Debate Crowd Gasps as Mamdani Tells Cuomo One of His Sexual Harassment Accusers Is in the Audience

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani elicited gasps from the debate crowd on Wednesday after he informed opponent Andrew Cuomo that one of his sexual harassment accusers was sitting in the audience.

“Mr. Cuomo, in 2021, thirteen different women who worked in your administration credibly accused you of sexual harassment,” said Mamdani during the debate. “Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself, all while describing these allegations as entirely political. You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening.”

As the audience gasped, Mamdani continued, “You sought to access her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. What do you say to the thirteen women that you sexually harassed?”

After the audience erupted into cheers and applause, Cuomo responded, “If you want to be in government, then you have to be serious and mature. There were allegations of sexual harassment. They then went to five district attorneys, fully litigated for four years, the cases were dropped, right? You know that as a fact. So everything you’ve just stated, you just said was a misstatement.”

Cuomo then quickly changed the subject, pressing Mamdani on why he would not support boycotts and sanctions against Uganda over the country’s LGBT policies.

During his time as governor of New York, Cuomo was accused of sexually harassing thirteen women.

Charlotte Bennett, the former Cuomo aide who was in the audience on Wednesday as a guest of Mamdani, accused Cuomo in 2020 of making several inappropriate comments, including “asking her whether she had been with older men.”

Other women accused Cuomo of kissing, groping, and touching them without consent.

Watch above via Spectrum News.