New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani addressed President Donald Trump directly and apologized to police officers during an interview. This comes after critical comments he made about the New York Police Department.

New York

The three leading candidates in New York City's mayoral race—Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa, and Zoran Mamdani—are set to participate in their first debate. Ahead of the event, Mamdani appeared on Fox News, where he addressed former President Trump directly, stating he would not seek Trump's advice on legal or electoral matters, unlike his opponents. 

During the same interview, Mamdani publicly apologized to police officers for critical remarks he made in 2020, following the death of George Floyd, when he had accused the NYPD of racism and corruption. The discussion also highlighted the political dynamics of the race, with Sliwa warning against the rise of democratic socialists and recent polls showing Mamdani holding a significant lead over his rivals.

Mamdani addresses Trump directly, apologizes to police officers

Tonight, the top three candidates in New York City's mayoral race will take a part in their first debate. That includes former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's running as an independent, Curtis Sliwa, who's running as a Republican, and Assemblyman Zoran Mamdani, running as a Democrat. Mamdani appeared on Fox News yesterday and spoke directly to President Trump. Listen to this. I just want to speak directly to the president, which is that I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail. I won't be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own. I will, however, be a mayor who's ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living. CBS News political director, Finn Gomez, is here in New York and joins me in studio. Good to see you. Hey, Vlad, good to see you, too. Good to see you, my brother. All right, so, during his interview, Mamdani apologized to police officers yesterday. What was that all about? Yeah, this goes back to 2020, when he had just been elected to the State Assembly here in New York, and it was right after, if you remember, it was right after the George Floyd death, and it was this, he had put out on social media, and publicly, it said that some really sharp criticism towards the NYPD, saying that they were racist, that they were corrupt, and so, when he went on Fox yesterday and talked about this, it was, he had said that he had already had some private conversations with the police here in New York City, and also apologized publicly, and I think it was a smart move politically, at least, that's what I'm hearing from progressives, because they feel that the crowd that he was trying to address, especially with the Fox News crowd, were those who were more supportive of police. Yeah, and I thought it was good for him to go on Fox. Martha McComb, always a great anchor, journalist, was able to probe some of his past controversies, and he was there in the kitchen, so to speak, to take the heat. The other candidate I wanna ask you about is Curtis Lee. He spoke to CBS News this week about what he believes sets him apart from other candidates. I wanna play a little bit of what he told our CBS News producer, Jared Okacher. If New York City ends up with a socialist mayor, it will encourage other young democratic socialists of America, led by Bernie Sanders, AOC, and now Zoran Mandami, to come on board and become DSA members and take over their city's government legally. I'm the only one standing between Zoran Mandami and Andrew Cuomo, who I call Zoran Light. All right, so Sliwoj's sort of been a dark horse in this race. The criticisms leveled at Mandami, who apparently seems to be the front runner in this race, that he's a socialist. You know, that term gets tossed around a lot by people whenever they have a policy, just the same way that sometimes people on the left talk about fascism when they're describing their opponents on the other side. There's nothing that indicates that he's an avowed socialist, but that is a label that he's going to have to fight against if he's going to be elected mayor, and especially if he is elected mayor. Yeah, I mean, look, he is a democratic socialist. He belongs to that Democratic Socialist Party. Obviously, he's running as a Democrat since then, since the primary upset win against Cuomo and others. He's basically moderated himself in a lot of these positions. Look, there's still a pretty significant, at least according to the latest Quinnipiac poll, there's a pretty significant, sizable lead between, that he has over Cuomo and Sliwa. Sliwa's like way in third place. But if you look at it, since Eric Adams, the current mayor, as you know, dropped out, that support has gone to Cuomo. The Adams supporters are now drifting towards Cuomo. You could see that. You could see, like, since previous polling, like the most recent one, the support has really, really gone to Cuomo. Still, Mamdani, according to these polls, has about a 12 to 13-digit lead. Sliwa's in the back. But if you look at Sliwa's, in this most recent Pew poll, if you look at it, the difference is about the same. So I think there are many, I spoke to some Cuomo supporters here in New York, who say they believe that if he did drop out, and I don't think there's any, at least he's saying he's not going to, but if he did drop out, you could see that lead narrow between Mamdani and Cuomo.

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