“I’d go half-and-half,” Cuomo said, trying to appeal to both sides. Laughter erupted inside the room as Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa, the republican nominee in the debate, both threw their hands up.

Andrew Cuomo and WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg mocked Mamdani's relative lack of experience with a 9/11 reference.

On Thursday, the city's outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, endorsed Cuomo at a news conference where Cuomo was questioned about the radio show exchange. (Adams, whose reelection chances were tarnished by a now-dismissed federal bribery case, withdrew from the mayoral race less than a month ago due to low poll numbers.)

Newcomer Zohran Mamdani, age 34, has used social media and big progressive ideas to shoulder past Andrew Cuomo, who's 67 and long a member of Democratic Party royalty.

New York City mayoral candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo ripped a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in the city on Tuesday while assailing the Trump administration, calling the act an "abuse of federal power."