Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo came under fire Thursday over his role in an exchange during which conservative talk show host Sid Rosenberg said Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, would be “cheering” for a second 9/11.
As he sought to make a point about Mamdani’s lack of experience, Cuomo posed the question:
“God forbid, another 9/11— can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?”
“He’d be cheering,” Rosenberg replied.
Cuomo paused and appeared to laugh briefly as Rosenberg guffawed over his own comment.
“That’s another problem,” Cuomo continued.
Mamdani later excoriated the former governor over the exchange on Rosenberg’s WABC radio show “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” saying Cuomo’s goal was to “smear and slander.”
He also slammed Rosenberg, who the candidate pointed out has called him an “animal” and a “terrorist.”
“We’re speaking about a former governor who — in his final moments in public life — is engaging in rhetoric that is not only Islamophobic, not only racist, it’s also disgusting,” Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference in Manhattan.
Mamdani has spoken throughout the race about the attacks on him for his faith.
“… It is both incredibly disappointing and yet not surprising, given how Andrew Cuomo has run this campaign and how little he thinks of the very people that he is also going to serve if he were to actually be a leader as a city.”
Mamdani pointed out that Cuomo, on the debate stage the night before, had spoken about bringing New Yorkers together and fighting division.
“And then the next morning get on a radio show and say this kind of language, it shows both how hollow his commitments are and how he is, in fact, the illustration of the very division he says that he would fight.”
The remarks come amid Cuomo’s push to capture the vote of conservatives in the city as he trails Mamdani in the polls.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement that Cuomo’s response was not about 9/11 but to Mamdani’s ties to Hasan Piker and the streamer’s controversial 9/11 comments. That was not clear on air.
“He was referring to Mamdani’s close friend Hasan Piker, who said ‘America deserved 9/11,’ a statement 9/11 families called on Zohran Mamdani to denounce but he refused for months,” Azzopardi said.
The spokesperson noted Cuomo during the appearance spoke overall about how “deeply unqualified” Mamdani is for the role of mayor.
But the former governor’s exchange with Rosenberg met with near-immediate backlash.
“Time to get out of the gutter,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul. “Fear-mongering, hate speech, and Islamophobia are beneath New York — and everything we stand for as a state.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a staunch supporter of Israel, wrote on social media that “to insinuate that a mayoral candidate would celebrate a second 9/11 is beyond disgusting and disgraceful.”
“We all have a responsibility to lower the temperature and to restore a measure of civility to our public discourse,” he said.
“All Cuomo has to offer is fear-mongering & hatred. They get enough of that from Donald Trump,” Comptroller and Mamdani ally Brad Lander wrote on X.
As he seeks to close the gap between himself and Mamdani, Cuomo is looking to a broad range of constituencies for support. Cuomo and his allies, along with Rosenberg and WABC radio owner John Catsimatidis, have been pressing GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa to exit the race.
In Thursday’so appearance, Cuomo sought to tie Sliwa to Mamdani, a democratic socialist on the opposite of the political spectrum from Sliwa.
“Who’s your friend in cahoots with, Sid?” the ex-governor asked the host.
Originally Published: October 23, 2025 at 2:31 PM EDT
