Democracy Now! Audio - Exclusive: Zohran Mamdani Reacts to Eric Adams Dropping Out of NYC Mayoral Race

Episode Date: September 28, 2025

New York Mayor Eric Adams has announced he is dropping out of the race, just over a month before Election Day. We get response from Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Nermine Scheher. New York Mayor, Eric Adams, has announced he's dropping out of the race just over a month before Election Day. In recent weeks, President Trump and New York business leaders pressured Adams to drop out of the race in an effort to help boost the campaign of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who's running as an independent. Polls show Cuomo is well behind. New York Assembly members, Zaharan Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist, who shocked the political

establishment in June when he defeated Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary. There have been reports Adams might drop out ever since he met with one of President Trump's closest advisors, Steve Whitkoff, in Florida earlier this month. The New York Times reports President Trump has considered offering Mayor Adams and Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Leewa positions in his administration to clear the field to help Cuomo including in Adams case, possibly making him ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Sliwa said recently he was even offered money to drop out. Well, today we're joined by the man President Trump does not want to become mayor of New York.

That's right, Zahan Mandani. He's in our studio to talk about this breaking news and more. Sohran Mamdani, welcome back to Democracy Now. It's great to have you with us. Respond. The significance of Adams dropping out of the race. Does this surprise you? You know, it is something that has been rumored for quite some time that this would be the month, this would be the week, this would be the day, and today we've finally seen it.

Yet it is also an encapsulation of so much of what has characterized Eric Adams' mayorality, is decisions at the behest of Donald Trump and his billionaire donors and at the expense of working class New Yorkers. And what we see in this moment is very much what we saw the day we started this campaign on October 23rd. and necessity to finally stand up to the days of big money and small ideas being what characterizes City Hall and instead delivering for the very working class New Yorkers that are being priced out of that same city. Well, let's go to what Eric Adams had to say in a nine-minute video message announcing his decision to drop out. New York Mayor Eric Adams did not mention you, Zohran, or Andrew Cuomo, by name, but he said this, which has been viewed as criticism of your campaign. Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those who claim the answer to destroy the very system we built together over generations that is not changed.

That is chaos. Instead, I urge New York is to choose leaders not by what they promise, but by what they have delivered. So, Zerran, your response. Well, you know, I am not surprised to hear any of these critiques or points from Eric Adams because it is Eric Adams's mayorality that has delivered us with a city where one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. And in that same video, he diagnoses what the issues are that New Yorkers face. He speaks about the necessity of lowering costs, of improving quality of life, of keeping New Yorkers safe. And I don't contest the diagnosis.

I contest his delivery, however. This is a mayor who raised the rent by 12% on more than 2 million New Yorkers. a mayor who priced New Yorkers further out of child care, a mayor who has time and time again exacerbated a cost of living crisis, whether by raising the water bill or supporting Con Edison when they wanted to raise gas and electric. And so I wouldn't take advice on addressing that same crisis from the man who's been inflaming it time and time again.

Well, could you say, what do you think the impact of his dropping out will have on your electoral prospects? I think it's very much the same race. We have seen over the course of this race, especially in the final weeks and months of the primary that Andrew Cuomo wanted nothing more than a one-on-one fight with me. And we gave him exactly that,

and then we beat him by 13 points. And we continue to be just as confident. And yet what separates us from these other candidates is that we're not focused on them. We're focused on New Yorkers. New Yorkers deserve leadership that is thinking about how to benefit the people of the city. And too often politicians, be it Andrew Cuomo or Eric Adams,

the meetings that they have or the phone calls with someone like Donald Trump, they're only speaking about themselves. It's time to actually think about New Yorkers. So in the New York City mayor of race, the Republican nominee who's still in the race, Curtis Sliwa, says at least seven wealthy individuals have offered him money to end his campaign. He says he's going to stay in the race, if you can talk about that, who you think these seven wealthy individuals are. And are they the same people who are funding ads to the tune of millions of dollars against you? Well, I can tell you there's no shortage of Trump donors who. are seeking to influence this election who are looking to spend more money than I would even tax

them to try and stop our campaign. And at the same time of Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Slewa, Curtis Slewa is the one that I would trust the most. And I do think it is very real that there are many who are threatened by our campaign and our politics of putting working people at the heart of this city's focus and are trying to do everything in their power. And we've seen that with Donald Trump being on the phone with Andrew Cuomo trying to do everything in his power to ensure that they stop this movement. And the sad news for them is that they won't be able to. Is this going to change your strategy in any way where you now, it's gone from a four-person race to a three-person race. But of course, people are saying that with Eric Adams out of the race,

it's much closer to a two-person race. You and your leading opponent, Andrew Cuomo. We will have the same focus as we've always had on working-class New Yorkers. a struggle to afford this city. And also to be very clear with New Yorkers that the reason that Donald Trump is seeking to clear the lane for Andrew Cuomo is because he knows that Andrew Cuomo will clear their lane for Donald Trump's agenda. There is a reality to the fact that it takes two to tango and these are the two people that are so often on New Yorkers' minds as an example of the politics we have to leave in the past. Well, indeed, Zoran, your entire platform has focused principally on affordability and, as you said, helping the working class. But what appeared surprising

to sum in the Democratic primary is that Cuomo had a double-digit lead over you in low-income neighborhoods. So how do you explain that and what are you doing to assuage whatever the concerns of this constituency are? You know, when I started this race and I was here on the first day of the campaign, I was also here on primary day, and I'm very happy to be back. I spoke about the fact that I was a state assembly member who at that time was polling, let's say 1% and that's being charitable to me. That's rounding up. And I think for much of the campaign, it was introducing myself and our movement to New Yorkers. And we introduced ourselves to quite a few, which by the end of that primary meant that

we won close to 600,000 votes. And yet that work still continues. Because when I'm running against Andrew Cuomo, it's not just his name or his record that comes to mind for New Yorkers, it's also that of his father. And so for many New Yorkers, that was the association that they began the race with. And now we are building a coalition that shows our agenda is one that will deliver that affordability to each and every New Yorker. Thank you.