Mamdani sweats, fails to provide details as Cuomo and Sliwa repeatedly back him into the corner during fiery New York City mayoral debate

Front-runner Zahran Mamdani broke down in a sweat — literally — during the final mayoral debate on Wednesday, as Andrew Cuomo repeatedly pressed him to “stop acting” and give straight answers.

The usually smooth-talking socialist has been backed into a corner repeatedly by the unlikely team of Cuomo, the former governor who is running as an independent, and GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa, who has called Mamdani’s policy proposals a “fantasy.”

Hungry rivals seized the last opportunity to downsize Mamdani — with 13 days remaining before the Nov. 4 election — and weren’t letting any of the Democratic nominee’s nonanswers slide from the LaGuardia Community College platform.

“Don’t be a politician,” Saliwa quipped when Mamdani tried to evade his opinion on important ballot proposals, constantly saying that he “estimates that these measures will be on the ballot.”

“What a shock,” Cuomo said, before mocking the front-runner with a talking hands gesture.

A visibly sweaty Mamdani also shied away from direct answers when pressed:

• Education reform. Mamdani doubled down on his opposition to mayoral control and his support for the state’s class size mandate — but he was unable to point to any substantive problems with the dysfunction of the school system, instead offering ramblings about the importance of education and “the crisis before us” without going into any detail about how he would approach the issue.
• Public safety. When asked for details about a Department of Community Safety that would send social workers to mental health calls and domestic violence disputes with the NYPD, he said only that such approaches have worked elsewhere in the United States and “I’m confident that the dispatchers who will take these calls will determine if there is any indication of violence.”
• Housing: Mamdani did not have an answer on how to quickly accelerate the construction of new units and help ease the housing crisis, saying only that “we need to do this by streamlining private sector construction processes throughout the city.”
• Ballot measures moving local elections to presidential election years, and repeatedly saying “I have not reviewed the proposals” on any of the issues on the same ballot he would participate in.

The Rock ‘Em Sock’ Em-esque debate hosted by Spectrum NY1 wasn’t a complete wash for Mamdani, as much of it boiled down to whether the 34-year-old Queens councilman’s lack of experience is worse than the arguably three-term governor Cuomo’s poor record.

Cuomo (67 years old) appeared stronger than his arrogant and defensive performance during the first debate last week.

He has come out bragging about implementing a highly-regarded redesign of LaGuardia Airport and the long-awaited 2nd Avenue subway station as governor, while pointedly asserting that he could stand up to an “overly aggressive” President Trump if elected — unlike the arrogant Mamdani.

“He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to hit him hard,” Cuomo said of Trump’s assessment of Mamdani, whom the president described as a “little communist.”

Mamdani appeared shocked several times when Cuomo attacked him Poses in a smiling photo With Uganda’s anti-gay deputy prime minister, Rebecca Kadaga, or calling him a “good actor” missed his true target.

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“He’s a good actor, he’s missed his calling,” Cuomo said as he launched one of several attacks on Mamdani’s signature “rent freeze” policy platform, centering around a question about the city’s record number of homeless schoolchildren.

“The rent freeze sounds great,” Cuomo said. “Yes, it affects about 25% of the housing stock in New York City. It’s not a new idea. Bill de Blasio did it.”

“I’m going to freeze the rent hard,” he said later during the 90-minute match, to applause from his supporters. “People think this applies to all of them.”

“And by the way, it’s all because the mayor doesn’t have the authority to do that anyway. And the Rent Guidelines Board is the one that does it, and he doesn’t control the Rent Guidelines Board, so nothing will happen,” Cuomo objected. “He’s just an old political babbler, Mr. Mamdani.”

When Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel, tried to reassure Jewish New Yorkers that he would represent them, too, if elected, Cuomo interrupted, quipping: “You’re the savior of the Jewish people?”

But Cuomo has found himself dogged by his record during the Covid pandemic, especially the sordid scandal that led to his ignominious resignation in 2021.

He struggled to come up with a coherent answer about the 13 women who accused him of sexual harassment – one of whom, Charlotte Bennett, was in the audience as part of a stunt organized by Mamdani.

Mamdani called Cuomo a “Donald Trump puppet” and said the longtime politician’s “experience” is precisely what led to New Yorkers’ problems with housing, the MTA and deaths in nursing homes during the pandemic.

“You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience, as if the issue is that we do not know about it,” Mamdani said, adding, “The issue is that we have all gone through your experience.”

Sliwa also jumped in to criticize Cuomo Mamdani, calling his proposals “fantasy.”

But Sliwa – whose tan streak from his distinctive red hat was clearly visible – proved to be a double-edged ally of the previous government.

“Your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin, I’ve had enough,” Saliwa told Mamdani at one point, before turning to Cuomo.

“I escaped your isolation!” he shouted at Cuomo during another heated exchange.

The Guardian Angels founder, who has faced growing calls to withdraw from the study to give poll-runner-up Cuomo a fighting chance to thwart the Democratic socialist, was unable to resist attacking the previous government and helping Mamdani.

“Mamdani had the weakest performance this cycle,” said Andrew Kurtzman, a longtime communications specialist. “Both his opponents were in rare form, ganging up on him all night. At one point they were laughing at him from both sides. Mamdani is a very talented debater but he seemed trapped.

“But the problem with Cuomo is that he needed both of them to have a bad night. If Sliwa’s numbers didn’t go down, there was no way Cuomo could win. But Sliwa had a great night. He’s grown as a candidate this year — it’s impressive.”

Mamdani, perhaps appreciative of Saliwa’s unwilling help, gave his rival some love when asked how he would vote if it was a ranked choice election.

“I’m number one, Curtis is number two,” he said.

“Oh, please don’t bother me here, Zahran,” Saliwa said, laughing.