
Mamdani could again face questions about his past remarks on Israel. In the first debate, Cuomo tried to demand that his opponent 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.”
Cuomo has repeatedly suggested that Mamdani is a danger to Jewish New Yorkers while Mamdani has previously called out Cuomo for failing to visit mosques.
You can catch up on our key takeaways from that first debate here:
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How to watch or listen to the debate
The debate is slated from 7 to 9pm ET (plus pre- and post-debate analysis). Wondering where to catch the debate broadcast or stream it? You have several options:
The debate will air and stream live on Spectrum NY1. It will also be available on YouTube for both English- and Spanish-speaking viewers.
Co-host WNYC will also broadcast the debate at 93.9 FM and stream it live.
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The candidates will probably spar over several high-profile city issues, including public safety, the cost of living, transit, housing, and a litany of ongoing and looming clashes with the Trump administration.
The debate comes the same week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids related to “selling counterfeit goods” were conducted in New York’s Chinatown neighborhood. The federal agency’s actions drew protesters to city streets – and condemnation from local leaders. The mayoral candidates also weighed in.
Mamdani called the operation an “aggressive and reckless raid on immigrant street vendors”, adding: “Once again, the Trump administration chooses authoritarian theatrics that create fear, not safety. It must stop.”
Cuomo, the independent candidate and former New York governor, characterized the raid an “abuse of federal power by the Trump administration: more about fear than justice, more about politics than safety”.
“This is not who we are, and it will never be NYC when I am mayor,” Cuomo said. “The Statue of Liberty stands in our harbor, not as a decoration, but as a declaration of our values and the promise of America.”
In a statement to the Gothamist, a spokesperson for Sliwa said the Republican candidate believes “the backs of restaurants and other service industries should not be the focus of immigration enforcement”, and that the federal government should prioritize the deportation of “gang members, sex traffickers and those involved in major crimes”.
All three candidates have stated that Donald Trump should not deploy troops to New York City.
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Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa to spar again before early voting
Hello and welcome to our New York mayoral debate live blog. Voters in New York City will get one last opportunity to see the three candidates – Democrat Zohran Mamdani, independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa – make their arguments in the public forum about why they are the best person to run the largest US city.
This second and final matchup comes a few days before the start of early voting, which runs from Saturday, 25 October through Sunday, 2 November. Registered voters who don’t opt for those early ballots can cast them on Tuesday, 4 November.
The two-hour debate kicks off at 7pm ET, hosted by Spectrum NY1, WNYC/Gothamist and the City. The mayoral race has received international attention, mainly regarding Mamdani, the state assembly member and democratic socialist whose optimistic, populist messaging has resonated with many New Yorkers.
We’ll bring you all the latest news and reactions from the debate as we get them.
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