October 2, 2025 • 7 mins
Laura Curran talks with Mendte in the Morning about the New York City Mayoral race and what the landscape looks like now with one less candidate in the running.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get right to Laura Kerr and political commentator and
former NASA County executive with us every Thursday at this
time before I get there this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Doesn't Adam sound like a scorned lover? There? You're gonna
miss me. You don't know how good you had it
with me, baby.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah. No, he did not want to quit the race.
There's no way he wanted to quit. I wonder, I
wonder on what went on behind the scenes. You may
know not exactly what happened, but you may know what
goes into those type of conversations. What do you think happened?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I think they looked at the polling numbers and
saw that he was last all for a long time
and wasn't making up any ground, and you know, you
just can't continue like that. It's hard to raise money,
it's hard to climb out of that hole. I think
they saw the way the wind was blowing and it
just wasn't going to blow for him.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But that he's realized that for a long time. Did
something must have happened And I'm trying to figure out
if he was offered something or if finally there was
a deal that was made that he couldn't turn down,
because why would he just give up for nothing if
he could get something.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, that's a very good question, because even though he
wasn't pulling well, he's still the mayor. His support and
also the support of his supporters is incredibly important for
the other folks in the race. And so, you know,
it was interesting when he did drop out of the race.
He did not endorse anybody, And that's kind of a
smart way to get some leverage. If you come out
(01:26):
of the gate endorsing someone, you have no more power.
But if you have not endorsed anyone yet, people are
going to try to curry favor for you. To you,
they're going to offer things for you, you're in a
much better position to make a deal that's good for you.
And I think that's exactly what he did. Now, it's
interesting because there's all these sort of like little sniffing
rumors going around saying, well, is he going to come
out and endorse Cuomo? And there's some you know, tea
(01:49):
leaves that you can read. You can tell that when
his first public statements after he dropped out, Larry he
was saying not nice things about Manzani, but he'sn't really
say anything nasty about Cuomo, So that's a little interesting breadcrumb,
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And you know what breadcrumb to me was when he
said this. I think he was talking about Mom, Donnie
and Cuomo when he said this, when he was announcing
that he was going to step down.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those
who claim the answer to destroy the very system we
built together over generations. That is not changed, That is chaos. Instead,
I urge New York to to choose leaders not by
what they promised, but by what they have delivered.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What'd you take from that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, that says Cuomo, Yes, Mom Donnie, No. I mean
the best argument for Cuomo is look what he's actually
done and built, actual real things that are in the
world that you can look at right over, touch, et cetera,
and Mom Donnie. The lamb against him is that he's
all promises, you know, building castles in the sky, not
(03:05):
based on reality. So that sounds to me like he's
edging towards Cuomo. If there is going to be an endorsement.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when he said it.
But he also has said things like this.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Andrew Cuomo is a snake in Elijah.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It's tough to get around.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It's really it really is. But you know, you see
this in politics all the time. I was just speaking
with Natalie about this earlier in primaries. You know, people
say the nastiest thing about each other. Look at what
Kamala Harris said about Joe Biden in the debates about
how basically he was a racist, and then she's the
vice president. So you know, people have a way of
(03:42):
getting over things. Power is an interesting thing. It's leveraged
in certain ways to get certain things. And you know,
maybe he can get over this, or maybe he could
He might not do anything, who knows. If I were
a betting woman, I'd say that he's edging towards a
Cuomo endorsement, and that will be very helpful to Cuomo
in this moment when now he is consolidating a lot
of the traditional support, the union support, the sort of
(04:04):
institutional democratic support he could be. You know, this could
be a game changer. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, there's a whole lot of examples. You're exactly right.
It doesn't matter what you say during the campaign. I
thought of a Kamala Harris thing too. I was that
little girl member with that bussing story. She almost ended
his campaign. That was an awful moment for Joe Biden,
and then he selected her. So you're right, anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
What do you think we can go back? We can
go back to George W. H. W. Bush is calling
Reagan's planned voodoo economics. You know this is not a
new thing. This has been going on forever.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yep, exactly, though there's a whole there's a whole lot
of examples of it. So it doesn't matter what they
say during the campaign. And I think they all understand that.
I think when they have conversations, well you would know
when you have conversations and somebody has already said some
horrible things about you, you understand that's just part of
the campaign, right, I.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Do, absolutely, except when people lie. That's one thing that
I can't get over. Actual out and out lies, exaggerations,
reframing things. Sure, that's all fair game, but lying, to me,
that's the unforgivable sin.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So what are the the betting odds are right now?
Do you think that Mayor Adams is going to endorse Cuomo?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
If I had to guess, I would put one hundred
dollars on. Yes, he will endorse him.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
He will endorse him. I think so too. Yeah, I
think it makes a lot of sense if he doesn't, and.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I think he's but he's going to make sure he
gets something out of it. That's why he didn't do
it quickly. He's not folding quickly.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And is that common that a deal is made, a
deal is struck for an endorsement.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Oh, yes, absolutely absolutely. And who knows, you know, this
whole that we've talked about so many times, was Trump
involved somehow in this? You know, who knows what the
conversations are there. Adam seems to have a pretty cozy,
well cozy ish relationship with Trump, so we'll see.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
That is interesting. You've brought on Trump because a lot
of people, especially in the Republican park, but he thinks
that he wants man Donni, that he's doing all of
this to prop up Mom Donnie because he wants to
run against him. Cuomo said this. Clomo's come out and
said this in the midterms.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Absolutely. Yeah, you and I have also talked about this. However,
there's one thing that gives me pause about that. Yes,
it will certainly help Republicans to have someone who identifies
as a socialist Democrat in the mayor's office. But there
are a lot of very wealthy people in New York City,
real estate people, media people, other finance people, people who
(06:33):
have a lot of money and a lot of influence
in politics and in Republican politics, who are scared of
a mom Donnie mayoralty. So who knows who's in who's
ear on that. And Trump is friends with those guys, Well.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
We're both going to find out together what's going to happen.
But I think you're right. I do believe that Mayor
Adams is going to endorse Andrew Cuomo because he really
has no other choice in this whole thing. Laura Carr
and political commentator and former NASA County executive with us
every Thursday at eight o five. Talk to you next week,
Choo
Let's get right to Laura Kerr and political commentator and
former NASA County executive with us every Thursday at this
time before I get there this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Doesn't Adam sound like a scorned lover? There? You're gonna
miss me. You don't know how good you had it
with me, baby.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yeah. No, he did not want to quit the race.
There's no way he wanted to quit. I wonder, I
wonder on what went on behind the scenes. You may
know not exactly what happened, but you may know what
goes into those type of conversations. What do you think happened?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I think they looked at the polling numbers and
saw that he was last all for a long time
and wasn't making up any ground, and you know, you
just can't continue like that. It's hard to raise money,
it's hard to climb out of that hole. I think
they saw the way the wind was blowing and it
just wasn't going to blow for him.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But that he's realized that for a long time. Did
something must have happened And I'm trying to figure out
if he was offered something or if finally there was
a deal that was made that he couldn't turn down,
because why would he just give up for nothing if
he could get something.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, that's a very good question, because even though he
wasn't pulling well, he's still the mayor. His support and
also the support of his supporters is incredibly important for
the other folks in the race. And so, you know,
it was interesting when he did drop out of the race.
He did not endorse anybody, And that's kind of a
smart way to get some leverage. If you come out
(01:26):
of the gate endorsing someone, you have no more power.
But if you have not endorsed anyone yet, people are
going to try to curry favor for you. To you,
they're going to offer things for you, you're in a
much better position to make a deal that's good for you.
And I think that's exactly what he did. Now, it's
interesting because there's all these sort of like little sniffing
rumors going around saying, well, is he going to come
out and endorse Cuomo? And there's some you know, tea
(01:49):
leaves that you can read. You can tell that when
his first public statements after he dropped out, Larry he
was saying not nice things about Manzani, but he'sn't really
say anything nasty about Cuomo, So that's a little interesting breadcrumb,
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And you know what breadcrumb to me was when he
said this. I think he was talking about Mom, Donnie
and Cuomo when he said this, when he was announcing
that he was going to step down.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Major change is welcome and necessary, but beware of those
who claim the answer to destroy the very system we
built together over generations. That is not changed, That is chaos. Instead,
I urge New York to to choose leaders not by
what they promised, but by what they have delivered.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What'd you take from that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Well, that says Cuomo, Yes, Mom Donnie, No. I mean
the best argument for Cuomo is look what he's actually
done and built, actual real things that are in the
world that you can look at right over, touch, et cetera,
and Mom Donnie. The lamb against him is that he's
all promises, you know, building castles in the sky, not
(03:05):
based on reality. So that sounds to me like he's
edging towards Cuomo. If there is going to be an endorsement.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when he said it.
But he also has said things like this.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Andrew Cuomo is a snake in Elijah.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
It's tough to get around.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
It's really it really is. But you know, you see
this in politics all the time. I was just speaking
with Natalie about this earlier in primaries. You know, people
say the nastiest thing about each other. Look at what
Kamala Harris said about Joe Biden in the debates about
how basically he was a racist, and then she's the
vice president. So you know, people have a way of
(03:42):
getting over things. Power is an interesting thing. It's leveraged
in certain ways to get certain things. And you know,
maybe he can get over this, or maybe he could
He might not do anything, who knows. If I were
a betting woman, I'd say that he's edging towards a
Cuomo endorsement, and that will be very helpful to Cuomo
in this moment when now he is consolidating a lot
of the traditional support, the union support, the sort of
(04:04):
institutional democratic support he could be. You know, this could
be a game changer. We'll see.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, there's a whole lot of examples. You're exactly right.
It doesn't matter what you say during the campaign. I
thought of a Kamala Harris thing too. I was that
little girl member with that bussing story. She almost ended
his campaign. That was an awful moment for Joe Biden,
and then he selected her. So you're right, anything can happen.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
What do you think we can go back? We can
go back to George W. H. W. Bush is calling
Reagan's planned voodoo economics. You know this is not a
new thing. This has been going on forever.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yep, exactly, though there's a whole there's a whole lot
of examples of it. So it doesn't matter what they
say during the campaign. And I think they all understand that.
I think when they have conversations, well you would know
when you have conversations and somebody has already said some
horrible things about you, you understand that's just part of
the campaign, right, I.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Do, absolutely, except when people lie. That's one thing that
I can't get over. Actual out and out lies, exaggerations,
reframing things. Sure, that's all fair game, but lying, to me,
that's the unforgivable sin.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So what are the the betting odds are right now?
Do you think that Mayor Adams is going to endorse Cuomo?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
If I had to guess, I would put one hundred
dollars on. Yes, he will endorse him.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
He will endorse him. I think so too. Yeah, I
think it makes a lot of sense if he doesn't, and.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I think he's but he's going to make sure he
gets something out of it. That's why he didn't do
it quickly. He's not folding quickly.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And is that common that a deal is made, a
deal is struck for an endorsement.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Oh, yes, absolutely absolutely. And who knows, you know, this
whole that we've talked about so many times, was Trump
involved somehow in this? You know, who knows what the
conversations are there. Adam seems to have a pretty cozy,
well cozy ish relationship with Trump, so we'll see.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
That is interesting. You've brought on Trump because a lot
of people, especially in the Republican park, but he thinks
that he wants man Donni, that he's doing all of
this to prop up Mom Donnie because he wants to
run against him. Cuomo said this. Clomo's come out and
said this in the midterms.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Absolutely. Yeah, you and I have also talked about this. However,
there's one thing that gives me pause about that. Yes,
it will certainly help Republicans to have someone who identifies
as a socialist Democrat in the mayor's office. But there
are a lot of very wealthy people in New York City,
real estate people, media people, other finance people, people who
(06:33):
have a lot of money and a lot of influence
in politics and in Republican politics, who are scared of
a mom Donnie mayoralty. So who knows who's in who's
ear on that. And Trump is friends with those guys, Well.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
We're both going to find out together what's going to happen.
But I think you're right. I do believe that Mayor
Adams is going to endorse Andrew Cuomo because he really
has no other choice in this whole thing. Laura Carr
and political commentator and former NASA County executive with us
every Thursday at eight o five. Talk to you next week,
Choo
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