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      Experience, integrity and Trump: key takeaways from New York’s mayoral debate

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      Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and current frontrunner for New York City mayor, faced off with Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor now running as an independent, and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, at the first New York mayoral election debate on Thursday night.Here are some key takeaways from the evening.1. Trump’s threats to New York City loomed largeThe Republican president’s threats to New York City dominated plenty of conversation during the debate.In response to the first question, which asked candidates to provide a headline on their legacy as mayor, Mamdani answered: “Mamdani continues to take on Trump, delivers on affordability.”All three candidates agreed they would not support Trump sending the national guard to the city. Mamdani repeated his assertions that he is the best candidate to “stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver”, while Cuomo argued that Trump would try to take over the city and become “Mayor Trump” if Mamdani wins. Sliwa suggested it was better not to be “tough” with the president or risk goading him.Mamdani forcefully criticized Trump’s deportation efforts, but echoed his opponents by saying he would work with the president if elected. All three candidates were asked about the last time they spoke with Trump. Sliwa said that the last time spoke with Trump was “many years ago” when he was “praising him for saving the annual Veterans Day parade”. Mamdani said that he had never spoken with Trump, while Cuomo said that he believed he had spoken to him after the assassination attempt on the then presidential candidate last year. However, in August, the New York Times reported that Trump had recently spoken directly with Cuomo about the mayor’s race. On the debate stage on Thursday, Cuomo denied the report. 2. Two main weaknesses were under fire: Cuomo’s character and Mamdani’s inexperienceCuomo started the night by attacking Mamdani, calling him too unqualified and inexperienced to lead New York City.“This is no job for on-the-job training,” Cuomo said. “If you look at the failed mayors, they’re ones that have no management experience.”Mamdani, the 33-year-old state assembly member from Queens who is a self-described democratic socialist, pushed back on Cuomo and cited his years in the New York state assembly as well as his lived experience in New York City. Mamdani touted himself as “someone who has actually paid rent in the city” and “who has had to wait for a bus that never came, someone who actually buys his groceries in this city”.Cuomo shot back: “What the assemblyman said is he has no experience.”Mamdani fired back: “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity, and what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”3. Tensions rose around Israel and the ceasefire in Gaza The candidates sparred over Israel and Gaza, with Mamdani once again facing questions about his past remarks on Israel. Cuomo tried to demand Mamdani denounce Hamas, prompting Mamdani to say: “Of course I believe that [Hamas] should lay down their arms … All parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons.”Mamdani also said that since the primary, he’s learned through conversations with Jewish New Yorkers more about antisemitism and how the phrase “globalize the intifada” could be hurtful.Cuomo repeated his usual attack lines on Mamdani, suggesting he was a danger to Jewish New Yorkers while Mamdani called out Cuomo for failing to visit mosques.After Cuomo was previously lambasted for being unable to name a mosque he visited as governor, Mamdani noted that the former governor had visited a single one and said on Thursday: “It took Andrew Cuomo being beaten by a Muslim candidate [in the primary] to set foot in a mosque.”4. Sliwa attempted to stand out, sans red beretSliwa, the Republican nominee and founder of the Guardian Angels, spent much of the night taking shots at both Mamdani and Cuomo. He dismissed Mamdani’s plans and ideas as “fantasies”, mocked Cuomo for losing the Democratic primary and went after the former governor over allegations of sexual harassment.Positioning himself as an outsider, Sliwa tried to distance himself from the political establishment.“Thank God I’m not a professional politician, because they have helped create this crime crisis in the city that we face,” he said at one point. When Cuomo argued that he was the only candidate on stage who could handle Trump, Sliwa responded: “You think you’re the toughest guy alive. You lost your own primary.”In another fiery moment from Sliwa during a discussion on policing, Sliwa said to Cuomo of his father: “I knew Mario Cuomo. You are no Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo.”5. Mamdani evades having to endorse Kathy Hochul When the three candidates were asked if they supported the re-election campaign of New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, none of them raised their hands.Mamdani’s response was notable, as the governor has publicly endorsed him for mayor. “I’m focusing on November, and I appreciate her support, and I appreciate her work,” the Democratic nominee said.  More

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      Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa spar in New York mayoral debate

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      New York City’s three mayoral candidates faced off on Thursday night in the first of two televised debates, less than three weeks before voters head to the polls.On stage were Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo – now running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June – and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race several weeks ago, did not participate.During the two-hour-long debate, the candidates clashed over a variety of local and national issues, including crime, policing, affordability, housing and transportation, as well as how they would handle the Trump administration and the recent Gaza ceasefire deal.Mamdani and Cuomo, the race frontrunners, wasted no time and began sparring – with Sliwa between them – almost immediately.Cuomo is notably attempting a political comeback after resigning as governor of New York in 2021 in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual harassment. He started the night echoing his performance in the primary debates, painting Mamdani as too unqualified and inexperienced to lead the city.“This is no job for on-the-job training,” Cuomo said. “If you look at the failed mayors, they’re ones that have no management experience.”Mamdani, the 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens and self-described democratic socialist, pushed back on Cuomo by citing his five years in the New York state assembly and his lived experience in New York City. He touted himself as “someone who has actually paid rent in the city” and “who has had to wait for a bus that never came, someone who actually buys his groceries in this city”.Cuomo shot back: “What the assemblyman said is he has no experience.”Mamdani fired back: “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity, and what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”View image in fullscreenAt one point, Cuomo was pressed on the allegations that preceded his resignation and his handling of nursing home deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. He was asked why voters should trust that he has the “character to be mayor”.Cuomo defended his record and denied the allegations, saying “none of that came to anything”.Throughout the night, Sliwa, the Republican nominee and founder of the Guardian Angels, took shots at both candidates, describing Mamdani’s plans as “fantasies” and mocking Cuomo for losing the Democratic primary. He also went after the former governor on the allegations of sexual harassment.Donald Trump was a major specter during the debate’s first hour, with each candidate addressing some of his policies and how they would engage with his administration if elected.Mamdani said he’d be willing to work with Trump “if it means delivering on lowering the cost of living for New Yorkers”, but warned that “if he ever wants to come for New Yorkers in the way that he has been, he’s going to have to get through me as the next mayor of this city”.Cuomo said he’d work with Trump but that he would fight the president if he tries to “hurt New York”, while Sliwa said he would “sit and negotiate” with him.“You can be tough, but you can’t be tough if it’s going to cost people desperately needed federal funds,” Sliwa said.All three candidates agreed that Trump should not send national guard troops to New York City.Sliwa pushed back when Cuomo suggested that he was the only candidate who could handle Trump: “You think you’re the toughest guy alive. You lost your own primary.”The recent ceasefire deal in Gaza was also addressed on the debate stage. Mamdani, who has been critical of the Israeli government and vocal about Palestinian rights, was asked about his views on Hamas.“Of course I believe that they should lay down their arms” he said. “A ceasefire means ceasing fire. That means all parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons, and the reason that we call for that is not only for the end of the genocide, but also an unimpeded access of humanitarian aid.”Cuomo went after Mamdani and claimed the latter was refusing to “denounce Hamas” and that he was speaking in “code” with his answer. Mamdani pushed back, calling Cuomo the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “legal defense team during the course of this genocide”.Mamdani also said that in talking to Jewish New Yorkers, he was discouraged from using the phrase “globalize the intifada”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“What I’m looking to do as the first Muslim mayor of this city is to ensure that we bring every New Yorker together – Jewish New Yorkers, Muslim New Yorkers, every single person that calls the city home. They understand they won’t just be protected, but they will belong,” he said, prompting Cuomo to call Mamdani “a divisive personality across the board”.Both Sliwa and Cuomo praised the Trump administration for its role in for brokering of the ceasefire deal, which many have said directly mirrored the deal Biden brokered during his administration.View image in fullscreenMamdani was also asked about past comments he made on social media, including comments he made in 2020 about the New York police department during the nationwide protests against police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd. Mamdani called the department “racist” and demanded the defunding of the the police in social media posts.Earlier this week, Mamdani appeared on Fox News and apologized to the police department for those remarks. He added that he has also apologized to officers in private meetings.On Thursday, Mamdani said that despite his previous calls for defunding the police, he no longer believed that should happen, and that he is “looking to work with police officers not to defund the NYPD, looking to ensure that officers can actually do one job when they’re signing up to join that department”.Mamdani touted his plan to create a department of community safety that would send dedicated mental health teams to handle relevant 911 calls.Cuomo pledged to hire 5,000 more officers and assign 1,500 of them to the subways, raise starting salaries, and “work on the relationship between the community and the police”.Sliwa called for hiring 7,000 officers and reinstating qualified immunity to officers.On mass transit, Mamdani described his plans for “fast and free” buses while Cuomo claimed such a program would be subsidized by wealthy bus riders and the buses would effectively become mobile homeless shelters.When the issue of affordability came up, and candidates were asked how much they spend per week on groceries. Cuomo said about $150, Sliwa said about $175 and Mamdani said about $125.Mamdani, who has made affordability the focus of his campaign, reiterated some of his longstanding pledges to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, freeze rent increases on rent-stabilized apartments and build more housing.He also called out Cuomo for not addressing a pressing issue for most of the debate. “I just have to say it’s been an hour and 20 minutes of this debate, and we haven’t heard Governor Cuomo say the word ‘affordability’. That’s why he lost the primary,” Mamdani said.A poll released last week showed Mamdani leading, with 46% of likely voters supporting him, followed by Cuomo, at 33%, and Sliwa, at 15%.The final mayoral debate is scheduled for Wednesday 22 October.Election day is Tuesday 4 November. Early voting begins on 25 October and runs through 2 November. More

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      ‘He may be watching’: Mamdani on Fox News speaks directly to Trump

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      Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate to be the next mayor of New York, stepped into the lion’s den on Wednesday when he sat for an interview with Fox News, the rightwing news organization that has spent weeks demonizing him and his democratic socialist goals.Speaking to host Martha MacCallum, Mamdani was asked about funding for his proposals, which include freezing increases on rent-stabilized apartments, providing free buses and offering free childcare – and whether other services would be cut to achieve those goals.“I don’t think we have to cut,” Mamdani said. “I’ve spoken about raising taxes on the wealthiest. And, frankly, this is an issue that we have here in New York City, and, frankly, even across this country.”Mamdani said he had spoken to people who voted for Donald Trump in New York who told him it was the “cost of living” that “drove them to vote” for the president.Mamdani said that, despite that, “what we’re seeing time and time again is we’re more focused on the question of billionaires and the most profitable corporations than we are on people who can’t even afford to make ends meet in the city”.Following his surprise victory over Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, Mamdani has for months led the polls to be New York’s next mayor. A survey released by Quinnipiac last week showed Mamdani winning 46% of the vote to the former New York governor’s 33%. The Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, was at 22%.That rise has brought attention from outlets such as Fox News, which has closely covered Mamdani, sometimes publishing multiple news stories on him a day. Jesse Watters, the network’s primetime host, has been a frequent critic, describing Mamdani as a “communist”, which he is not, and calling him “Kamala Harris with a beard”, while Sean Hannity suggested that the rise of Mamdani, who is Muslim, is evidence that “an extremism is taking root right before your very eyes”.In an interview that rehashed several rightwing critiques of Mamdani, MacCallum suggested he may lack the qualifications for the role. “President Trump said that you never worked a day in your life,” MacCallum told Mamdani, before asking what qualifies him to run the city.In response, Mamdani spoke directly into the camera, alluding to how the outgoing mayor, Eric Adams, bowed to pressure from the Trump administration to cooperate on immigration crackdowns – before the Trump-led justice department dropped a federal corruption case against him.“I want to take this moment, because you spoke about President Trump, and he may be watching right now, and I just want to speak directly to the president,” Mamdani said.“I will not be a mayor like Mayor [Eric] Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail. I won’t be a disgraced governor like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own. I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living.“That’s the way that I’m going to lead this city. That’s the partnership I want to build, not only with Washington DC, but [with] anyone across this country.”The interview came as Mamdani prepared for a debate with Cuomo and Sliwa on Thursday night. Adams suspended his re-election campaign in late September.Cuomo, who has centered his campaign on reducing crime, will likely seek to contrast his decades of experience in politics with Mamdani’s newcomer status. The former governor, who resigned in 2021 after he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, has run numerous ads attacking Mamdani.The issue of the Israel-Hamas peace deal is likely to come up, given Cuomo’s strong support for Israel and Mamdani’s opposing stance. Mamdani has criticized Israel’s war in Gaza and called the bombing of the territory a “genocide”. Mamdani was asked questions about the region on Wednesday, including whether he would give credit to Trump for the fledgling deal.Mamdani, stressing that his focus would be on New York rather than international politics, said he was thankful for the ceasefire, adding: “I have hope that it will actually endure and that it will be lasting.”“I think it’s too early to [give credit],” Mamdani said. “But if it proves to be something that is lasting, something that is durable, then I think that that’s where you give credit.” More

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      Republican in New York’s mayor race: eccentric street vigilante who could secure Mamdani’s win

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      With less than a month to go, the race to be New York City’s mayor is continuing to fascinate and bemuse: and in an election that could have political ramifications across the country, it’s a beret-wearing, cat-loving vigilante who seems like he could have the final say.Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the crime-fighting group the Guardian Angels and the Republican candidate to run the largest US city, has little chance of winning the election in November. But his presence may be the thing that helps confirm Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist, as New York’s next mayor.Polling shows Mamdani, who was little known a year ago but has arguably become one the most talked-about politicians in the country, leading Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic governor running as an independent, by as much as 20 points. With Sliwa attracting up to 18% of the vote, an emerging theory popular among some of Cuomo’s wealthy backers is that Sliwa should drop out, allowing his voters to flock to their man.There’s just one problem. The 71-year-old isn’t going anywhere.“Curtis Sliwa never dropped out of anything in his life,” Sliwa told the Wall Street Journal, the Rupert Murdoch-owned, rightwing newspaper that has made it pretty clear it wants Cuomo to triumph, last week.Asked by others if he will exit the race, Sliwa has offered more visceral rebuttals.“A Mack truck hits me and I get turned into a speed bump, and they can’t recover me in the ICU. That’s the only way,” Sliwa said in an interview with amNewYork.It is an attitude that comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed Sliwa’s decades in public life. His role with the Guardian Angels – Sliwa wears the group’s distinctive red beret almost permanently – led to him being shot several times in 1992 after he criticized a mafia boss, and he stubbornly stayed in the mayoral race in 2021, winning 30% of the vote.Sliwa has never faced the pressure he has now come under, however, with Donald Trump and billionaire mega-donors calling for him to quit. According to Sliwa, some of the pressure has been of an illegal nature, with wealthy figures connected to Cuomo offering him money to drop out.View image in fullscreen“They all think that everybody has a price, that’s the way they talk. ‘Come on Curtis, everybody has a price,’” Sliwa told reporters recently. “Curtis Sliwa doesn’t have a price. I came into this world with nothing, I’m going to leave with nothing, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”Sliwa has avoided naming names but insists he has been offered “bribes”.“Seven different people, a total of $10m when you bifurcate it out over the years,” he told Fox5 New York.“Car, Jeep, chauffeur, headquarters to operate out of, helping the Guardian Angels, helping animal welfare – and you know something? If you’re watching out there, you can’t bribe me, buy me, lease me: I’m not for sale.”Sliwa accompanied his words with a chin-flicking gesture, which the New York Post translated as meaning “fuck outta here”. Cuomo’s campaign denied the claims and pointed to Sliwa’s track record with the truth, which has, at times, been patchy: in the 1990s Sliwa admitted he had faked some of the Guardian Angels’ crime-fighting exploits.That hasn’t stopped Sliwa from talking about the alleged bribes – and last week he began campaigning with a private security detail after he said he had received “very credible” threats against him and his wife.Whether Sliwa’s claims are true or not, the pressure on him to quit is undeniable.John Catsimatidis, the billionaire Republican mega-donor and a close friend of Sliwa’s, recently said he should drop out “if he reaches a point that he feels that he’s not turning it around”. In a separate statement last week, Catsimatidis said: “In two weeks from now, if he hasn’t shown any progress, how did Sgt Schultz say it? Machine kaput!”Joe Lhota, who was deputy mayor under Republican Rudy Giuliani, endorsed Cuomo, describing Sliwa as a “fruit loop” to the New York Post. Anthony Carbonetti, Giuliani’s former chief of staff, was more diplomatic, but said “the numbers aren’t there for him to win”. Bill Ackman, the billionaire who backed Trump in 2024, called out Sliwa directly on social media on Thursday.View image in fullscreen“A vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Zohran Mamdani. Curtis Sliwa, it is time for you to leave the race,” Ackman wrote. “Every day you wait to leave the race reduces the probability of stopping Mamdani. I know you don’t want to hand the City to him.”Sliwa has responded to the attempts at coercion as one might expect.“I believe the people have a right to vote and determine who the next mayor is,” the Guardian Angels founder added. “They don’t get picked by billionaires or the professional political class. That’s not how our elections work.”Ackman claimed in his social media post that Cuomo could beat Mamdani in a “one-on-one election”. But it’s not a given that Sliwa’s Republican voters would automatically flock to Cuomo, who has criticized Trump and resigned as New York governor under a cloud after being accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. Head-to-head matchups show Mamdani comfortably beating Cuomo in November.Still, national Republicans want Sliwa gone. Asked about his fellow Republican in an interview with Fox and Friends, Trump described Sliwa as “not exactly prime-time”.In a typically chaotic answer, Trump said Sliwa “wants cats to be in Gracie Mansion”, referring to the mayor’s official residence.“The magnificent home of the mayor, it’s beautiful. Gracie Mansion, to me, is like a fabled place if you’re in New York. No, we don’t need to have thousands of cats living in it,” Trump said.Sliwa has not said he wants thousands of cats living in the Gracie Mansion, although he has suggested using some of the 11 acres the building sits in to house sheltered cats and dogs that would otherwise be put down. Cats hold a particular place in Sliwa’s heart – he and his wife, Nancy, have rescued and fostered hundreds of cats. When the Guardian visited the couple’s studio apartment in 2021 they were sharing the tiny space with no less than 16 cats.Given New York is an overwhelmingly Democratic city, Sliwa is very unlikely to see his Gracie Mansion plans come to fruition. But his willingness to defy the billionaires, and the president, could see him have a big impact on the identity of the mansion’s next resident. More

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      A candidate for local office in New York disappeared months ago. He could still win

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      A political candidate in the New York City suburbs went for a night swim in the Atlantic Ocean this past spring and never returned.Petros Krommidas’s phone, keys and clothes were found on the sands at Long Beach on Long Island. The 29-year-old former Ivy League rower, who was training for a triathlon, had parked his car just off the picturesque wooden boardwalk.As the months passed, local Democrats attempted to field a replacement to run for the seat in the Nassau County legislature.But two Republican voters took them to court and won: a state judge recently ordered Krommidas’s name to remain on the November ballot, ruling that he’s still considered missing and not officially deceased.Now, as election day approaches, voters in Long Beach and other communities on the south shore of Long Island have a curious choice: re-elect the Republican incumbent or the Democrat who seemingly vanished at sea.James Hodge is among those calling on residents to cast their ballots for Krommidas regardless – hoping to trigger a special election in which Democrats can put forward another candidate to run against Republican lawmaker Patrick Mullaney.The Long Beach resident worked with Krommidas at the Nassau county board of elections and had been tapped by Democrats to run in his place.“We need to stand by and honor his name and memory,” Hodge told the Associated Press. “Let’s give him that victory. It’s the right thing to do.”The Republican voters argued in their lawsuit that Democrats couldn’t claim Krommidas was dead because authorities still considered him a missing person. They pointed to a New York state law that someone is presumed dead after being “absent for a continuous period of three years”.A county judge, Gary Knobel, agreed, writing in his ruling last month that “‘missing person’ status does not qualify as a vacancy that can be filled”.The judge noted a similar situation decades earlier in Alaska.Nicholas Begich Sr, a congressman, disappeared in a plane crash weeks before the 1972 election but still won. The Alaska Democrat was eventually declared dead, and his Republican opponent claimed the seat in a special election.In 2000, the Democratic governor of Missouri, Mel Carnahan, died in a plane crash while campaigning for a seat in the US Senate. Although Carnahan was trailing in the polls when he died, he made a political comeback after his death and narrowly defeated his Republican opponent, John Ashcroft. Carnahan’s widow, Jean, was appointed to serve in the Senate until a special election in 2022, which she lost.More recently, Dennis Hof, owner of the Nevada brothel featured on HBO’s Cathouse documentary series, died weeks before a 2018 election but still captured a seat in the state legislature.In 2020, North Dakota legislative candidate David Andahl died from Covid-19 the month before the election and still won. And in 2022, Pennsylvania state lawmaker Anthony DeLuca won reelection despite dying from lymphoma the month prior.Hodge and other Long Island Democrats argue that Republicans only sued to assure themselves victory as they seek to bolster their majority in the county legislature. They say the lawsuit has only prolonged the anguish for Krommidas’s family.“I understand politics, but there’s a time to stop and be a human being,” said Ellen Lederer-DeFrancesco, who met Krommidas through the local Democratic Pparty. “Petros is someone’s son, brother, friend.”The Nassau county Republican committee chairperson, Joseph Cairo Jr, in a statement, vowed the party and its candidates will “show the highest level of sensitivity during these challenging times for the Krommidas family”.Krommidas’s family declined to comment when reached by phone, but his mother and sister both called for residents to “honor and vote” for him in recent Facebook posts.“My Peter cared deeply about people and his community and continues to inspire kindness and unity in our community,” his mother, Maria, wrote.Eleni-Lemonia Krommidas, his sister, described him in her own post as a first-generation American who loved his country and “believed in equality, education, and the power of unity”.In the days after his disappearance, family and friends joined first responders in scouring Long Beach’s broad swath of sand, which is located just east of the New York City borough of Queens.View image in fullscreenSome of the missing person fliers they put up with images of Krommidas’s youthful, smiling face are tattered and faded but still visible on telephone poles around Long Beach.Meanwhile campaign signs for Mullaney, his opponent, are prominently displayed on fences along the main thoroughfares and on tidy residential lawns. The Republican didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.Along the Long Beach boardwalk last week, longtime resident Maude Carione was dumbstruck at the choice facing voters in November.“It’s insane to leave his name on the ballot. You’ll confuse people,” said the 72-year-old Trump supporter, who didn’t have plans to vote in the upcoming local election. “In fairness, you have to give another candidate a chance for the Democrats. You have to.”For resident Regina Pecorella, the decision, while grim, was clear. “If it’s between those two, I’m voting for the person that’s alive,” said the 54-year old independent, who voted for a straight Republican ticket in the previous election. “I don’t know how else to answer that.”Guardian staff contributed reporting More

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      The mortgage fraud case against Letitia James is ‘bupkis’, experts say

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      A prosecutor installed by Donald Trump may have been able to secure an indictment against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, but actually obtaining a conviction may be an uphill battle, legal experts say.Even before a grand jury handed down the indictment on Thursday, there was already deep skepticism about possible charges. Career prosecutors in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia had looked at accusations James committed mortgage fraud and concluded there was no probable cause to charge the case. Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s handpicked interim US attorney, nonetheless went ahead and presented the case to the grand jury. Her decision to do so reportedly caught top justice department officials off-guard.The indictment handed down on Thursday charges James with bank fraud and making a false statement when she secured a mortgage to buy a second home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020. As part of the purchase, James signed a rider that indicated she would use it as her second home and prohibited her from renting it out, according to the indictment. James proceeded to then rent out the home, prosecutors allege. By lying on the mortgage statement, prosecutors say, James secured a better mortgage rate and a seller credit that saved her about $18,933 over the life of the loan.“In this case, prosecutors will be required to show that at the moment James signed the mortgage paperwork, she was aware of the provision regarding a secondary home, that she intended to use it for some different purpose, and that she intended to obtain a financial benefit as a result of her deceit,” said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. “That can be very difficult for a prosecutor to do because we cannot read other people’s minds. Anyone who has ever participated in a mortgage closing is familiar with the daunting pile of papers they put in front of you.”The second-home rider James signed does not prohibit renting the home outright, Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in a blogpost. Instead, the rider prevents the owner from giving control over rental decisions to someone else. The agreement also only imposes the restriction starting one year after the agreement. The indictment made public on Thursday does not say when James rented the home or for how long.The rider also includes an exemption for “extenuating circumstances”, Levitin noted, pointing out that the mortgage was obtained in August 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.“I’m unaware of the federal government having previously charged anyone for fraud based on renting out a second home,” Levitin wrote in the post on Credit Slips. “It’s clear why the career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia refused to bring a case: James doesn’t appear to have made any misrepresentation in her mortgage because the mortgage does not directly prohibit rentals.”James has forcefully denied the charges. Last month, Trump publicly admonished the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to indict her, along with the former FBI director James Comey and California senator Adam Schiff.“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties,” James said in a statement on Thursday evening.Trump’s public statements, combined with the conclusion of career prosecutors about a lack of probable cause, make it likely James will bring a selective prosecution argument to try to get the case thrown out.“Normally, a claim [that] this is a vindictive prosecution does not work,” said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School. But, he added: “You don’t usually have the president calling for these sort of things.”The charges against James come as William Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has deployed mortgage filings to attack Trump’s rivals. In April, Pulte, a staunch Trump ally, sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice regarding two different real estate transactions involving James. Neither of the transactions in the referral were the ones actually charged this week.Pulte has also accused Schiff of mortgage fraud as he has the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump is trying to remove from the central bank. In Cook’s case, Pulte has made an allegation similar to the one against James, alleging she rented out a property she indicated was her second home on mortgage documents.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAlso unusual in James’s case is the amount of money she is said to have benefited from because of the fraud. Typically, investigators in the inspector general’s office at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which handles mortgage fraud investigations, pursue cases where there are substantial losses to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises that support the housing market by guaranteeing mortgages.Even the most junior prosecutor in a US attorney’s office would turn down a case with a loss amount that low, said Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor in New York who is now a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.“It would never be signed off on by a supervisor with a loss amount that low,” she said. The low loss amount could also bolster James’s claims of selective prosecution. “When she has to prove that someone similarly situated would not have been prosecuted, she is on really strong ground there because if you look at other cases charged under these same statutes, you’re not going to find one similar to this at all.”While the length of James’s loan is not clear, if it was a standard 30-year mortgage she would have defrauded the government out of about $633 each year.“That’s bupkis,” said one former federal prosecutor who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions. “Are you really going to believe when you get up there that the attorney general of New York would commit this willfulness over $600 a year?“It’s a race as to whether this is weaker than the Comey case or stronger because they’re the two weakest cases I’ve ever seen in my life.” More

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      Mamdani attends Israelis for Peace vigil after his 7 October statement draws ire from Israel

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      The New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday evening attended a vigil in Manhattan convened by Israelis for Peace, an anti-occupation group of Israelis in New York who have rallied weekly since 2023 to call for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.Sitting in Union Square alongside New York City comptroller Brad Lander, his one-time rival for the Democratic nomination who has been campaigning for him, Mamdani listened as speakers at the event – which marked the two-year anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel – called for an end to the killing and to Israel’s occupation, and for equal rights for Palestinians.Earlier in the day, Mamdani drew ire from Israel over his statement on the anniversary in which he commemorated both the Israeli victims from that day and Palestinian victims from Israel’s ensuing war on Gaza.“Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more. I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities,” Mamdani said in the statement on Tuesday.He denounced Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government for launching a “genocidal war” in Gaza as well. He also accused the US government of being “complicit”.“A death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble,” Mamdani wrote. “Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language. I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered.”He said the last two years had “demonstrated the very worst of humanity” and called for an end to Israeli “occupation and apartheid”.Mamdani’s statement prompted a sharp rebuke from the Israeli foreign ministry on X, accusing him of “acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda” and “spreading Hamas’s fake genocide campaign”.“By repeating Hamas’s lies, he excuses terror and normalizes antisemitism. He stands with Jews only when they are dead. Shameful,” the post said.Israel stands widely accused of committing genocide in Gaza, where its ongoing military assault has killed tens of thousands of civilians, some 20,000 of them children, caused famine and mass starvation, and razed much of the Palestinian territory. Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant are wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.Mamdani is no stranger to criticism for his views on the Israeli government and its war in Gaza, and the issue has proved a major flashpoint in the mayoral race.He has won significant support from certain segments of the Jewish community particularly among younger and more progressive voters, and faces stronger opposition from more conservative groups. A recent Marist poll found 35% of Jewish voters supported Mamdani, as does the same proportion supporting Cuomo. (The poll was taken before Eric Adams dropped out of the race.)The democratic socialist has faced criticism over his past refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada”, which some view as a call to violence. He has since said he would discourage use of the phrase. He also recently reiterated his intention to order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu should he travel to New York.His October 7 statement on Tuesday attracted pushback from other pro-Israel voices. David Frum, a writer at the Atlantic and former speechwriter for George W Bush, wrote on X: “The chilly formulaic language about the 10/7 atrocity … the intense angry passion of the denunciation of Israel’s self-defense … together they arrestingly reveal what the author cares about and what/who he does not care about.”Fox News anchor David Asman called the statement “obscene”. He wrote on X: “The ‘very worst of mankind’ is what Mamdani supporters are on the streets today celebrating…‘honoring’ the beasts responsible for Oct 7. He supports a ‘global intifada,’ responsible for 9/11 and Oct 7. He should not be mayor of a city hit so hard by Jihadists.”Noa Yachot contributed reporting More

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      US attorney resists pressure from Trump to prosecute Letitia James

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      A career federal prosecutor in Virginia has told colleagues she does not believe there is probable cause to file criminal mortgage fraud charges against New York attorney general Letitia James, according to a person familiar with the matter.The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, oversees major criminal cases in the Norfolk office for the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia and plans to soon present her conclusion to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally, who was installed as the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia last month. Yusi’s thinking was first reported by MSNBC on Monday.The justice department declined to comment. The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia did not return a request for comment.The case sets up another high profile confrontation between the justice department and Trump, who has fired attorneys who have refused to punish his enemies. Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, was put in the role at the urging of Trump after her predecessor concluded there wasn’t probable cause to file criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director. Halligan personally presented the case against Comey to a grand jury after she was appointed and secured a two-count indictment.Trump has openly asked Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to prosecute James, who led a civil fraud case against the president that led to a $500m fine, which was recently overturned by a New York state appellate court.William Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency head and a staunch Trump ally, made a criminal referral of James to the justice department in April, alleging she may have committed mortgage fraud. Pulte pointed to mortgage documents related to a 2023 Norfolk, Virginia, home James helped purchase for her niece in which James appeared to indicate on a document she intended to use the home as her primary residence. James was serving as the attorney general of New York at the time.Prosecutors empaneled a grand jury in May to investigate, but struggled to build a case against James, despite pressure from Trump allies. Emails from the time of the home purchase and other mortgage documents show James clearly indicating that she did not intend for the home to be her primary residence. That evidence makes it difficult for prosecutors to prove that James knowingly lied on the mortgage documents.Multiple prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia have either been fired or resigned in recent weeks as Trump has increased pressure on the office to bring charges against Comey and James.Erik Siebert, Halligan’s predecessor, resigned on 19 September after facing pressure from Trump to file charges. Maya Song, a top Siebert deputy, was also fired in late September. Michael Ben’Ary, a top national security prosecutor in the office, was also fired last week after Julie Kelly, a pro-Trump media personality, falsely accused him of working on the Comey case.“The leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security,” he wrote in his farewell letter to colleagues.“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day.” More