NEW YORK CITY, NY – During the Democratic mayoral primary debate, frontrunner and former governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, tried to make waves by calling out his opponents’ past support for the ‘Defund the Police’ movement.
The debate, which was held on Wednesday evening, June 4th, had eight Democratic candidates onstage, and Cuomo claimed that all of them had called for less money for the New York Police Department (NYPD), the New York Post reported. “We wouldn’t need more police if we didn’t defund them in the first place,” Cuomo said.
In response, the Rev. Michael Blake, who emerged as the breakout star in the debate’s first hour, called out Cuomo for allegedly saying “defund the police” when he served as governor. Cuomo, who is currently the frontrunner among the Democratic candidates, was serving as governor of the state during the “Defund the Police” movement that spread from coast to coast in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
As the debate heated up, Blake pushed Cuomo to admit that he used those three words while serving as governor. “Are you saying you never said ‘defund the police’?” Blake pressed. “I used the words ‘defund the police,'” Cuomo said. “I said I don’t support ‘defund the police.'”
In 2021, while still in office, Cuomo went on record saying that the “defund the police” movement was “one of two schools of thought” with the other option giving more money to law enforcement. The debate continued and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who, according to recent polls, is gaining on Cuomo, was criticized by longshot candidate Whitney Tilson for a past X post when Mamdani called the NYPD “wicked & corrupt.”
The resurfaced post from 2020 is still live on Mamdani’s account and it responded to a ProPublica investigation about alleged abuse by the NYPD’s vice squad. “There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt,” Mamdani had posted. “Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.”
During the debate, Mamdani responded to the criticism by calling NYPD a critical part of public safety in the city and arguing that rank-and-file officers don’t want to be handling mental health calls that other professionals can better handle. Later in the debate, Cuomo and Mamdani also battled over President Donald Trump.
“I am the last person on this stage that Mr. Trump wants to see as mayor,” Cuomo said when asked how he would deal with the president. Trump would cut through Mamdani “like a hot knife through butter” if he is elected mayor, Cuomo argued. Moments later, Mamdani also shedded light on why Trump wouldn’t want him in office either.
“I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in and the difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo,” he said. Cuomo’s opponents didn’t just stop with the “defund the police” movement, they also took jabs at him over the sexual harassment scandal, his coronavirus response, and the federal investigation into whether he lied to Congress about his handling of the pandemic in nursing homes, the Associated Press reported.
Mamdani pressed Cuomo on the overlap between the former governor’s political donors and those who donated to Trump. “The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C.,” Mamdani said.
