Analyst on how Cuomo could beat Mamdani

With early voting set to begin in just a few days, New Yorkers had one last chance to see the three mayoral candidates face off. He has said he'll take over New York if he wins, and he will because he has no respect for him. He thinks he's a kid and he's going to knock him on his tookus. We heard from Donald Trump's puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo. He spent more money on a singing water fountain at LaGuardia Airport than he did on the average cost of an affordable housing unit. Cuomo, the architect of no-cash bail. Zohran, the apprentice of no-cash bail. That's why criminals are running in the street.

When Curtis Sliwa punched hard to prove he deserves to be on the ballot, Zohran Mamdani smirked at Andrew Cuomo's attacks, and Cuomo even made mocking hand gestures when Mamdani refused to take a stance on housing issues on the ballot. I have not yet taken a position on those ballot amendments. Oh, what a shocker!

And there was also this. You had the worst attendance record in the Assembly, and you gave yourselves the highest raise in the United States of America. You went from $110,000 to $140,000, and then you never showed up for work, and you missed 80% of the votes. Shame on you. We just had a former governor say, in his own words, that the city has been getting screwed by the state. Who was leading the state? It was you.

Governor Hochul. You were leading the state for 10 years-- Governor Hochul. --screwing this city. No. You were the-- You cut homelessness funding.

But the most intense moments came when Mamdani and Cuomo got to ask each other a question. One of Mamdani's debate guests was Charlotte Bennett, one of the women accusing Cuomo of sexual harassment. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private gynecological records. If you want to be in government, then you have to be serious and mature. There were allegations of sexual harassment.

After the debate, Mamdani and Sliwa went to the spin room. There was only one other candidate on that stage who seems to love this city. If, God forbid, Zohran Mamdani was the choice of the people-- and we will leave it up to them-- is I will organize resistance because I will improve. I will not move. Zohran Mamdani can bet that I will be his worst nightmare.

But Cuomo went right to Madison Square Garden, sitting courtside with none other than Mayor Adams. All right, joining me now in Studio 55, New York City famed political analyst Hank Sheinkopf. Hank, good to see you. Thank you for having me. All right, so that photo of former Governor Cuomo and Mayor Adams at the Knicks game, you say what when you saw that? Brilliant. Brilliant. Very smart. Why? Go from the debate. Go to the mayor. He's African American, and that matters. Cuomo's got to win the Black vote in New York City with big numbers in order to be elected, so that was a move to do that. So Eric Adams this morning just endorsed Cuomo. Very smart move by the mayor. It cements his legacy. It also tells the vote-- and a lot of people feel that he was badly treated, the mayor was, that they should be with the guy who's going to protect them, and that's Cuomo. He's giving that imprimatur to former Governor Cuomo, and that is really important. There's a lot of pressure on Curtis Sliwa to drop out of the race, although people have been big fans of his debate performance. Do you think that if he were to drop out of the race that that would give former Governor Cuomo the edge? It would certainly help the governor. Why? Because that vote-- people, they might not like Andrew Cuomo, but they hold their noses to vote for him. Why? Because they don't want Mamdani. That's the difference. The Sliwa vote does not want Mamdani. There's no question about that. And Andrew Cuomo, should Sliwa leave, will get a certain percentage of that vote. It felt yesterday as if the former governor was on his game, as opposed to the previous debate, and it felt that Mamdani was on his heels most of the time. Did you get that sense as well? I got the sense that Andrew Cuomo had become Andrew Cuomo again, and Mamdani, frankly, was who he was. He is the most rehearsed candidate we've seen in quite some time. He's kind of a throwback. He is kind of the invented candidate that we once saw at the beginning of the political consulting business in the '60s and '70s. He's that guy. If the conversation deviates from what he is prepared for, it becomes problematic for him, and you saw that very much last night. Yeah, they were trying-- the governor, at one point, was trying to pin him down on some of his policies that he refused to articulate. Which if you were watching this, you thought to yourself, well, he's actually a politician after all. I know that the narrative has been he's this new breed of leader, but in his inability or his unwillingness to actually commit to something, it felt like he was just like another pol. Well, he was because he is the Acme of American political consultant.

Acme meaning like the old Looney Tunes? He's the Acme. Why? He is entirely rehearsed. If the questions fall where they're supposed to, he can respond in a particular way. If not, it becomes almost like robotics. He can't function, and you saw that last night. It is a very kind of deliberately established, put-together, poll-driven kind of candidacy that Mamdani has that's worked thus far. The problem is he expected Andrew Cuomo to be the Andrew Cuomo we saw a couple of weeks ago in the debate stage. The issue today is he saw a very different Andrew Cuomo, the Andrew Cuomo that, frankly, we used to see a lot of. OK, before we go, if the race stays the same-- in other words, Sliwa stays in the race-- who's going to be mayor? And if Sliwa drops out, who will be there? Sliwa drops out, Andrew Cuomo is likely to win this race because people hold their noses and they say, wait a second. We can't have Mamdani, the Republicans who are going to turn out, and there will be a fall off among Republicans. If Sliwa stays in, its not clear yet, and anybody who predicts otherwise is, frankly, not being realistic. It could go either way. Yeah, because I keep thinking, as much energy and support Mamdani has with young people in this city and others, it feels like it's an uphill battle for people in Staten Island, for example, Upper West Side-- Sure. --Harlem. Do you see it that way, too, or am I-- I'm not that involved in New York politics as a journalist, but it just feels way I'm reading the tea leaves that that could be a difficult challenge for him. I've worked all over the world and all over this country. What I can tell you is that younger voters are least likely to turn out, OK? The question, the problem that Mamdani faces is, can he get them out? And the other problem he faces is, can he get them out against the Cuomo everybody saw last night? Those are two serious problems that Mamdani is going to have to face. All right, you heard it here, folks, from the legendary-- how many years have you been doing this? A long time. [LAUGHTER] Hank Sheinkopf, thank you very much. Always good to have you here. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.