Andrew Cuomo laughed Thursday at the suggestion that his mayoral election rival Zohran Mamdani would be “cheering” over another 9/11, sparking outrage from Democrats.
The former governor, who is running as an independent, was caught chuckling at the notion that the socialist front-runner would applaud a heinous attack on the city while appearing on the conservative WABC radio show “Sid & Friends In The Morning.”
“God forbid, another 9/11 — can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo asked host Sid Rosenberg of how the young Democratic nominee would fare as mayor in such an emergency situation.
“He’d be cheering,” Rosenberg quipped.
“That’s another problem,” Cuomo said with a laugh.
Mamdani, who would be the first Muslim mayor if elected, later ripped the comments during an unrelated press conference in Murray Hill.
He gave a resounding “yes” when asked by reporters if he thought the comments were rooted in islamophobia.
“I don’t think anything justifies those kinds of remarks,” the Queens assemblyman said — noting the remarks also went against Cuomo’s promise that he would “bring New Yorkers together” during Wednesday night’s mayoral debate.
A slew of Democrats attacked the three-term governor over the rhetoric, including Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, who had endorsed Cuomo during the party’s mayoral primary.
“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,” Torres said in a post to X.
“It should be possible to critique a candidate’s ideas without demonizing the candidate himself.”
Cuomo’s successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, also piled on, calling the comment “fear-mongering, hate speech, and islamophobia,” in a post to X.
“Time to get out of the gutter,” she wrote.
Cuomo defended himself against the attacks Thursday afternoon — saying he had a problem with the company Mamdani keeps.
“I said about 9/11, ‘that’s another problem,’ referring to what I have said repeatedly, which is, I have a problem with the fact that Zohran pals around with Hasan Piker, who said, America deserves 9/11,” he told reporters, referring to the left-wing influencer associated with Mamdani.
Mamdani, after being repeatedly pressed about sitting down for an interview with Piker, denounced the popular Twitch streamer’s past vile remarks.
“I find the comments that Hasan made on 9/11 to be objectionable and reprehensible,” Mamdani said during last week’s first general election debate, after being pushed by Cuomo.
Mayor Eric Adams, who formally endorsed Cuomo on Thursday, also took to defending his newfound ally.
“You see what’s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism,” the mayor railed at a press conference in East Harlem alongside Cuomo.
“Not Muslims, let’s not mix this up, but those Islamic extremisms that are burning churches in Nigeria, that are destroying communities in Germany, that have taken over the logical thinking, and that’s what I’m fighting for,” he said.
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