Cuomo Attacks Mamdani’s Résumé During NYC Mayoral Debate As He Struggles to Close the Gap

With just under three weeks left before New York City’s mayoral election, the three remaining candidates met at Rockefeller Center for a sharp, high-stakes debate. The event put Republican Curtis Sliwa, Independent Andrew Cuomo, and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani on the same stage as the city’s future hangs in the balance.

The debate looked like a last‑ditch chance for Cuomo to chip away at Mamdani’s lead with voters who care about experience and competence. Recent polling showed Cuomo still more than 10 points behind Zohran Mamdani, leaving him scrambling for clear contrasts.

Cuomo zeroed in on Mamdani’s résumé and management chops, arguing the city needs proven experience to handle crises and budgets. He laid out his challenge bluntly: “This is not a job for someone who has no management experience, to run around 300,000 people, no financial experience to run a $115 billion budget,” Cuomo said of his opponent. “He literally has never had a job. On his resume, it says he interned for his mother. This is not a job for a first timer. Any day you could have a hurricane, God forbid, a 9-11, a health pandemic, if you don’t know what you’re doing, people will die.”

Cuomo framed his criticism around competence and public safety rather than ideology, and he repeatedly returned to the risks of inexperienced leadership in a city that must manage huge staffs and massive budgets. That line of attack forced Mamdani to defend a background that includes work as a rapper, a role at a housing nonprofit, campaign staff, and his current position as a city councilman.

Mamdani pushed back on the character angle and turned the debate to integrity, refusing to let experience be the sole test of fitness for office. “If we have a health pandemic, then why would New Yorkers turn to the governor who sent seniors to their death in nursing homes? That’s the kind of experience that’s on offer here today,” 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.”

Cuomo, for his part, dismissed the nursing home accusation as political theater and described the probe as an inquiry that “went nowhere.” His rebuttal was short and aimed at deflecting a central moral charge from Mamdani while steering voters back to managerial competence.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

Help us continue to report the truth about the Schumer Shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.

The debate made clear this race is about two competing claims: experience and managerial readiness versus a promise of different values and integrity. With fewer than three weeks left, each exchange like this one could reshape voter priorities across the city.