Mayor Adams Calls Out Cuomo After Ex-Gov. Asked Him To Exit Mayoral Race

NEW YORK CITY — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has called on former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to drop out of the general election in November so he can have a better shot at defeating Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Adams said Cuomo "didn't have the legs in New York" and disclosed the former governor recently asked him to drop out in a phone call.

“I said, ‘Andrew, are you that level of arrogance?’ I’m the sitting mayor, the sitting mayor of the City of New York,” Adams said.

“And you expect me to step aside when you just lost to Zohran by 12 points. He was up 32 points, $30 million dollars. You lost. They heard your message and you lost. Now let a fresh set of legs that has produced for this city. And that’s the highest level of arrogance.”

Adams and Cuomo are both expected to appear on the independent ballot in November. Last week, the former governor was told by Rev. Al Sharpton to drop out of the mayoral race and let Adams and Mamdani have a "one-on-one race," Patch previously reported.

Also on Monday, Gov. David Paterson told reporters at a press conference that either Adams or Cuomo should drop out of the race and support the other, in an effort to defeat Mamdani.

"There are candidates running on independent lines. They're trying to get support and what I'm trying to focus on today is who would emerge from that group of people to possibly lead the city," he said.

Paterson, who endorsed Cuomo in the primary election, stopped short of calling for a specific candidate to drop out of the race.

“I’m really not here to represent any candidate,” Paterson told reporters. “That’s why we didn’t ask any of the candidates to be here, but we didn’t ask any of the representatives," he added.

GOP candidate, Curtis Sliwa and lawyer Jim Walden, are also running for mayor in November.

Sliwa has also rebuffed calls for him to drop out of the race, so Adams could potentially run on the Republican ballot.