Mamdani rejects the challenge of the Cuomo debate with an unexpected counter-proposition

Andrew Cuomo challenged his opponent mayor in New York, Zohran Mamdani, at five different debates in the five districts of New York at a press conference on Thursday.

The challenge came while the former governor criticized Mamdani at his press conference in the Upper West Side in Manhattan for failing “to give a direct answer” to journalists’ questions and to change his mind “on everything” he said on the campaign track.

“When you try to ask a question (Mamdani), he will simply not answer, and he obscures. And, frankly, you let him get away,” Cuomo told journalists on Thursday. “I won’t let him get away. And New Yorkers will not let him get away.”

Adams, Cuomo Trade Jabs in interviews under the anti-Mamdani voting name

A few hours after Cuomo launched his challenge to Mamdani, the self-written democratic socialist submitted his own proposal: the president of debate, Donald Trump.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo challenged Zohran Mamdani to several debates through New York on Thursday, but Mamdani countered with a proposal to debate Donald Trump instead. (Getty Images)

“Let’s cut the man in the middle. Why should I debate Donald Trump’s puppet when I could debate Donald Trump himself?” Mamdani’s campaign told Fox News Digital in a statement. “If Donald Trump wishes to seriously intervene in the race for the mayor, he should come to New York and struggle directly from the reason why he reduces the benefits for hungry New Yorkers to give tax loss to his wealthy donors.”

The back and forth between Cuomo and Mamdani comes from the speculations that President Donald Trump weighs whether to offer jobs in his administration to the mayor in office of New York, Eric Adams, and the GOP candidate for the mayor of NYC, Curtis Sliwa. The decision to offer the two candidates a job would be an offer to erase the CUOMO field, several intimate sources said on this subject.

The Silent White House in the report that Trump’s allies have weighed to attract Adams to the Administration to Saper Mamdani

The former governor said during his press conference on Thursday that he was aware of the media reports on Trump, perhaps offering his jobs as an opponents of New York town hall, then eliminating the ground for him, but added that he had “no idea” if the reports are correct. Cuomo said he hadn’t talked or mayor Eric Adams or President Trump.

“I don’t know about this speculation,” Cuomo told journalists on Thursday about it. His campaign did not respond to requests for comments.

Former governor Andrew Cuomo, a New York town hall candidate, criticized President Donald Trump (left) for hitting Iran without the approval of the congress. (Getty Images)

On Thursday, neither Adams nor his team responded to the requests for information from Fox News Digital, but media reports said Thursday that ADAMs met Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, one of the presidents close to the president in Florida, to discuss potential work with the Trump administration.

The news of the Adams meeting came after media reports last week indicating that Trump had personally called, the influential businessman John Catsimatidis, an ally of Adams, to establish a deadline for the mayor and Sliwa to abandon.

The judge said to Cuomo to stop using taxpayers’ money to “resuscitate his public image” in the legal case

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital Comment Requests on the issue.

Cuomo, who positioned himself as the moderate left alternative to Mamdani in the race, described Mamdani’s political proposals on Thursday as “absurd”, “out of the current” and “discordant with what New Yorkers believe”.

Shortly after launching his independent offer for the mayor last month, Cuomo proposed that all the other candidates of the race, with the exclusion of Mamdani, have committed to agree that anyone who does not lead to the ballot box by mid-September, would withdraw. The objective of the engagement, said Cuomo, is to ensure the candidate with the best opportunity to defeat Mamdani against him in the most favorable conditions possible.

Candidates for New York town hall from left to right: Zohran Mamdani, Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa. (Getty Images)

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

However, the proposal was rejected by Adams, and Sliwa suggested to Fox News Digital Thursday that Cuomo and Adams are not even the main favorites that New Yorkers want to win.

“This is a race between the two main candidates of the party, myself and Mamdani, and New Yorkers know that I am the only one to have the experience and the grain to do so,” Sliwa told Fox News Digital. “I run to save New York from the decline and give workers the future they deserve.”

Speaking specifically to Mamdani’s response to Cuomo’s debate, Sliwa added that Mamdani “is desperate to distract from his own radical program, so he hides behind cheap theaters”.