NYC's Final Mayoral Debate: Key Takeaways After Mamdani, Cuomo's Heated Clash"Updates
www.newsweek.com

... New York City's final mayoral debate kicked off with a bang on Wednesday as Democrat nominee Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo repeatedly clashed over their respective records and policies.

Cuomo attacked Mamdani's lack of experience, claiming that the candidate had never "accomplished anything," adding "you never had a job." Mamdani accused Cuomo of "creating his own facts" before laying into his record as governor, accusing him of failing to build enough new housing in New York City and branding him a "desperate man lashing out."

The bitter back-and-forth prompted moderator Errol Louis to remind the candidates that "they know how this works," and not to talk over each other. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, who has refused to bow to a pressure campaign from some Republicans to leave the race to give Cuomo a better chance in the polls, accused his rivals of "fighting like kids in the school yard." ...

abc7ny.com

... The three candidates running for mayor of New York City clashed bitterly in their second and final debate on Wednesday evening before Election Day.

Democrat Zohran Mamdani tried to maintain his lead and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa cast him as out of his league.

"Andrew Cuomo will spend much of tonight attacking me. He is a desperate man, lashing out because he knows that's the one thing he's always cared about. Power is now slipping away from him," Mamdani said.

Mamdani slammed Andrew Cuomo over a lack of vision but found himself literally surrounded.

"I did things. You have never had a job. You've never accomplished anything," Cuomo said. "There's no reason to believe you have any merit or qualification for 8.5 million lives. You don't know how to run a government. You don't know how to handle an emergency."

"The issue is that we have all experienced your experience. The issue is that we experienced you taking a $5 million book deal while you sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes," Mamdani said.

"Zohran, your rsum could fit on a cocktail napkin. And, Andrew, your failures could fill a public-school library in New York City," Sliwa said.

Throughout the debate, Sliwa blasted both men as Cuomo and Mamdani bickered over who would best stand up to a hostile President Donald Trump.

"I will fight him every single step of the way," Mamdani said.

"He has no respect for Zohran. He thinks he's a kid and he's going to knock him on his tuches," Cuomo said.

When both men said they still supported keeping juveniles out of adult court, Sliwa was incensed.

"So how can both of you look at me? I almost lost my oldest son to gang violence, and the perpetrators went to family court and got a little pat on the wrist and was sent home to do it again and again," Sliwa said.

For the first time, Mamdani joined the others, saying he had asked Jessica Tisch to continue as NYPD commissioner.

"Commissioner Tisch took on a broken status quo, starting to deliver on accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the five boroughs," Mamdani said.

Cuomo was forced to defend himself on accusations of sexual harassment. ...