Cuomo and Sliwa lash out at Mamdani's extremist, anti-Semitic positions in latest New York mayoral debate

The New York starred in a tough battle during their final debateon Wednesday, with radical Democrat Zohran Mamdani trying to hold on to his lead, and independent Andrew Cuomo alongside Republican Curtis Sliwa arguing not only why they are the best choice for the city, but also why the socialist figure could do serious damage to it. Trading accusations, the three candidates met for the second time in less than a week, this time at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, with Mamdani's anti-Semitic and anti-Israel backgroundand Sliwa's reluctance to drop out of the race as the two main themes of this latest debate.

When asked if he had any regrets about "old anti-Israel stances," Mamdani commented that one of his major commitments, if elected, would be to protect all Jews in New York. "You won't denounce ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means, ‘Kill Jews.’ There's unprecedented fear in New York. It was not several rabbis. It was 650 rabbis who signed the letter, not several," Cuomo replied, referring to the letter in which hundreds of rabbis expressed their rejection of his positions against Israel and assured that it was a danger to the Jewish community. For his part, the socialist responded that "I've heard from Jewish New Yorkers about their fears about antisemitism in this city, and what they deserve is a leader who takes it seriously, who roots it out of these five boroughs, not one who weaponizes it as a means by which to score political points on a debate stage." Similarly, Sliwa told Mamdani that New Yorkers were scared and frightened to see him as "the arsonist who fanned the flames of antisemitism" in the city.

Immigration raid and Rikers Island.

Asked about the federal operation that took place this Tuesday in Chinatown, which resulted in the arrest of nine illegal immigrants from West Africa, all three candidates agreed that the administration of President Donald Trumphad exceeded its jurisdiction. While Cuomo called the raid dangerous and added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not be sent in without coordinating with the NYPD, Sliwa noted that the matter should have been left to the NYPD. However, Mamdani went further by asserting that ICE was nothing more than a reckless entity that doesn't care "for the people that they're supposed to serve."

During the second hour of the debate, Cuomo and Mamdani engaged in another heated exchange after being asked whether they would close Rikers Island, a Bronx prison that houses more than 7,500 inmates, following a law passed by the City Council in 2019 that officially mandates its closure by 2027. Sliwa assured that, if elected, he would keep Rikers open. For his part, Cuomo took the opportunity to attack Mamdani, assuring that he would not close the prison "as Mamdani intends to do," as he "would not release 7,000 criminals onto the streets of New York." In response, the Socialist candidate said that the current mayor, Eric Adams, has made it "almost impossible" to meet the deadline, later explaining that he would do everything possible to achieve it.

On the other hand, Sliwa refused on several occasions to give up his candidacy so that, in this way, his votes could be absorbed by Cuomo and thus multiply his chances of defeating Mamdani, who is the candidate that both the Republican and the former governor insisted on qualifying as a danger to the city due to his extremist ideas.