5 moments that defined the first NYC mayoral primary debate

Wednesday night marked former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s first appearance on a stage alongside his fellow candidates – a striking fact given how little time there is left in the New York City mayoral primary. Early voting starts on June 14 and it’s crunch time for candidates to spend what money they have left in a bid to break ahead of Cuomo, who still leads in polls. Even with a handful of other super PACs opposing Cuomo or spending on other candidates, the pro-Cuomo PAC Fix the City’s $10 million haul puts dollars spent on the former governor far ahead of any other candidate. Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani has come closest to Cuomo in polls, with a late May Emerson College poll putting Cuomo at 54% and Mamdani at 46% after 10 rounds of ranked-choice voting.

Those polling numbers aligned with the level of shade cast in each candidate’s direction Wednesday night. Cuomo was the No. 1 target of the eight other candidates’ criticism, but Mamdani also caught a few barbs. This first mayoral debate was co-hosted by WNBC, Telemundo 47 New York and Politico. A second and final debate will be held on June 12.

If you missed it, or are just looking to relive its highlights, here are some of the moments that broke through for us on the crowded stage.

1. The long-awaited Cuomo pile-on

After months of press conferences and attention-grabbing gimmicks, the trailing candidates in the mayor’s race got to take their fight against Cuomo himself. 

Cuomo was asked by the moderators about the investigation by President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice into whether he lied during congressional testimony about being involved in a report that undercounted nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several other candidates called out that he wasn’t answering the question. 

“It’s a very easy question,” former Assembly Member Michael Blake said, his voice breaking through. “Did you lie to Congress? Will you acknowledge the deaths?” 

“No, I told Congress the truth. No, we did not undercount any deaths,” Cuomo eventually said. 

When Blake raised the issue of the sexual harassment allegations – and later the report substantiating sexual harassment – that led to Cuomo’s resignation, Cuomo talked about defunding the police. “Every woman watching tonight, he was just given a chance to actually address the clear claims that were stated and ignored it,” Blake said. Cuomo later said the allegations were without merit and emphasized he was never charged with a crime.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ voice also broke through when Cuomo was asked what his biggest personal regret was, and he answered “the state of the Democratic party.”

“No personal regrets?” Adams asked with a flabbergasted tone, offering examples of cutting Medicaid and slow-walking PPE and vaccinations during the pandemic to Black and brown communities. “Really, no regrets?” Adams – and other candidates – have leveled these accusations before. “It is just not accurate,” Cuomo responded. As governor, he restructured the state’s Medicaid program to reduce budget deficits. “Medicaid went up under me. I led the nation under COVID. I pushed President Trump to give us everything he had.”

2. Cuomo isn’t the only candidate in crosshairs 

Cuomo wasn’t just there to be a punching bag betting on having enough of a lead to weather his opponents’ blows. He came with attacks ready to go for a handful of other candidates – most notably Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who has narrowed the gap in his second place position in recent polls. 

“He’s been in government 27 minutes. He passed three bills,” Cuomo said. “It’s true that I don’t have experience with corrupt Trump billionaires who are funding my campaign,” Mamdani shot back.

But Cuomo wasn’t the only candidate to take aim at Mamdani. And neither was hedge funder Whitney Tilson, who’s been doing it for months. State Sen. Jessica Ramos made what could only be described as a lightly veiled reference to Mamdani’s experience too, when she said her biggest regret was not running for mayor in 2021. “I had been in the Senate for two years. I had already passed over a dozen bills,” she said. “I thought I needed more experience, but turns out you just need to make good videos.”

Cuomo also came equipped with a jab against Comptroller Brad Lander, saying his office approved contracts to organizations associated with his wife. Lander called it a lie sourced from Twitter.

3. It’s 2025 but “defund” is still up for debate

Calls to defund the police haven’t been a serious conversation among mainstream Democrats – or Democrats in power in New York City – in the way that they were following the prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. But criticizing candidates for once supporting those calls is still a part of Cuomo’s strategy. “The people on this stage, almost without exception, were all ‘defund the police,’” Cuomo said. 

Some candidates who vocally supported calls to reduce the NYPD budget in 2020 have in fact now called for increased funding for police or criticized the defund movement as unsuccessful. 

Speaker Adams, conversely, fought being lumped in with others, saying she never called for defunding the police, though she voted for the city budget in 2020 that shifted funding from the NYPD. She has more recently called for managing runaway NYPD overtime spending.

Blake pressed Cuomo on once giving credence to “defund” calls and once calling it a “legitimate school of thought” in 2021, though he says it’s one he disagrees with.

4. No one is ready to cross-endorse 

So much for ranked-choice collaboration. None of the five candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party were ready to name another candidate on the stage who they would rank second on their ballots. In fact, none of the nine candidates answered that question. (Explicitly asking one’s supporters to rank another candidate No. 2 is not the only means of collaboration, but it’s been shown to have a concrete positive effect.)

With just a week-and-a-half until early voting starts, some progressives who are putting faith in ranked-choice voting as a means to defeat Cuomo have been looking for greater collaboration between the candidates. One piece of good news for those people: Mamdani and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie each seem likely to make a cross-endorsement – not necessarily with each other. Mamdani said he would announce a second choice pick before Election Day and Myrie said to “stay tuned.”

5. Mamdani is asked whether Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state

During a rapid fire portion of the debate, moderator Melissa Russo pressed Mamdani on Israel, asking, “Would you visit Israel as mayor?” There was a brief disruption on the video feed, but Mamdani can be heard after it saying:

“As the mayor I’ll be standing up for Jewish New Yorkers, and I'll be meeting them wherever they are across the five boroughs, whether that's in their synagogues and temples or at their homes or at the subway platform…” 

Russo pressed him again: “Do you believe in a Jewish state of Israel?” 

“I believe Israel has the right to exist.” 

“As a Jewish state?” 

“As a state with equal rights.” 

Cuomo cut in – “Not as a Jewish state, and his answer was no, he won’t visit Israel.”

Mamdani said: “I want to be very clear. I believe every state should be a state of equal rights.”

Mamdani has been more critical of Israel than the rest of the field, calling the war in Gaza a genocide. He made it almost to the end of the debate without being singled out on the issue. Concerns about antisemitism are on the rise in New York City, and Mamdani has already found himself having to insist he condemns the Holocaust as Cuomo makes combating antisemitism a central pillar of his campaign. Mamdani is second choice to Cuomo among Jewish voters, according to a May poll by Honan Strategy Group.