Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg praised New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and attacked independent mayoral candidate and former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a recent CNN interview.
Buttigieg lauded Mamdani for already taking “steps that are not just about winning but about trying to bring people together.”
“I don’t live in New York, but I think he has the capacity to be a great mayor,” Buttigieg said.
The potential 2028 Democrat presidential contender went on to criticize Cuomo over his sexual harassment allegations and COVID-era nursing home scandal, saying he “disqualified himself in so many ways, including morally.”
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi went after Buttigieg’s comments in the New York Post, calling them hypocritical.
“He doesn’t have a vote in this race, and one would think he’d have a moral problem with a New York City with a diminished police force, a decriminalized sex trade, no jails, and a weakened education system that encourages mediocrity—and that’s exactly what Zohran Mamdani is running on,” Azzopardi said.
Buttigieg’s praise comes after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Mamdani on Friday, making him “the most senior-ranking national Democrat figure to support the self-described socialist’s bid for Gracie Mansion,” according to The Daily Signal’s George Caldwell.
