With just weeks until the election, socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani is highly favored to win. Despite this, the debate on Wednesday was every man for himself, with each candidate lobbing attacks and insults at one another.

Here are the top five moments from Wednesday night’s debate.

1. ‘Knock him on his tuchas’

Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, who led the state as a Democratic governor from 2011 until he resigned amid controversy in 2021, took aim at Mamdani’s lack of leadership experience, predicting that President Donald Trump would make short work of him if he were elected mayor.

“[Trump] has said he’ll take over New York if he wins, and he will, because he has no respect for him. He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuchas,” said Cuomo.

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Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa participate in the second New York City mayoral debate at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, on Oct. 22, 2025. (Hiroko Masuike/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Mamdani immediately shot back by calling Cuomo “Donald Trump’s puppet himself.”

“You could turn on the TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo, and he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him,” said Mamdani.

2. ‘You fled!’

Though far and away the dark horse candidate in the race, Republican Curtis Sliwa landed some of the hardest punches of the night. Early on in the debate, he fired at Cuomo’s controversial exit from office, saying, “Andrew, you didn’t leave. You fled from being impeached by the Democrats in the state legislature. You fled!”

Cuomo, meanwhile, reserved most of his ire for Mamdani. At another point in the debate, he addressed the 34-year-old socialist New York assembly member, saying, “You don’t know how to run a government, you don’t know how to handle an emergency, and you’ve literally never proposed the bill on anything that you’re not talking about in your campaign.”

“You had the worst attendance record in the assembly, and you gave yourself the highest raise in the United States of America,” he said, exclaiming, “Shame on you! Shame on you!”

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Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo participates in the New York City mayoral debate at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, on Oct. 22, 2025. (Hiroko Masuike/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

In response, a grinning Mamdani said, “It is always a pleasure to hear Andrew Cuomo create his own facts at every debate stage.”

“We just had a former governor say in his own words that the city has been getting screwed by the state. Who was leading the state? It was you!” said Mamdani. “You were leading the state for 10 years, screwing the city!”

Cuomo immediately denied this accusation, blaming the current Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and saying, “That’s the past four years.”

3. The meme moment

Chaos erupted on the debate stage after Mamdani attempted to skirt around a question on whether he supports a set of housing ballot initiatives, with Cuomo, Sliwa and the moderators immediately pressing him to answer.

“What is your opinion, Zohran? Come on!” Sliwa shouted as Cuomo droned, “Yes or no?!”

Cuomo rocked back and forth with his hands, mocking Mamdani, saying, “It’s a TikTok dance,” producing the most meme-worthy moment of the night.

Andrew Cuomo taunts Zohran Mamdani with a dance during the last New York City mayoral debate on Oct. 22, 2025. (Spectrum News NY1)

“They’re pointing out what I was about to say. Would you please answer the question?” a moderator asked.

Mamdani continued to deflect, saying, “I think on this stage you can see two people appealing for the Republican Party votes and myself speaking directly to New York City.”

“Answer the question for once,” Cuomo continued prodding as Sliwa waved his arms and smacked his forehead with his palm.

“My question to you was, do you support the three ballot amendment questions?” the moderator pressed.

Mamdani finally answered, “I have not yet taken a position on those ballot initiatives,” as both Cuomo and Sliwa moaned in protest.

“What a shocker!” Cuomo teased. “Don’t worry, once he takes it, he’ll change it anyway.”

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Zohran Mamdani speaks during the debate at LaGuardia Community College in Queens on Oct. 22, 2025. (Hiroko Masuike/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

4. Support for global jihad?

Moderators and candidates alike pressed Mamdani on his controversial positions on Israel and rising fears among New York’s Jewish community.

Citing two sons who he said were raised Jewish, Sliwa said, “This issue is personal for me.”

“Let me speak on behalf of my two sons when they’ve heard some of the statements you’ve made, like in support of global jihad, and I hear some people out there saying, ‘the Jews that time is due,’ which means the same thing. They’re frightened; they’re scared. They view you as the arsonist who fanned the flames of antisemitism,” said Sliwa.

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, a lot of apologizing to do,” Sliwa went on. “My sons are afraid. Their family, their friends, many in the Jewish community are concerned if you become mayor, because they don’t think when antisemitism rears its ugly head, which it’s now doing more than ever before, that you will have the ability to come in and put out those flames of hate.”

Mamdani shot back, “I think there is room for disagreement on many positions and many policies, but I also want to correct the record: I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad.”

“That is not something that I have said, and that continues to be ascribed to me. And frankly, I think much of it has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election,” Mamdani went on, adding, “All the same, Curtis, I do still want to be the mayor that will keep your sons safe, that will keep every single New Yorker safe.”

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Thousands of demonstrators hold a pro-Palestinian rally in protest of Israel on Oct. 13, 2023, in Times Square, New York City. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

5. A stage full of scandal

Sparks flew when Cuomo and Mamdani were given free rein to question each other and, unsurprisingly, chose to press each other on their most controversial scandals.

Cuomo knocked Mamdani, who is an immigrant to the U.S. from Uganda, for being a “toxic” force in New York City, and pressed him for not advocating for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Uganda for its laws against homosexuality.

“You take a picture with Rebecca Kadaga, deputy prime minister of Uganda… She’s known as Rebecca ‘gay-killer’ Kadaga,” said Cuomo, asking, “How do you not renounce your citizenship, or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning people who are gay just by their sexual orientation, is that not a basic violation against human rights?”

Mamdani answered that “had I known that the first deputy minister was the architect of that legislation, I would not have taken that photo.”

In turn, Mamdani grilled Cuomo on 13 sexual harassment allegations filed against him while he was governor. Cuomo brushed this aside, saying, “The cases were dropped” and pressing further, “You have no problem with BDS against Israel, but no BDS against Uganda.”

Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa debate on Oct. 22, 2025. Millions of dollars are pouring into the mayoral election with less than two weeks to go until New Yorkers go to the polls. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

At another point in the debate, Mamdani attempted to turn the question of experience on Cuomo, saying, “The issue is that we have all experienced your experience.”

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“The issue is that we experienced you taking a $5 million book deal while you sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes. The issue is that we experienced you cutting funding for the MTA to send money to upstate ski resorts. The issue is that we saw you give $959 million in tax breaks to Elon Musk. The issue is your experience,” said Mamdani.

“The issue is you have no experience,” insisted Cuomo, adding, “You’ve accomplished nothing.”

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

The post Top 5 moments from final New York City mayoral debate: ‘Knock him on his tuchas’ appeared first on My Blog.

Frank Llewellyn, the former director of the largest socialist organization in America and a founding member of the socialist group that would later become DSA’s sister organization, serves as the treasurer for both Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and her political action committee, Courage to Change.

Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign has paid Llewellyn a total of over $250,000 for payroll, travel and other administrative expenses dating back to 2018, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings reviewed by Fox News Digital. Disbursements range from $77.50 for cellphone, travel and internet stipends and salary payments of $1,281 approximately every two weeks.

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Besides working on Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, Llewellyn also sits on the board of the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, a sister organization to the DSA, according to the group’s website.

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“Frank Llewellyn was one of the original incorporators of the Institute for Democratic Socialism which later became the Democratic Socialists of America Fund,” the DSA Fund website says. “A lifelong activist and socialist he served Democratic Socialists of America in New York City since the organization was founded. He served on its National Political Committee and as its National Director for more than ten years.”

Llewellyn was national director of DSA for over 10 years, from 2001 to 2011. Llewellyn confirmed to Fox News Digital that he continues to be a “lifetime member” of DSA and that he has been on Ocasio-Cortez’s staff since her first election in 2018.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., (left) employs Frank Llewellyn, a former national director of the Democratic Socialists of America. (AP; Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

One of the most significant achievements of DSA during Llewellyn’s time as director was the election of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in 2006. Llewellyn wrote an article in the DSA’s magazine celebrating Sanders’ election as the first time in American history that “a self-declared socialist has won a seat in the United States Senate.” In the article, Llewellyn detailed DSA’s deep involvement with Sanders’ campaign, saying fundraising for his successful campaign “is a major accomplishment in which we can take great pride.”

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Llewellyn wrote that “in the coming period, it is vital that we use our newly gained grassroots network, and our ties to truly progressive Democrats and Bernie Sanders, to promote both a progressive agenda and progressive organizing.”

The organization also later went on to endorse Sanders during both his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

An examination of Llewellyn’s social media shows that he continues to be an active member of the Queens branch of the New York City DSA. He posts regularly about Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders as well as New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is also an active member of DSA. In a 2021 Facebook post, Llewellyn said he was “very pleased to vote for Queens DSA endorsing [Mamdani]” when he successfully ran for the New York State Assembly.

Though Mamdani leads the New York City mayoral race by double digits, sparking concerns about the rise of socialism in America, a recent Fox News national survey revealed capitalism remains more popular than socialism. However, voters indicated they support raising taxes on the wealthy.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., greet the crowd together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour event at Arizona State University, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz.  (Ross D. Franklin)

Fox News Digital previously reported on DSA’s massive influence on the Mamdani campaign, including highlighting how DSA members discussed during a July panel how they have been closely collaborating with Mamdani and how he has the organization positioned to “seize state power.”

DSA organizer Daniel Goulden claimed the organization has been intimately involved in Mamdani’s campaign, even helping to write portions of his platform.

“With Zohran, we’re in basically the best possible position to seize state power that we can be in because, you know, we’re like this,” Goulden said, indicating with his fingers that the campaign and organization are very close.

Goulden went on to suggest that “one of the things that made Zohran really successful with his policy rollouts is specifically relying on DSA.”

AOC and Sanders, who are both self-proclaimed democratic socialists, have both endorsed and promoted Mamdani’s campaign and will be participating in a rally with him this upcoming Sunday.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani hold hands during the town hall “Fighting Oligarchy” event at Brooklyn College on Sept. 6, 2025.  (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

The national DSA organization and its chapters, including the NYC-DSA, have shared views on several issues that they have been vocal about, including their disdain for ICE and cracking down on “bad landlords” by having the city take control of properties when a landlord refuses to make repairs or “demonstrates consistent neglect” of their tenants.

Earlier this year, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders went on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour against the “billionaire class and corporate greed,” which amassed more than 300,000 attendees across 34 rallies in 20 states, according to Sanders.

Ocasio-Cortez faced criticism for racking up thousands at boutique hotels during the tour. Sanders also faced backlash after Fox News Digital exposed him and AOC for flying on private jets, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in disbursements during the tour.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez’s office and DSA for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey, Andrew Mark Miller and Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

The post Former top leader of radical group tied to Mamdani has been on AOC's campaign payroll for years appeared first on My Blog.