Taunts as ex-Dem governor lands backhanded Trump endorsement in hotly contested election

Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Monday taunted top rival Andrew Cuomo for receiving a decidedly backhanded endorsement from President Donald Trump.

During an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, Trump criticized both Cuomo and Mamdani, but said that he would pick the former New York governor to be New York City’s next mayor if forced to choose.

“I’m not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other,” the president said. “But if it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.”

Mamdani, a Democratic state Assembly member who has represented District 36 since 2021, immediately pounced on Trump’s remarks and sarcastically congratulated his rival for winning the endorsement of a president who is deeply unpopular in New York City.

“Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo!” he wrote in a social media post. “I know how hard you worked for this.”

A leaked audio recording from a Cuomo fundraiser in the Hamptons in August included comments from the former governor about help he expected to receive from Trump as he ran as an independent in the mayoral race, following his loss to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Cuomo and Trump have reportedly spoken about the race.

The former governor has also suggested that protests against Trump’s deployment of federal immigration agents are an “overreaction,” and has declined to forcefully condemn the president’s weaponization of the justice system against his political opponents.

The New York City mayoral election will conclude on Tuesday night, and polls currently show Mamdani with a commanding lead over Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

The New York Timesreported on Sunday that New Yorkers cast 735,000 early ballots this year, which the paper notes is “the highest early in-person turnout ever for a non-presidential election in New York.”

The Times also noted that more than 150,000 early ballots were cast on the final day of early voting, driven by a surge in young voters flocking to the polls.

“Turnout among younger age groups lagged early in the week, with about 80,000 people under 35 voting from Sunday to Thursday,” the Times explained. “That number jumped from Friday to Sunday, with over 100,000 voters under the age of 35 casting ballots, including more than 45,000 on Sunday.”

Laura Tamman, a political scientist at Pace University, toldGothamist on Monday that the surge in youth turnout in the last days of early voting was a “meaningful shift,” and likely good news for Mamdani’s chances on Tuesday.

In the closing days of the campaign, Cuomo has been accused of employing racist tactics as he has tried portraying Mamdani as an outsider who does not share New York’s cultural values, and he pointed to the fact that Mamdani has dual citizenship with the US and Uganda as evidence.

“His parents own a mansion in Uganda, he spent a lot of time there,” Cuomo said during an interview on Fox Business. “He just doesn’t understand the New York culture, the New York values, what 9/11 meant, what entrepreneurial growth means, what opportunity means, why people came here.”

Cuomo also appeared to agree with a recent comment from radio host Sid Rosenberg, who said Mamdani would “be cheering” if “another 9/11” took place.

“This is Andrew Cuomo’a final moments in public life,” said Mamdani in response to the remark, “and he’s choosing to spend them making racist attacks.”