Cuomo, Molinaro Trade Blows In Feisty NY Governor Debate

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Marc Molinaro sniped and traded insults Tuesday in a feisty debate that ended with an invitation to a shower.

The moderators struggled to wrangle the second-term Democratic governor and the Republican Dutchess County executive as they fought over taxation, public corruption, the MTA and President Donald Trump during the hour-long debate taped at CBS 2's Midtown studio. The showdown will be broadcast on TV and radio at 7 p.m.

Cuomo was on the attack despite his hefty advantages over his little-known challenger. He repeatedly tied Molinaro to Trump, his favorite rhetorical target, calling his opponent part of an "extreme conservative" movement.

Molinaro was just as aggressive, frequently attacking Cuomo as a hypocrite and a liar while trying to outline his own policy positions for a statewide audience. He wore a lapel pin depicting the cartoon superhero Underdog in an apparent nod to his tough odds in the race.

The pair frequently interrupted each other and ignored the moderators' efforts to move on to the next question. "Don’t make me punch you out," CBS 2 political correspondent Marcia Kramer said to Cuomo at one point.

It took several days of cajoling to get Cuomo to the debate, the only one scheduled with just two weeks until the Nov. 6 election. The New York Post depicted him as a chicken on its front page for four straight days before the in-person, on-camera face-off with Molinaro.

Cuomo used the president as a brickbat at a time when Democrats are hoping a wave of anti-Trump energy will help them take control of Congress in the midterm elections. “Do you support Donald Trump?” the governor asked Molinaro four times in quick succession following a question from WCBS Newsradio reporter Rich Lamb about homelessness.

Molinaro mostly dodged the governor’s question, but eventually said that the U.S. under Trump has “the most competitive economy in the world, and New York State lags behind.” He’d previously slammed Cuomo for the state’s high spending, which he blamed for high local taxes.

Cuomo didn't let up, saying Molinaro is part of a party that wants to strip New Yorkers of health care and put more people in jail for low-level offenses. He pointed to Molinaro’s 2009 vote as a state Assembly member against a bill to bar prisons from shackling pregnant inmates during labor as evidence of his alignment with Trump’s policies.

“This extreme conservative divisive cancer that you have brought to this state with Washington — you put children in cages in Washington and you shackle women to gurneys in New York,” Cuomo said, referring to the Trump administration’s separation of immigrant families.

Speaking to reporters after the debate, Molinaro said he would support the president’s decisions that help the state and oppose those that hurt it. But he said he did not want the governor to "dictate the dialogue."

Trump’s apparent mocking of a disabled news reporter during his presidential campaign was enough to convince Molinaro not to vote for him, he said, as his daughter has autism.

Molinaro fired back that Cuomo has his own ties to Trump, referring to thousands of dollars in campaign donations the governor received from the president. "You, sir, had him at your bachelor party, I didn't," he said.

Trump didn't attend Cuomo's 1990 bachelor party in person but appeared in a video clip that played there, The New York Times reported in August.

The two candidates found some points of agreement between the sniping. They both expressed support for charter schools and the state’s medical marijuana program. Both said it was wrong for the state Parole Board to free Herman Bell, who was convicted of killing two police officers in the 1970s, though Molinaro had a tougher stance: “When I’m governor of the state of New York, if you kill a cop, you do not return to society.”

The debate took a bizarre turn at the end, when Kramer asked what song personified the candidates and their campaigns. Cuomo named Jay-Z and Alicia Keys's "Empire State of Mind," but he declined Kramer’s request to sing a few bars. “In the shower, I can do it,” he said.

When Kramer pressed further, Cuomo said, “That’s a campaign killer. Unless you come to the shower.”

(Lead image: Gov. Andrew Cuomo debates his gubernatorial challenger Marc Molinaro on Tuesday in Manhattan. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)