Watch Zohran Mamdani deliver his most explosive speech yet during the NYC mayoral debate, held on Oct 22, 2025, directly confronting accusations of anti-Semitism. In a fiery exchange with his opponents, Mamdani passionately defends his record, challenges misleading claims, and outlines his vision for a safer, fairer, and more inclusive New York City. Don’t miss this full debate moment where Mamdani takes a bold stand, ignites the stage, and rallies voters ahead of the upcoming election.
#ZohranMamdani #NYCMayorElection2025 #NYCMayoralElectionResults #MamdaniVsCuomo #NewYorkMayorResult2025 #NYCMayorResultLive #NYCPolitics #NYCElectionResults #NYCMayorRace #Mamdani #TrumpOnMamdani #IndianAmericanMayor #USElections #NYCPoliticalRace #TrumpThreat #MamdaniVsTrump #TrumpWarning #NYCMayoralElections #NYCMayoralRace2025 #NYCResultsLive
~PR.152~HT.408~
#ZohranMamdani #NYCMayorElection2025 #NYCMayoralElectionResults #MamdaniVsCuomo #NewYorkMayorResult2025 #NYCMayorResultLive #NYCPolitics #NYCElectionResults #NYCMayorRace #Mamdani #TrumpOnMamdani #IndianAmericanMayor #USElections #NYCPoliticalRace #TrumpThreat #MamdaniVsTrump #TrumpWarning #NYCMayoralElections #NYCMayoralRace2025 #NYCResultsLive
~PR.152~HT.408~
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00While there are three candidates on this stage, you will hear only two messages.
00:04My opponents, who spend more time trying to convince the other to drop out than actually
00:09proposing their own policies, will speak only of the past because that's all that they know.
00:14I am the sole candidate running with a vision for the future of this city.
00:19Andrew Cuomo will spend much of tonight attacking me.
00:22He is a desperate man, lashing out because he knows that the one thing he's always cared
00:27about, power, is now slipping away from him.
00:29He will amplify right-wing talking points, he will share conspiracy theories, and he
00:33will do these things to make you feel that this should keep you up at night.
00:37But I've been spending the last year listening to New Yorkers, and I know what actually keeps
00:40you up.
00:41It's whether or not you can afford to live a safe and dignified life in this city.
00:45I have plans for our future.
00:47My opponents only have fear.
00:49ICE is a reckless entity that cares little for the law and even less for the people that
00:54they're supposed to serve.
00:56What we need to be doing here in our city is to end the chapter of collaboration between
01:01City Hall and the federal government, which we've seen under Mayor Adams.
01:05What we need to do is actually pass the street vending reform bills that have been in the
01:10city council, some of which that this mayor has actually overridden.
01:14That's an example of how we can both protect street vendors, ensure quality of life, and
01:18leave no stone unturned in delivering for the people of this city, as opposed to working
01:23with a president who is looking to declare war on those same people.
01:26We first just heard from the Republican candidate for mayor, and then we heard from Donald Trump's
01:31puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo.
01:33You could turn on TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his
01:38pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo.
01:41And he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but
01:45because it will be good for him.
01:47Look, Donald Trump ran on three promises.
01:49He ran on creating the single largest deportation force in American history, he ran on going
01:53after his political enemies, and he ran on lowering the cost of living.
01:57If he wants to talk to me about the third piece of that agenda, I will always be ready and willing.
02:02But if he wants to talk about how to pursue the first and second piece of that agenda at
02:06the expense of New Yorkers, I will fight him every single step of the way.
02:11This is a stain on our city.
02:15To see this many children in our public school system be homeless, and to know that this
02:19is the ninth consecutive year that it's more than 100,000 of those children.
02:23What we need to do is ensure that next year is not the same.
02:27And we are going to do that by building the housing necessary, such that New Yorkers are
02:31not priced out of this city or forced to live in shelters.
02:34And that's why my campaign is going to deliver 200,000 new affordable homes across the five
02:39boroughs, all while freezing the rent for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants.
02:44Now in the public school system, we also have a program called Every Child and Family is
02:48Known.
02:49It links a child who is living in a homeless shelter with an employee of the public school
02:53system.
02:54It also links that employee with the child's family.
02:57It's been shown to increase attendance records, self-esteem, a level of belonging in that school
03:01system.
03:02I am going to increase that pilot program to more than 200 schools, and we're going
03:06to do it because we have to deliver for these children.
03:08We are in the ninth consecutive year of more than 100,000 children in the New York City public
03:12school system being homeless.
03:14That means it began when Andrew Cuomo was the governor.
03:17And what did he do?
03:18What did he do about it?
03:19He did not do anything.
03:21He spent more money on a singing water fountain at LaGuardia Airport than he did on the average
03:25cost of an affordable housing unit.
03:27That is the record that we have in display.
03:30What we need is a change in the city, not more of the same.
03:32You know, we've seen time and again mayors use their power with the Rent Guidelines Board
03:38to hike the rent on those same more than 2 million New Yorkers.
03:42This same Rent Guidelines Board did a study that found that landlords of those units had
03:46seen their profits increase by more than 12 percent.
03:49Their response?
03:50Hike the rent on rent-stabilized tenants who have a median household income of $60,000.
03:56I believe that tenants across our city deserve relief.
04:00And I also believe that city government can work to alleviate the pressures for landlords
04:04of those units without having to put that burden on those same tenants.
04:08It's possible to keep New Yorkers in this city and to help landlords with rising insurance
04:12costs, water bills, Con Edison, and a broken property tax system.
04:16You know, if you want a candidate for mayor who tells you everything that he cannot do,
04:22then Andrew Cuomo should be your choice.
04:25If you want a candidate for mayor who will use every tool at their disposal, including
04:30the nine appointees at the Rent Guidelines Board, all of whom are appointed by the mayor,
04:36then I am the candidate for you.
04:39We need to build more housing all across New York City.
04:44Today New York City builds about four houses for a thousand people, Jersey City is at seven,
04:49Tokyo is at about ten.
04:50We need to do this by streamlining the processes of private sector construction across the city,
04:56by ensuring we're building more around hubs of mass transit, and we also need to ensure
05:00that the public sector is building truly affordable housing.
05:04And what I mean by truly affordable is housing that is built with the median household income
05:08in mind, which is $70,000 for a family of four.
05:12And that's why my administration will do exactly that, scaling up programs we already had in
05:17HPD, like senior affordable rental apartments, SARA, like ELA, extremely low-level affordability.
05:23These are the kinds of programs that will deliver a city that New Yorkers can actually afford.
05:27I'm appreciative that those measures will be on the ballot and that New Yorkers will be able
05:31to cast their votes for them.
05:33I know that we desperately need to build more housing in this city, and I also know that
05:37the jobs we create in the building of that housing should be good jobs as well.
05:40I look forward to being a mayor for every single person that calls this city home.
05:45Not just those who voted for me in the Democratic primary, not just those that vote for me in
05:50this general election, but all eight and a half million New Yorkers.
05:53And that includes Jewish New Yorkers who may have concerns or opposition to the positions
05:57that I've shared about Israel and Palestine.
05:59You know, just a few weeks ago, I was on the M57, the slowest bus in New York City.
06:04And as I was seated there, there was a speech therapist who was sitting next to me.
06:08She told me that she was Jewish.
06:10She said that her daughter was a huge fan, but that she was not yet decided on who she
06:14was going to vote for.
06:15And she shared to me about her fears in this city, about rising anti-Semitism.
06:20And I told her what I will tell New Yorkers today, which is that I will be the mayor who
06:24doesn't just protect Jewish New Yorkers, but also celebrates and cherishes them.
06:28Who doesn't just increase funding to hate crime prevention programs by 800%, who doesn't
06:33just ensure that the NYPD are outside of synagogues and temples on the High Holy Days, but also
06:38actually delivers on the implementation of the Hidden Voices curriculum in our school system,
06:42so that children in this city learn about the beauty and the breath of the Jewish experience
06:47right here in the five boroughs.
06:48You know, I've heard from Jewish New Yorkers about their fears about anti-Semitism in this
06:54city.
06:55And what they deserve is a leader who takes it seriously, who roots it out of these five boroughs,
07:00not one who weaponizes it as a means by which to score political points on a debate stage.
07:05I think there is room for disagreement on many positions and many policies, but I also want
07:15to correct the record.
07:16I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad.
07:21That is not something that I have said, and that continues to be ascribed to me, and frankly,
07:26I think much of it has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on
07:30the precipice of winning this election.
07:35All the same, Curtis, I do still want to be the mayor that will keep your sons safe, that
07:42will keep every single New Yorker safe, and it is my job to not only deliver on that commitment,
07:47but also to ensure that New Yorkers feel it every single day that they live in this city.
07:52When it comes to our schools, I believe that every single child deserves to have an excellent
07:58public education, and we have not seen that under the stewardship of those schools with
08:03this mayoral administration.
08:04We have not seen it because we are not fully funding those schools.
08:07We are not on track to comply with the class size mandates of those schools.
08:11We are not even on track to ensure greater literacy levels across those schools, despite
08:16the strides that have been taken with NYC REITs.
08:18When it comes to rezoning, I have been very clear that I will always celebrate the addition
08:22of additional housing units across the city.
08:24I also believe that Gantry State Park and Queensbridge Park should be one contiguous park.
08:31Those are things that one can believe at the same time.
08:33And my critiques of the politics of the past is right here on the stage.
08:39You can see in Andrew Cuomo someone who had 10 years to deliver on so much of what he's
08:44spoken about.
08:45He says that taking five years to build affordable housing is the sign of an incompetent government.
08:50By his own words, that means he must have led an incompetent government.
08:54That is what we are seeing because that is the record that is actually on offer.
08:58It is always a pleasure to hear Andrew Cuomo create his own facts at every debate stage.
09:06We just had a former governor say in his own words that the city has been getting screwed
09:11by the state.
09:13Who was leading the state?
09:14It was you.
09:15It was you.
09:16Governor Hochul.
09:17You were leading the state for 10 years.
09:18Governor Hochul.
09:19Screwing this city.
09:20No.
09:21You cut homelessness funding.
09:22You cut funding for the MTA.
09:23You as a legislator.
09:24You did all of these things, my friend.
09:26Yes, I can confirm that reporting.
09:28My administration will be relentless in its pursuit of safety and affordability for every
09:33New Yorker.
09:34And the delivery of that will require us to put together a team of the best and the
09:39brightest.
09:40Eric Adams stacked the upper echelons of the NYPD with corruption and incompetence.
09:45Commissioner Tish took on a broken status quo.
09:48He started to deliver accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the
09:52five boroughs.
09:53I have said time and again that my litmus test for that position will be excellence and the
09:58alignment will be of that position.
10:00And I am confident that under a Mamdani administration we would continue to deliver on that same mission
10:06and do so while creating the Department of Community Safety to ensure that mental health
10:10experts were the ones responding to the mental health crisis.
10:13Because safety and justice is at the cornerstone of our pursuit of public safety and in doing
10:18so we will also be able to deliver our agenda for affordability.
10:22You know, when I hear from New Yorkers of where they feel least safe, they will often
10:27tell me the subway system.
10:28And when they explain those moments to me, what they are often explaining is a mental health
10:33crisis in our city and a crisis of homelessness that has only continued to grow.
10:38And that is why at the heart of our public safety agenda is a groundbreaking proposal
10:43to not only reduce crime but address these very moments of unease for New Yorkers across the
10:47five boroughs by creating a Department of Community Safety that will be focused on the
10:52mental health crisis, focused on homelessness, and will ensure that police officers can focus
10:57on serious crimes.
10:58Because in 2020, the response time for those officers was less than 11 minutes.
11:03Today, it's closer to 16 minutes.
11:06And that's because every year, they are now responding to 200,000 mental health calls when
11:11those are calls that could by and large be taken by experts trained on responding to that
11:15very crisis.
11:17No matter how many times Andrew Cuomo describes it as my idea or my policy, I have never once
11:23stated that we were not going to prosecute misdemeanors.
11:26And that is what you see from the former governor is someone who spends more time talking about
11:31the platforms of other organizations and other individuals than the one that I've actually
11:36put forward or the one that he is supposed to be running on.
11:39I would not support changes to the state's legislation.
11:42And I would not support them because the major issue with the implementation of that legislation
11:46has been the fact that there is hundreds of millions of dollars that was supposed to be
11:50delivered alongside that law that is still languishing in Albany.
11:55And I am excited to be the next mayor of the city to finally fight for the money that this city is owed
12:00to ensure that we deliver it to our young people across the five boroughs.
12:03I do not think the police should be the ones dealing with the failures of these app companies.
12:08License them, register them, and yes, do enforcement on them.
12:12All right.
12:13There is a ballot question to align mayoral election years with presidential election years in the future.
12:21Do you support this, Mr. Sliwa?
12:23Absolutely not.
12:24All the attention would go to the presidential election, not to the mayoral election,
12:29and all the down-ballot elections, all of our city council people.
12:33That's a no, Mr. Mondani.
12:34I haven't yet taken a position on any of the ballot references.
12:36Oh, shocker.
12:37Again?
12:38Yes.
12:39Again and again and again.
12:42Yes.
12:43Katie?
12:44Thank you so much.
12:46First question.
12:47Do you support having a casino in the five boroughs like as a full casino,
12:50and do you have a favorite among the three current contenders?
12:53Mr. Sliwa?
12:54No, only if the community wants it.
12:56Mr. Mondani?
12:57I'm personally skeptical of casinos, but voters did choose to bring them to New York City,
13:01and unlike Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump, I don't view the law as just a suggestion.
13:05Do you have a favorite of the three?
13:06No, I don't have favorites of casinos.
13:07Mr. Cuomo?
13:08I do not, I have not reviewed the proposals.
13:13I was not in, I did not vote.
13:15It's not so hard to say.
13:17I did.
13:18Let me just, just so you understand some facts.
13:21I did not vote to bring the casinos to New York City.
13:25I did casinos in upstate New York as economic development measures.
13:30I had no part of these three casinos, how they were done.
13:34I think it's highly problematic, and I think there's going to be a lot more to come.
13:40Boy, that's not such technology to me.
13:42You and Zora can't answer a straight question.
13:45If there was a ranked choice election, how would you vote, Mr. Mondani?
13:48If there was a ranked choice election?
13:50And this?
13:51You'd have to rank these?
13:52Myself, number one, and Curtis, number two.
13:54Mr. Sliwa.
13:55Oh, please don't be glazing me here, Zora.
14:00Are you kidding?
14:03Mr. Sliwa, do I have an answer?
14:06I support ranked choice voting, but I'd only vote for myself.
14:09Mr. Cuomo?
14:11I love that Zoran and Curtis ticket idea.
14:15I don't know, I'm just enamored with it.
14:17I would just rank myself.
14:19Would any of you accept Mayor Adams' endorsement?
14:22Mr. Mondani?
14:23No.
14:24Mr. Cuomo?
14:25Yes, I would.
14:26Mr. Sliwa?
14:27Absolutely not.
14:28Put that crook in jail where it belongs.
14:30And final, a fun one.
14:31Be careful.
14:32Be careful.
14:33What is your favorite live music venue in New York City, Mr. Sliwa?
14:37Oh, Chainsmokers, EDM.
14:39Under the K Bridge, I'm presumed.
14:41That's right.
14:42The Kosciuszko Bridge.
14:44Mr. Mondani?
14:45Forest Hill Stadium.
14:46Mr. Cuomo?
14:47Under the Kosciuszko Bridge.
14:50Have you seen a show under the K Bridge?
14:52Who'd you see?
14:53No, I picked up my daughters at a show.
14:56That's as close as I got.
14:57Candidates, it's time for the cross-examination round.
15:00That's where each candidate gets a chance to ask one question of one rival.
15:05The order was selected at random.
15:06We're going to begin with Curtis Sliwa.
15:08Zoran, you talk about free, free, free.
15:14But we know that somebody's got to pay for it, and that's you, the taxpayers.
15:19And that's going to lead to bankruptcy.
15:22The only reason that Zoran is on the stage is because of the failed Governor Cuomo,
15:27who was rejected by the Democrats in the primary and rejected by 13 women who charged you with sexual harassment.
15:35Do you ever know that no means no?
15:38You know what no means?
15:40What?
15:41Your question is to Mr. Mondani?
15:42Who is your question to?
15:43Well, we can bifurcate it, right?
15:45No, no.
15:46You can't.
15:47Who is your question to?
15:48It's to Cuomo.
15:49Okay.
15:50Your response, Mr. Cuomo.
15:52I'm not sure what the man said, but the situation, my legal situation, as we discussed
16:04before, was fully litigated.
16:07I was dropped from the cases.
16:09If anyone has a legal situation to talk about, I think it's Mr. Sliwa, who runs the Guardian
16:17Angels and apparently has a charitable donation, but never filed any tax returns for the Guardian
16:26Angels and has been accepting charitable donations, which is just a crime and tax fraud.
16:33So, I think that's the person who I was explaining to do.
16:36Okay.
16:37Your turn to ask a question, Mr. Cuomo.
16:39To Zuron, I believe, as we've stated, that you have been a divisive force in New York,
16:46and I believe that's toxic energy for New York.
16:51It's with the Jewish community.
16:53It's with the Italian American community when you give the Columbus statue the finger.
16:58It's with the Sunni Muslims when you say decriminalize prostitution, which is Haram.
17:05It's the Hindus.
17:07But then you take a picture with Rebecca Kadaga, Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda.
17:15You take a picture with your father.
17:17You're smiling.
17:18He's smiling.
17:19She's known as Rebecca Gay Killer Kadaga.
17:24You're a citizen of Uganda.
17:27You took the picture.
17:28You said you didn't know who she was.
17:30It turns out you did.
17:31How do you not renounce your citizenship or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning
17:41people who are gay just by their sexual orientation?
17:46Isn't that a basic violation of human rights?
17:49I think he gets the question.
17:53My politics is consistent, and my politics is built on a belief in human rights for all
18:01people, and that extends to queer and trans New Yorkers, and it extends to queer and trans
18:06Ugandans.
18:07And had I known that the first deputy minister was the architect of that legislation, I would
18:12not have taken that photo.
18:14And yet I also know that this constant attempt to smear and slander me is an attempt to also
18:20distract from the fact that, unlike myself, you do not actually have a platform or a set
18:25of policies to protect those same New Yorkers here.
18:28All you have are the insults that you have lobbed at every single opportunity you have.
18:33Mr. Cuomo, in 2021, 13 different women who worked in your administration incredibly accused
18:52of sexual harassment.
18:53Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself, all while
19:02describing these allegations as entirely political.
19:06You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women.
19:11One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening.
19:16You sought to access her private gynecological records.
19:22She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her.
19:27I, however, can speak.
19:29What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?
19:33I remain opposed to mayoral control.
19:39And I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city.
19:43I will not shirk that accountability, even when we are putting together a system that has greater involvement
19:49for parents, for educators, for students.
19:52Look, one in 300 Americans is a student in the New York City public school system.
19:57This is a system where we are failing to deliver excellence to students, to teachers, to parents,
20:04and it is time to have a mayor who understands not only the crisis in front of us,
20:09but the fact that we have to change our ways if we want to change our results.
20:13And that is what we are running on a plan for the future, not to simply relitigate the past.
20:18No one on this stage that is saying that, yet Andrew Cuomo will repeat it again and again.
20:24And again, what I have said time and again, I'll repeat it again, is that yes, we have to close Rikers Island.
20:31Rikers Island is a stain on the history of this city.
20:35And that this current administration has made it nearly impossible to do so by the stipulated timeline.
20:44So what I will do is everything in my power to try and meet that deadline, knowing that Eric Adams has made it so difficult
20:51because he's had no interest in actually following through on it.
20:54And as much as you will hear about experience and running a government, what Andrew Cuomo doesn't seem to understand
21:01is the city has already entered into contracts for these borough-based jails.
21:06And to end those contracts would be to incur massive fiscal penalties.
21:10But that's not something that he seems to care about even as he speaks about the fiscal stewardship of this city.
21:15You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience as if the issue is that we don't know about it.
21:22The issue is that we have all experienced your experience.
21:26The issue is that we experienced you taking a $5 million book deal while you sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes.
21:33The issue is that we experienced you cutting funding for the MTA to send money to upstate ski resorts.
21:39The issue is that we saw you give $959 million in tax breaks to Elon Musk.
21:45The issue is your experience.
21:47The climate crisis is one of the most pressing crises facing this city.
21:51And we deserve to take it on with the urgency it requires.
21:55It is right now easier to pay the fine than to actually comply with this legislation.
22:00We have to ensure that we make it easier for condo and co-op owners to follow these laws.
22:06And we do that by eliminating the application fees for J-51, by extending that tax credit,
22:12by also creating a one-stop shop in New York City government that procures at a large scale heat pumps
22:18and the very kind of infrastructure needed to comply.
22:21We've seen this happen before with clean energy work that's been done in Woodside houses.
22:25It's time to bring that kind of work right here so that we can ensure full compliance.
22:30So this would be something where the city would have to start doing so as well.
22:33Because any law that we want New Yorkers to follow the city should be following it itself.
22:37And the reason that we put forward $30 by 2030 is that that's the minimum that a New Yorker needs to be paid
22:44to be able to afford to live in this city.
22:47And what we are looking at right now is the possibility of the place that we know and love
22:52becoming a museum of where working class people used to be able to live.
22:56Our proposal that we've put forward would be phased in over a longer period of time for small business owners
23:01to ensure that they could deal with this.
23:03And it's also one that we are confident we would be able to accomplish
23:07because of the fact that we are seeing from New Yorkers time and time again
23:10the absence of it is pushing them to live in Jersey City, to live in Pennsylvania, to live in Connecticut
23:16because they can't afford to live in New York City.
23:18First I'll just say that one of the most celebrated leaders of the New York City transit was Andy Byford
23:23who had such a terrible experience working under Andrew Cuomo that he would rather work under Donald Trump right now.
23:30The proposal that we have put forward addresses the fact that today in the wealthiest city,
23:36in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one in five New Yorkers cannot afford the bus fare.
23:42It would cost $700 million a year to make the slowest buses in the country fast and free.
23:49And by doing so we would generate more than double an economic revenue for New Yorkers across the city.
23:55It would be something that would reduce assaults on bus drivers,
23:59it would increase ridership on those buses,
24:01and it would actually have environmental impacts as fewer New Yorkers would drive their own car
24:06or take a taxi and would instead get on the bus.
24:08And I know all of this because I delivered it as a state assembly member
24:11who won the first free buses in New York City's history.
24:14Subscribe to One India and never miss an update.
24:22Download the One India app now.
24:26Download the One India app now.
24:38We'll see you in the next quarter.
Comments