During Wednesday’s New York City gubernatorial debate, candidates were given the chance to directly question one another, and Zohran Mamdani and former Governor Andrew Cuomo wasted no time trading blows over each other’s scandals.
Cuomo attacked Mamdani for calling for boycotts and divestment from Israel, and yet staying silent on his home country of Uganda and its laws against homosexuality.
"You take a picture with Rebecca Kadaga, deputy prime minister of Uganda … She’s known as Rebecca ‘gay-killer’ Kadaga," Cuomo said, before asking, "How do you not renounce your citizenship, or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning people who are gay just by their sexual orientation, is that not a basic violation against human rights?"
"Had I known that the first deputy minister was the architect of that legislation, I would not have taken that photo," Mamdani replied.
Mamdani immediately clapped back with a question of his own: "Mr. Cuomo. In 2021, 13 different women who worked in your administration credibly accused you of sexual harassment. Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself, all while describing these allegations as entirely political."
"You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?"
The crowd cheered Mamdani's question.
Mamdani just detonated the debate.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) October 23, 2025
He looked Cuomo dead in the eye and invoked Charlotte Bennett; one of the 13 women Cuomo allegedly harassed, saying she was in the audience but couldn’t speak because Cuomo’s lawyers “hounded her.” pic.twitter.com/NY8OF1Df0t
What ensued was the longest silence in the entirety of the mayoral debate.
"If you want to be in government, you have to be serious and mature," Cuomo began. "There were allegations of sexual harassment; they then went to five District Attorneys, fully litigated for four years, the cases were dropped. Right? You know that as a fact. So everything you just stated was a misstatement."
"The cases were dropped," he said. The crowd, obviously, was not happy with Cuomo's response, and the disregard of his sexual harassment claims as a simple "misstatement."
One thing is clear from the debate: Mamdani is proving to be an effective, commanding frontrunner, regrettable as that may be, while Cuomo struggles to find his moment and momentum, trailing significantly as he fights an uphill battle to close the gap before Election Day.
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