Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, called out President Donald Trump and his cronies in his response to Mayor Eric Adams abruptly dropping out of the upcoming election on Sunday.
“Look, Donald Trump and his billionaire donors may be able to determine the actions of Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said during a Sunday interview on MSNBC. “But they will not dictate the results of this election.”
Mamdani’s remarks come after Adams announced his decision to leave the mayoral race after previously insisting that he wouldn’t do so.
In early September, Adams said he was committed to seeking reelection. However, just a few weeks later, he bowed out, citing his campaign’s fundraising struggles.
Adams’s exit follows New York Times reports of Trump advisers discussing a potential job for him as a way to clear the field and consolidate support for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
An Adams spokesperson told The Times that the mayor had not discussed a position with Trump, while the White House declined to comment.
The Trump administration had also previously pushed federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges that Adams faced. And in public remarks, Trump has openly advocated for candidates to withdraw from the election, so that it would be a two-person race between an alternative and Mamdani, who is a democratic socialist.
“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one, and I think that’s a race that could be won,” Trump said in early September.
Mamdani has had a strong lead in recent polls after decisively winning the Democratic primary earlier this year.
A September Suffolk University poll had Mamdani at 45% support, Cuomo at 25%, Adams at 8% and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa at 9%. Based on these figures, Cuomo would still be trailing Mamdani even if he picked up Adams’s support.
“I’m excited and just as confident as I was yesterday at actually delivering that vision and winning this race on November 4th,” Mamdani said Sunday.
He emphasized, too, that he believed voters would send a message to Trump and reject his efforts to weigh in on the election.
“We’re going to show [Trump] that New Yorkers are tired of his politics and tired of being priced out of the city,” Mamdani said.
The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.