New York City’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani doubled down Thursday after releasing a viral campaign video highlighting a link between his opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mamdani pounced on the subject during a press conference in the Bronx, where he was asked if the video was intended to make Cuomo appear unlikable by pairing him with someone as disgraced as Epstein, an accused sex trafficker.
“I don’t need to do much to make the governor appear extremely dislikable,” Mamdani said. “The intent of that video was to shine a light on what journalists have uncovered over many months, which is the fact of what the former governor did after resigning in disgrace.”
“We know that which has been reported, and yet we also know that there is likely more,” he continued. “Because, as is the case with Andrew Cuomo, when you think you found out about all of his scandals — there seems to always be another one.”
“Finally in June, the New York Times covered that Cuomo had worked with his longtime friend Andrew Farkas on a luxury marina project in Puerto Rico,” Mamdani said in the video. “Farka’s previous partner on luxury marinas in the Caribbean? Jeffrey Epstein.”
The paper reported at the time that Cuomo declined to share information about the clients and companies who paid him as a consultant after resigning in 2021, but noted the marina project and two other deals had already come to light — as Mamdani noted in his video.
“Cuomo advised a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles as it faced federal investigations,” he said in the clip. “Then in May, Politico reported that Cuomo failed to disclose $2.6 million in stock options to the New York City Conflicts of Interest board.”
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“To hear from a former governor about the difficulties of attracting additional jobs without the recognition of what the Trump administration has done to make it so difficult …” said Mamdani, citing Trump’s tariffs and the current “business climate” hampering local tourism.
“We’re seeing estimates of about a $4 billion loss compared to other years in this city,” he said. “That is something that has massive ramifications for the ability for our city to continue functioning as it has, and yet I cannot recall the last time the former governor even brought that up.”