Cuomo slammed for ‘Islamophobia’ after interview with Jewish shock jock Sid Rosenberg

This piece first ran as part of The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. There are 11 days to the election.

😱 Cuomo accused

• Andrew Cuomo has been widely accused of Islamophobia after a radio interview Thursday with Sid Rosenberg, a Jewish conservative shock jock. (We profiled Rosenberg last year after he emerged as one of Donald Trump’s leading Jewish surrogates.)

• Cuomo was arguing that Mamdani lacked the experience to lead New York City through crises. “God forbid another 9/11,” he said to Rosenberg, who has hosted the former governor three times in recent days. “Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?”

• Rosenberg replied, “Yeah, I could. He’d be cheering.” Earlier in the program, Rosenberg called Mamdani a “terrorist.”

• Cuomo laughed and said, “That’s another problem.”

• Mamdani slammed the exchange shortly after in an interview with PIX11. “This is disgusting, he said. “This is Andrew Cuomo’s final moments in public life and he’s choosing to spend them making racist attacks on the person who would be the first Muslim to lead this city.” He added that Cuomo’s remarks “smeared and slandered” the more than 1 million Muslims living in New York City.

• Rebukes also rained down from leading New York Democrats, including some, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Rep. Dan Goldman and Rep. Ritchie Torres, who have previously expressed concern about Mamdani’s rhetoric on Israel.

• Hochul told Cuomo to “get out of the gutter,” Goldman accused him of “naked Islamophobia” and Torres said the comments were “beyond disgusting and disgraceful.”

• Rep. Jerry Nadler, who along with Hochul has endorsed Mamdani, also referenced New York’s line against antisemitism in his response. “Imagine if this kind of bigotry was used against any other faith — Jewish or Christian New Yorkers. Would we roll over and accept it?” he said.

• Asked about the interview hours later, Cuomo said it was Rosenberg who used the controversial language. He added that he had in mind Mamdani’s interview earlier this year with Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who has been accused of antisemitism and once said that America “deserved 9/11.”

• In the first mayoral debate last week, Mamdani said Piker’s comments on 9/11 were “objectionable and reprehensible.”

🏆 Adams endorses Cuomo

• Weeks after saying that Cuomo was “a snake and a liar,” Mayor Eric Adams endorsed him and called him a “brother” on Thursday.

• “Brothers fight,” said Adams, who last month quit his defiant reelection bid dogged by low polling numbers, at a press conference with Cuomo in Harlem. “When families are attacked, brothers come together.”

• Adams said he was driven to unite with Cuomo against Mamdani in part because Mamdani declined to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada” during the primary.

• He then suggested there was a link between Mamdani and Islamic extremists. “New York can’t be Europe, folks. I don’t know what is wrong with people. You see what’s playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism,” he said.

• Meanwhile, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries praised Mamdani’s promise to retain NYPD police chief Jessica Tisch and said he planned to speak with Mamdani this weekend, raising the prospect of a possible endorsement.

🚺 ‘Hot Girls for Cuomo’

• Pro-Israel influencer Emily Austin, who was born in New York to Israeli parents, launched a campaign she called “Hot Girls for Cuomo” this week.

• Austin urged her viewers to vote for Cuomo before interviewing him on her YouTube show. She had particular encouragement for one demographic: “If you are a hot girl for Andrew Cuomo, I want to hear from you,” she said.

• Austin said she was persuaded to vote for the Democrat because she believed he could beat Mamdani, calling herself “as conservative as it gets.” She previously interviewed Trump.

• But someone appears to have gotten to the web address HotGirlsForCuomo.com before Austin. The link directs to the New York attorney general’s investigation that validated sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo in 2021.

📝 Jewish letters against Mamdani

• Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, joined other prominent Jewish voices urging New Yorkers to vote against Mamdani in recent days.

• More than 1,000 rabbis across the country have now signed a letter that said a Mamdani victory would threaten “the safety and dignity of Jews in every city.” One rabbi said the letter has divided Jewish leaders and communities.

• In a new open letter, Oren said, “There can be no obscuring the fact that the candidate wants to see my state, my family, and the home of the world’s largest Jewish community erased from the map.”

• Oren claimed that Mamdani said Israel has no right to exist, and said his “singling out” of Israel was antisemitic. Mamdani has repeatedly said that Israel has a right to exist, though he has expressed reservations about its right to exist as a Jewish state, saying it should exist “with equal rights for all.”

• Read up on everything else Mamdani has said about Israel, Jews and antisemitism here.