New York City Democratic mayoral nominee (left) criticized former Gov. Cuomo (right) on the heels of Mayor Eric Adams suspending his reelection campaign. (Getty Images)
"We are talking about someone whose life was upended because of Andrew Cuomo's decision to cut $65 million from the Advantage program," Mamdani said on Monday. "$65 million in a state budget of more than a $100 billion. Today, it's more than $252 billion to make that decision. The cruelty that is at the heart of that decision is what New Yorkers want to turn the page on."
ERIC ADAMS DROPS OUT OF NYC MAYORAL RACE AS MAMDANI GAINS GROUND
Less than 24 hours after Adams suspended his reelection campaign, Mamdani hosted a news conference with Kasha Phillips-Lewis, a New Yorker who said she was left homeless after Cuomo cut funding for the Advantage rental assistance program in 2011.
"This is a moot issue that happened 14 years ago – when Mamdani was in college – amid a $10 billion shortfall and that funding has been replaced and increased many times over through other rental assistance programs," Cuomo's campaign explained in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Azzopardi said Mamdani is hiding from his own, more recent, record, including his pledge to decriminalize prostitution, past plan to deploy social workers to respond to domestic violence calls instead of police officers and his past comments calling to "seize the means of production."
Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo sits on stage during a Democratic mayoral forum at Medgar Evers College in New York City on April 23, 2025. (REUTERS/David 'Dee' Delgado)
Mamdani said New Yorkers are "sick and tired" of Trump's agenda, arguing that Cuomo would be the "greatest thing that could happen" for Trump in New York City.
The Democratic nominee, who handily defeated Cuomo in the primary, also elicited Adams' own words against the former governor.
"Even hearing Eric Adams the way that he described Andrew Cuomo as a snake and a liar is something that I've heard from a number of New Yorkers in wanting to turn that page," Mamdani said.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said that Mamdani "will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party."
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"He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City. Remember, he needs the money from me, as President, in order to fulfill all of his FAKE Communist promises. He won’t be getting any of it, so what’s the point of voting for him? This ideology has failed, always, for thousands of years. It will fail again, and that’s guaranteed!" Trump said.
Mamdani dismissed the Truth Social post, telling reporters that Trump is "going through the stages of grief" regarding Mamdani's mayoral campaign.
Deirdre Heavey is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/eric-adams-abrupt-exit-nyc-mayoral-race-escalates-clash-between-rivals-record-disgrace