De Blasio watches with glee as candidates attack Cuomo in NYC mayoral debate
NEW YORK — As mayoral hopefuls in Thursday night's Democratic primary debate landed sharp rejoinders against frontrunner Andrew Cuomo, one of the former governor's old foes broke out the popcorn.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio fired off a series ofgleeful postson X that reveled in the broadsides against Cuomo and lauded the performances of Comptroller Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who is polling second behind Cuomo.
'Wow, @andrewcuomo is REALLY scared of @ZohranKMamdani! He's not even faking it…' de Blasio wrote. 'And Andrew is REALLY disrespecting all the New Yorkers who support Zohran.'
City Comptroller Brad Lander was 'attacking consistently and really rattling Cuomo,' wrote de Blasio, who said the former governor's self-proclaimed executive experience consisted of harassing female employees and making decisions that resulted in the death of nursing home residents during Covid.
The ex-mayor — who spent eight years being tormented by the former governor over issues as quotidian as how to euthanize a deer — called into question the governor's housing record, accused him of dodging a question about the Rent Guidelines Board and lampooned Cuomo's characterization of the subway as infested with crime.
The former governor, of course, had responses for the attacks coming from the dais. He said a report that found he sexually harassed underlings — accusations he has denied — did not result in any criminal charges and was created to hurt him politically. He said his nursing home edicts were consistent with federal guidance during the height of Covid. He has cast the city as poorly run and falling into disrepair on account of the leadership of de Blasio and his successor, New York City Mayor Eric Adams. And he had sharp responses to Mamdani and others over their own legislative records and policies far to the left of his own.
But de Blasio's sustained pile-on reinforced the acrimonious relationship between the two executives and appeared to be almost cathartic for the the former mayor.
'Is @andrewcuomo mimicking dialogue from the 1950's?' de Blasio wrote. 'I fully expect Gregory Peck or Jimmy Stewart to join him on stage.'
Asked over text message Thursday night if he planned to make an endorsement, de Blasio took a much more laconic approach: 'Nope.'
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