'Grotesque clown show': New York GOP slammed by local paper for running 'two carnival barkers' for mayor

The New York Daily News' editorial board on Friday penned a scathing indictment of the New York Republican Party for running two New York City mayoral candidates that the paper described as "carnival barkers."

Although the paper acknowledged that the GOP faces impossible odds in the race to take over city hall, it nonetheless urged the party to find a candidate more respectable than the current hopefuls.

"But God help the New York GOP if there's a nadir below the grotesque clown show put on Wednesday night during the televised debate between Curtis Sliwa and Fernando Mateo, the two carnival barkers dueling for the GOP's nomination in next month's Republican mayoral primary," the editors wrote.

The editorial then broke down why this week's debate was such a disaster for New York Republicans.

"The depressing display, mixed martial arts sans the art, included Sliwa accusing Mateo of 'running a criminal enterprise' and Mateo insulting Sliwa for being a 'subway rider' who owns more than a dozen cats (neither are bad things)," they wrote. "Mateo also refused, during the course of the debate, to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election."

The debate got so bad, the editors noted, that "both candidates were at one point muted by the moderators for non-stop yelling."

Read the whole piece here.