The first of presumably many fiery New York City mayoral debates took place at Rockefeller Centre on Friday, October 6 (US time). Candidate Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa took turns to answer countless bombshell questions surrounding rent, Israel’s war in Gaza, immigration, the National Guard and even US President Donald Trump. With political debate having already wrapped up, two of three NYC mayoral hopeful admitted to using cannabis.
During the final rapid-fire round, the moderators David Ushery and Melissa Russo of WNBC-TV, Telemundo’s Rosarina Breton and Politico New York’s Sally Goldenberg outrightly asked the candidates if they had ever bought a marijuana. Both medical and recreational cannabis are legal in New York.
2025 NYC mayoral debate: Candidates on marijuana use
Mamdani, of Indian-American heritage, smiled as he admitted to having bought the substance. “I’ve purchased marijuana at a legal cannabis shop,” he confessed. Meanwhile, Cuomo, one of his front-running contenders curtly replied, “no.”
Meanwhile, Sliwa said that he’s relied on medical marijuana as he was shot five times and has had Crohn’s disease. The Guardian Angels founder miraculously survived after he was struck by gunshots multiple times in a presumed mob hit in 1992. The notorious Gambino family’s John Gotti is said to have been responsible for the same.
“The surgeons warned me that if the hollow-point bullets didn’t kill me . . . they would cause me more gastronomical issues [down the line],” he once told the New York Post. “And they did.”
Mamdani vs Cuomo vs Sliwa
With some burning questions already posed by the moderators during the first of the series, the second mayoral showdown between the candidates is scheduled to take place on October 22. Those tuning in for the hours-long event couldn’t help but notice that it was significantly focussed on Mamdani.
Facing off against Andrew Cuomo, who is now running as an independent after losing to the 33-year-old Democratic socialist, Mamdani hit back early on, “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity. What you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”
The Independent candidate, who resigned as governor in 2021, was found to have sexually harassed 11 women by the state attorney general at the time. Even the Republican candidate, Sliwa, attacked Cuomo for the “lawsuits filed against you for sexual harassment.”
