Mamdani Agrees With MSNBC Host ‘A Vote for Cuomo’ Is ‘A Vote for Trump’

New York City mayoral candidate and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D) agreed with MSNBC host Ari Melber that a vote for former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) is like a vote for President Donald Trump.

Cuomo, who trails Mamdani badly heading into Election Day, got an 11th-hour all-caps endorsement screed from Trump, who has been attacking Mamdani relentlessly throughout the campaign.

On Monday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber, Melber scored an election-eve interview with Mamdani, and asked the candidate for his reaction to a Cuomo appearance on MSNBC’s The Weekend, which the candidate turned into a chance to tie his rival to Trump:

MELBER: Let’s talk about Andrew Cuomo. One of the reasons you became something of an overnight political star is not just that you won a primary, but you beat Andrew Cuomo, who, frankly, a lot of Democrats around the country know more than you.

MAMDANI: Yeah.

MELBER: And I think a year ago that was true in New York.

MAMDANI: Yes.

MELBER: But you’ve — right?

(LAUGHTER)

MELBER: You beat him once. We’ll see what happens Tuesday. He was just doing a new interview this weekend and he made some remarks about diversity. I wanted to give you a chance to respond. I’ll just play them in full. This was on MSNBC’s “Weekend.”

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO (I), NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Diversity can be a weakness if you have antipathy among groups, Jonathan, if you have…

EUGENE DANIELS, CO-HOST, “THE WEEKEND”: Eugene.

CUOMO: … racism or antisemitism, et cetera. So then you’d have friction. And so you have to work very hard to keep it as a positive and to make sure that it’s not a negative. And you have zero tolerance for any racism, any antisemitism, et cetera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELBER: Your response.

MAMDANI: This is the former governor, a Democrat, ostensibly, of this state, who is saying that diversity can be a weakness and then proceeded to confuse the two Black hosts with each other. More and more what we’re seeing is that Andrew Cuomo, who ran an entire primary campaign on the premise that he was best suited to beat Donald Trump, as soon as we defeated him by 13 points, he proceeded almost immediately to get on his hands and knees to beg that same president for his help and the donors of that same president for their help. And now his closing message is to sound even more like the president than anyone else.

MELBER: Are you saying a vote for Cuomo is like a vote for Trump at this point?

MAMDANI: Yes, I am saying that. And — and I’m saying that because Donald Trump has hand-picked his candidate. That candidate’s name is Andrew Cuomo. And New Yorkers have the chance to handpick their fighter. And I believe that candidate should be me.

Watch above via MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber.