Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani escalated their attacks on each other as the mayoral election in New York City approaches.

Though defeated by Mamdani in the Democratic primary, Cuomo has continued his run for mayor as an Independent. With incumbent Mayor Eric Adams’s poll numbers tanking and Republican Curtis Sliwa unlikely to win in the deep blue city, Mamdani and Cuomo have focused their attacks on each other — attacks that are growing increasingly serious and personal.

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Cuomo fired the first broadsides against Mamdani, adopting an increasingly aggressive strategy over the past couple of weeks, full of taunts and allegations of hypocrisy. He debuted a new angle on Friday, bashing Mamdani for living in a $2,300-a-month rent-stabilized apartment. Cuomo began calling the issue #Rentgate.

“Our housing plan will create 500K new affordable housing units to drive down costs for everyone and preserve rent stabilized apartments for those who actually need them – instead of privileged children of millionaires gaming the system,” Cuomo said, implicitly referring to Mamdani.

“From your own comments about family support, it is nearly certain that your parents guaranteed your obviously rent-stabilized lease,” he continued. “Why are you hiding it? The people of New York City have a right to know, and a dream for affordable housing that helps the working class. Release the lease.”

On Monday, Cuomo said he would introduce “Zohran’s law” to prevent the rich from occupying New York City’s affordable housing.

While making repeated jabs responding to Cuomo’s criticisms, including directly comparing the former governor to President Donald Trump, Mamdani carried out his biggest attack yet on Tuesday with a professionally-produced video hitting Cuomo over his handling of COVID-19, sexual assault allegations, and allegations of consulting fraud.

After a video montage featuring news clips discussing Cuomo’s scandals, Mamdani questioned the former governor’s consulting firm, Innovation Strategies LLC.

“Less well known is what he spent the last four years doing, besides getting trounced in the democratic primary,” Mamdani said with a smirk. “In 2022, Cuomo started Innovation Strategies LLC to represent ‘individuals and corporations in a variety of matters,’ definitely not vague.”

“Last year, it raked in more than half a million dollars. Who paid for Cuomo’s services? He refuses to say, but what journalists have been able to piece together is troubling,” he continued.

Mamdani pointed to a report from Bloomberg, which found that the former governor had advised a cryptocurrency exchange in the Seychelles that faced a federal investigation. He brought up another report from Politico, finding a failure of Cuomo to report $2.6 million in stock options to the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board, which he argued weren’t his but rather his company’s.

Mamdani then looped in a growingly popular angle among Democrats, drawing a connection with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein through Cuomo’s work with his former associate.

“That’s the thing about Andrew Cuomo — once you think you’ve found out about all of his scandals, you find out about another, and then another, and then, probably, another. But if my friend, the disgraced former governor in the state of New York, feels that’s unfair, habibi, release your client list,” Mamdani said with a smirk, implicitly drawing parallels with Epstein.

The video ended with “#releasethecuomolist.”

Mamdani’s video was far better received on X, garnering over 170,000 likes within the first 24 hours compared to Cuomo’s posts, which earned a few thousand likes. However, the New York Times reported that Cuomo’s attack angle struck a nerve with New Yorkers.

The attacks only appear set to escalate further, with Cuomo comparing the feud to a boxing match in a post on X last week.

DARK CUOMO IS THE HERO GOTHAM NEEDS — AND DESERVES

“In case you forgot, I’m Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario, grandson of Andrea. Welcome to the heavyweight bout, @ZohranKMamdani,” Cuomo said. “This is a two-man race. You look tired already. It’s just the second round.”

Despite Cuomo’s confidence, polls show that the four-man race is Mamdani’s to lose. A Sienna College poll released on Tuesday had Mamdani leading with 44% of the vote, followed by Cuomo with a distant 25%. Even further down were Sliwa at 12% and Adams at 7%.