In another sign of New York's intensifying mayor's race, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched a scathing attack on Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani for posing with an official from Uganda who pushed a law to put gay people in jail for life. 

Cuomo used names like "mansion boy" and "champagne socialist" to attack the Democratic frontrunner over posing with the female Ugandan official who led a yearslong campaign to crack down on gay people in her country and once called for the death penalty. 

The former governor also called into question why Mamdani maintains dual citizenship with Uganda, where he was born. 

"Why would you keep a citizenship in Uganda, which is a country that outlaws the LGBTQ community?" Cuomo said. "You are a citizen of Uganda, running for mayor. Why wouldn't you say I am going to give up my citizenship because I will not be the citizen of a country that would kill gay people," Cuomo said at a Monday afternoon news conference. 

Cuomo, who is running as an independent against Mamdani, pounced on a newly surfaced picture posted by Uganda Deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kadaga.

The photo and another that includes Mamdani's father were taken as Mamdani was flying home from a summer wedding at his family's home in Kampala. 

"It would be a total act of hypocrisy to be this, a citizen of a country that abuses LGBTQ people," Cuomo said. 

Mamdani campaign attacks Cuomo's record with LGBTQ community

Mamdani's campaign did not address the Ugandan official's yearslong anti-gay crusade, but went right for the jugular. 

"Andrew Cuomo is holding press conferences about Zohran's citizenship because, unlike Zohran, he has nothing real to offer New Yorkers - no vision, no plan, no solutions," Mamdani's press secretary Dora Pekec said. "This is the same Cuomo who ran the 'Vote for Cuomo, not the homo' campaign and refused to stand with the LGBTQ community when it counted - he doesn't get to posture as an ally now." 

The so-called "picture-gate" overshadowed Mamdani's attempt to show New Yorkers how much they could save if all of his affordability measures were actually enacted.  

Sliwa calls on candidates to tone down rhetoric after alleged threat

Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa defended Mamdani on one hand, but called the picture "a bad look." 

"Nobody would accuse Zohran Mamdani of being homophobic or anti-gay or lesbian or transgender," Sliwa said. 

The Guardian Angels founder then questioned Mamdani's continuing ties to Uganda. 

"I would think the right thing to do would be to sell your property. Government there has clearly made its choice. They don't want gays and lesbians," he said. 

Sliwa, who picked up Rudy Giuliani's endorsement Monday, also called for everyone to tone down the rhetoric. He said he had private security at his news conference because of credible threats made against him and his wife over the weekend. 

Sliwa said he would provide his own security because the NYPD is understaffed, but he plans to share the threat information with the NYPD.