Cuomo cites NYC shooting in slamming Mamdani's ‘defund the police' past
Cuomo, who's running as an independent against Mamdani in November's mayoral election, made the assessment in a wide-ranging interview with the Daily News on Tuesday afternoon.
In the interview, Cuomo argued issues related to public safety are political weak spots for Mamdani and affirmed he plans to start calling out his past rhetoric about policing as the general election season heats up.
Having vowed to run a more aggressive general election campaign after losing last month's Democratic mayoral primary to Mamdani by a 12-percentage-point margin, Cuomo even questioned whether his opponent's condolences for the NYPD officer killed in Monday's shooting were genuine.
'[Mamdani] said that today because it was in his political interest, but everything he has said for years is the exact opposite,' said Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies.
The ex-gov continued, 'You do a 180 right after this incident … and it's just coincidental that the election is a few months away? Do you buy that?'
Cuomo was referring to an X post Mamdani put out Monday in which he, in part, wrote he was 'grateful' for the cops and other emergency personnel who earlier in the day had responded to 345 Park Ave., where officials say suspect Shane Tamura fatally shot NYPD officer Didarul Islam and three others before killing himself.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, embraced sharply different rhetoric about the NYPD during the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in 2020 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
In social media posts at the time, Mamdani wrote the city should 'defund' and 'dismantle' NYPD, blasting the department as 'racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.'
'Oh, really, Officer Islam was racist?' Cuomo said Tuesday. 'Who's going to apply to be a police officer when that's what the mayor thinks of them?'
Mamdani, who is in Uganda visiting family this week, wasn't available for an interview Tuesday, but his spokeswoman Zara Rahim blasted Cuomo for using the shooting as fodder for a political attack.
'Families across our city are mourning — including members of our Muslim community grieving an officer who leaves behind his pregnant wife and young children. Multiple victims remain in the hospital, fighting for their lives,' Rahim said.
'Our focus is on supporting those who've lost loved ones and bringing our communities together in the face of tragedy. This is a moment for compassion and solidarity — not cheap shots in the press.'
Mayor Adams, who's also running as an independent in November's election after having dropped out of the Democratic primary amid fallout from his federal indictment, agreed with Mamdani's campaign.
'It is deeply disappointing — and frankly despicable — that during a moment of tragedy, when our city is mourning the loss of one of its own, former Governor Cuomo would choose to inject politics,' Adams told The News in a statement. 'Now is not the time for political potshots. Now is a time for unity, compassion and focus on the brave officer who made the ultimate sacrifice.'
Since launching his mayoral bid, Mamdani has shifted gears rhetorically on policing, saying he wouldn't defund the NYPD as mayor. Instead, he has vowed he'd keep the department's officer headcount flat and launch a new community safety agency focused on helping people with mental illness in order to let cops focus on fighting crime.
But Cuomo, who has pledged to as mayor hire 5,000 new NYPD officers, said he doesn't trust Mamdani would make good on those promises.
'I don't believe that pointing to one statement counteracts 10 years of activism and hundreds of tweets,' said Cuomo.
As governor, Cuomo voiced solidarity in 2020 with elements of the Black Lives Matter movement and signed an executive order that threatened to pull state funding from police departments that didn't take steps to reform their use-of-force protocols to ensure accountability and to protect civil rights.
But on Tuesday, Cuomo struck a different tone, arguing the anti-police sentiment that took root in 2020 was dangerous.
'That whole movement was wrong and did tremendous damage and today is a reality check on that,' he said. Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi later said the ex-gov was with that comment referring to the defund-the-police movement, not Black Lives Matter.
Mamdani is polling as the favorite to win November's election after running a primary campaign focused on affordability that included pledges to freeze rent for stabilized tenants, drastically expand subsidized child care and make public buses free.
Policing was not a major theme of Mamdani's campaign, and Cuomo as well as Adams are likely to come after him over that issue this fall.
Cuomo saved some criticism for Adams in relation to the Midtown shooting as well.
Touting that, as governor, he signed legislation that banned assault rifles in New York, Cuomo questioned why Adams hasn't as mayor tried to do more to rally local elected officials around the country to push Congress to enact stricter gun control laws on the federal level.
'I haven't heard or seen him doing that,' Cuomo said.
In his statement, Adams said Cuomo is mistaken, noting his administration 'has convened national meetings with mayors from cities most impacted by gun violence.'
'This is not a moment for finger-pointing. It's a moment to honor our heroes, support their families, and recommit ourselves to the hard work of keeping our cities safe,' he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
4 hours ago
It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs
WASHINGTON -- For all of President Donald Trump's promises of an economic 'golden age,' a spate of weak indicators this week told a potentially worrisome story as the impacts of his policies are coming into focus. Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared to last year. More than six months into his term, Trump's blitz of tariff hikes and his new tax and spending bill have remodeled America's trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his own liking. He's eager to take credit for any wins that might occur and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter. But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post. When Friday's jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures. 'Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes,' Trump said on Truth Social, without offering evidence for his claim. 'The Economy is BOOMING.' It's possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return — or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come. Trump's aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carries significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections. 'Considering how early we are in his term, Trump's had an unusually big impact on the economy already,' said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. 'The full inflationary impact of the tariffs won't be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans, that's also an election year.' The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Thursday's tariff announcement as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements. The costs of those tariffs — taxes paid on imports to the U.S. — will be most felt by many Americans in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain. 'For the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,' said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist. Just 38% of adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That's down from the end of Trump's first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership. The White House paints a rosier image, seeing the economy emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump's restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck. 'President Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale – as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. The economic numbers over the past week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path: — Friday's jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump's tariff launch in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival. — Net hiring has plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May — a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month. — A Thursday inflation report showed that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture, and toys and games, jumped from May to June. — On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the U.S. economy — showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year. 'The economy's just kind of slogging forward,' said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. 'Yes, the unemployment rate's not going up, but we're adding very few jobs. The economy's been growing very slowly. It just looks like a 'meh' economy is continuing.' Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates even though doing so could generate more inflation. Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christoper Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday's meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market. But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity. His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue. Of course, Trump can't say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies. Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech last December at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses. 'He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,' Biden said. 'I believe this approach is a major mistake.'
San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
It's Trump's economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all of President Donald Trump's promises of an economic 'golden age,' a spate of weak indicators this week told a potentially worrisome story as the impacts of his policies are coming into focus. Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared to last year. More than six months into his term, Trump's blitz of tariff hikes and his new tax and spending bill have remodeled America's trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his own liking. He's eager to take credit for any wins that might occur and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter. But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post. When Friday's jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures. 'Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes,' Trump said on Truth Social, without offering evidence for his claim. 'The Economy is BOOMING.' It's possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return — or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come. Trump's economic plans are a political gamble Trump's aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carries significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections. 'Considering how early we are in his term, Trump's had an unusually big impact on the economy already,' said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. 'The full inflationary impact of the tariffs won't be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans, that's also an election year.' The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Thursday's tariff announcement as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements. The costs of those tariffs — taxes paid on imports to the U.S. — will be most felt by many Americans in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain. 'For the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,' said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist. Just 38% of adults approve of Trump's handling of the economy, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That's down from the end of Trump's first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership. The White House paints a rosier image, seeing the economy emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump's restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck. 'President Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale – as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. The economic numbers over the past week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path: — Friday's jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump's tariff launch in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival. — Net hiring has plummeted over the past three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May — a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month. — A Thursday inflation report showed that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture, and toys and games, jumped from May to June. — On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the U.S. economy — showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year. 'The economy's just kind of slogging forward,' said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. 'Yes, the unemployment rate's not going up, but we're adding very few jobs. The economy's been growing very slowly. It just looks like a 'meh' economy is continuing.' Trump's Fed attacks could unleash more inflation Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates even though doing so could generate more inflation. Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christoper Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday's meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market. But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity. His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue. Trump didn't listen to the warnings on 'universal' tariffs Of course, Trump can't say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies. Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech last December at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses. 'He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,' Biden said. 'I believe this approach is a major mistake.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
NFL Employee 'Seriously Injured' in New York Office Shooting, Security to Be Increased
An NFL employee was 'seriously injured' in the deadly shooting at the league's New York City offices on Monday, commissioner Roger Goodell said in a staff memo. The staffer is in the hospital and in stable condition, Goodell added, saying that the league is supporting his family. More from The Hollywood Reporter Roku Snags Documentary on Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Win (Exclusive) Suspect in 'American Idol' Music Supervisor's Killing in L.A. Home Charged With Murder Son of Hollywood Producer Suspected in Triple Murder Found Dead in L.A. Jail Ahead of Hearing Otherwise, Goodell said, in the note sent Monday night, that the NFL's employees are 'otherwise safe and accounted for, and the building has nearly been cleared.' Four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer, were killed in the shooting at the league's Midtown Manhattan offices at 345 Park Avenue, and the gunman killed himself. On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the gunman targeted the NFL's headquarters but took the wrong elevator. He shot several people in the building's lobby before taking the elevator to the 33rd floor offices of the company that owns the building, Rudin Management, and shot and killed one person on the floor before shooting himself, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, according to the Associated Press. Police said the shooter, Shane Tamura of Las Vegas, had a history of mental illness and a rambling note found on his body suggested he was angry with the NFL over his belief that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other head trauma in contact sports like football, after playing high school football in California a decade ago. Tamura said his brain should be studied after he died, according to the AP. In addition to the NFL, the building houses the investment firm Blackstone and one of its employees was among those killed, according to the AP, and the financial services firm KPMG. In the memo, Goodell said the NFL was 'deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers who responded to this threat quickly and decisively and to Officer Islam [the off-duty cop who was killed], who gave his life to protect others.' Goodell said there would be increased security at 345 Park Ave. 'in the days and weeks to come' and that New York-based employees should work remotely Tuesday and it was understandable if people wanted to take the day off. 'Every one of you is a valued member of the NFL family,' Goodell said. 'We will get through this together.' President Donald Trump said in a statement shared on social media Tuesday, 'I trust our law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence. My heart is with the families of the four people who were killed, including the NYPD officer, who made the ultimate sacrifice.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter From 'Party in the U.S.A.' to 'Born in the U.S.A.': 20 of America's Most Patriotic (and Un-Patriotic) Musical Offerings Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025
