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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, excerpts from, and your reactions to, last night's Democratic mayoral debate on Channel 4 and Telemundo, and from POLITICO. There were nine candidates on stage. We'll hear at least one clip from each. Here to help extract some meaning from all this, and all the pointed barbs that are generally making the news, is Katie Honan, reporter for the news organization THE CITY and co-host of their podcast FAQ NYC. Katie will also be the co-moderator at next week's debate, next Thursday night, along with Errol Louis from NY1 and me. Katie's article in THE CITY this morning is called NYC Mayoral Candidates Battle Each Other — and Trump — in Chaotic 9-Way Debate.

Katie, always good to have you. Welcome back to WNYC.

Katie Honan: Thanks for having me on, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we'll invite your phone calls and texts with your impressions of last night's debate. Screeners, listen up, as well as, Listeners, listen up. We'll give first priority to anyone who plans to vote in this primary who went in last night undecided about how you might rank any of the candidates on your ranked choice ballot or if anything in the debate changed your mind about anything. If you're undecided about any of your rankings, not even just who to rank first, did anything last night change your thinking about any of the candidates? 212-433-WNYC. Did you change at all on Cuomo, Mamdani, or Lander? Did any of the candidates polling lower down have a breakout moment for you? 212-433-9692.

To be transparent, and heads-up, Screeners, I would like you to ask if there's anyone each caller is already supporting first, just so we hopefully get a variety of perspectives, because this isn't a poll, it's a conversation. We'll look for supporters of different candidates, but give first priority to anyone undecided with your impressions of anyone's last night debate performance or from the clips we're playing if these are the first time you're hearing them or if anything from the debate changed your thinking about anyone. 212-433-WNYC.

Katie, before we even get to the clips, let's start on the breaking news this morning. AOC Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finally made her endorsement. No surprise, I guess, that it's fellow progressive and Democratic Socialist of America member Zohran Mamdani. Why do you think it was even a question in her case and took her this long considering her views?

Katie Honan: I think she might have been waiting for the first debate. The surprise for me from that endorsement slate is Adrienne Adams is her second pick and not Brad Lander, who she had endorsed for comptroller four years ago and who has been a longer-term progressive in terms of in the mix and probably more actively courting her debate than the current speaker of the city council. While Mamdani was not a surprise to me, her second pick was. Adrienne Adams entered the field relatively late, and she hadn't qualified for matching funds until last week in part, thanks to, in part help from Mamdani, who asked his supporters, "Hey, I maxed out, but if you want to throw some money towards this other candidate." Obviously, everyone wants to win, but the other goal they have is to defeat Andrew Cuomo, who has led every single poll and is the dominating candidate in this field.

Brian Lehrer: All right, on to the debate. As expected by many observers, there was a lot of time spent by most candidates taking shots at Andrew Cuomo because he's leading in the polls. Plus Cuomo and some others criticizing Zohran Mamdani because he's second, and then others like Adrienne Adams, Jessica Ramos, Scott Stringer, and Whitney Tilson trying to have a breakout moment and become more serious players.

We'll start with a few clips of and about Cuomo. Different candidates have different lines of attack against the former governor. For example, in a section of the debate about public safety, candidate Michael Blake referenced Cuomo's sexual harassment scandal, the thing that drove Cuomo to resign as governor in 2021.

Michael Blake: The people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers, and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo. That's the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.

Brian Lehrer: Michael Blake, the former assembly member from The Bronx and former Democratic National Committee vice-chair during Donald Trump's first term. Brad Lander, the city comptroller who's polling third behind Cuomo and Mamdani, referenced the reported investigation of Cuomo for possibly lying to Congress about whether he was personally involved in a report that undercounted nursing home deaths during the height of COVID. Lander broadened, "Who would have been hurt by that, not just Congress?"

Brad Lander: It's not only that Andrew Cuomo lied to Congress, which is perjury. He also lied to the grieving families whose loved ones he sent into those nursing homes to protect his $5 million book deal.

Brian Lehrer: Brad Lander. Cuomo, on that point, tried to thread the needle, saying he was aware of the report without admitting he was involved in producing it. As you'll hear in the crosstalk, other candidates howled when he tried to do that.

Andrew Cuomo: I was very aware of the report.

Male Speaker: [laughs]

Male Speaker: Oh, my goodness.

Andrew Cuomo: I spoke to it at press conferences multiple times,-

Female Speaker: No, before it was released, Mr. Cuomo,-

Andrew Cuomo: -and I stayed by the report.

Female Speaker: -the question is about the production of the report.

Andrew Cuomo: That answered already.

Female Speaker: We're going to move on. We're not getting an answer.

Andrew Cuomo: I stand by the report.

Female Speaker: It was just to whether or not you were involved.

Female Speaker: Let's move on.

Andrew Cuomo: Okay.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Cuomo and others there. We'll get to more clips as we sample from each of the nine candidates in the debate with Katie Honan from THE CITY and their FAQ NYC podcast. Katie, did this go about as you expected with respect to attacking Andrew Cuomo as a recurring centerpiece during those two hours?

Katie Honan: Yes, the attacks were for him. I was surprised that Mamdani did not attack him as much as I expected him to. I think the breakout attacker is Michael Blake, who is not polling very well, hasn't qualified for matching funds, although he said last night that he's, I guess, been in conversations with the Campaign Finance Board to get those matching funds. As of now, he won't. He does not qualify for the debate. We'll be co-moderating next week. He remained really consistent in his message, speaking directly to the audience. I guess, in that sort of breaking the fourth wall, looking right at the camera way of doing it, of, "This is what Cuomo is saying. Just want you to know."

When Cuomo did not directly address the sexual harassment allegation, Michael Blake said, "I want everyone to know--" I don't have the exact quote, but he said he did not discuss this when directly asked to discuss it. He made a remark about women and grandmothers not being safe around Andrew Cuomo, not feeling safe around Andrew Cuomo. He had the most pointed attack against Cuomo, I felt, in the debate last night. There was plenty of attacks to go around. Cuomo attacked Mamdani, he attacked Brad Lander. Jessica Ramos seemed to attack Zohran Mamdani as well. There were just lots of punches getting thrown around hypothetically on stage. It was as chaotic as I imagined. The moderators did a very great job of trying to keep everyone in line, but with that many candidates and so much to get through in such a big and complicated city, it's nearly impossible. I guess we'll have to find a way to do it next week again.

Brian Lehrer: We'll do our best. One result of so many people piling on Cuomo last night was that by the rules, he got a lot of camera time to respond when attacked by name. Do you think that's a calculated risk by the other candidates, like guessing whether that would actually bring him down in the rankings or if all that screen time could actually help him, despite the content being attacked?

Katie Honan: It hasn't worked yet. A lot of the candidates have spent the last few months of the campaign with near-daily press conferences attacking Andrew Cuomo, and he's still at the top of the polls. Of course, many supporters on Twitter with their dozens of tweets a day like to point that out to us as well, so it's true. Their hits are not landing the way that they wanted to.

I think it is this balance. I'm not a political consultant and I don't aspire to be one, so it's difficult to say, do you go after the person at the top with his very well-documented issues, whether it's the COVID nursing home investigation, whether it's the investigated and confirmed sexual harassment allegations, whether it's the Justice Department finding that he created a toxic work environment for New York State employees, those things are all facts. How often do you bring it up when you could be saying, "Hey, if I were mayor, I would do XYZ. This is my plan for public safety in New York City. This is my plan for the schools. This is my plan for affordability."

When you're attacking Cuomo, you're not having the opportunity to talk about both your accomplishments and your plans for the city. It is a complicated wager of what would you do and spend your time on.

Brian Lehrer: Let's play another pair of clips. This is, in a way, the main event, assuming the polls are accurate, that it might come down to Cuomo and Queen's assembly members around Mamdani. In the end, Mamdani also has the first-place ranking of the progressive Working Families Party. That just happened the other day, if you haven't heard about that yet, Listeners, and of the Democratic Socialists of America. He also got AOC's endorsement after the debate, as we mentioned at the top of the segment. Here is an essential line of attack and making a distinction between himself and Cuomo that Mamdani came back to several times.

Zohran Mamdani: The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in DC. I don't have to pick up the phone from Bill Ackman or Ken Langone. I have to pick up the phone for the more than 20,000 New Yorkers who contributed an average donation of about $80 to break fundraising records and put our campaign in second place.

Brian Lehrer: Mamdani there. Here's Cuomo with one of his essential strategies for sowing doubt about Mamdani.

Andrew Cuomo: Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani like a hot knife through butter. He's been in government 27 minutes, he passed 3 bills. That's all he's done. He has no experience with Washington, no experience in New York City. He would be Trump's delight.

Brian Lehrer: Cuomo versus Mamdani. Not saying his name right, as happened several times last night, preceded by Mamdani versus Cuomo. Katie, do you think they're talking to the same voters? Does it look like there are many people deciding whether to rank Cuomo or Mamdani number one, or are they already, just kind of appealing to different groups of potential voters to maximize their own turnouts?

Katie Honan: I have met Cuomo Mamdani voters. I have met people who say, "Look, I liked Cuomo. He has the experience. I liked what he did during COVID." This has been discussed a lot. His daily press briefings during COVID provided a real comfort to people at home who were scared. In many cases, they were sick or their loved ones were sick, and they were maybe out of work and unsure of what was happening.

Just as an aside, I do find interesting that Bill de Blasio also had daily press conferences, but since they weren't at a consistent time every day, I think, looking at it that way, I don't think people found the same level of comfort. I have met people who liked Cuomo's experience, but then they're also invigorated by Assembly Member Mamdani's ideas, his energy, and this grassroots campaign that he's running. He has such an energetic campaign that I think it is inspiring to people. Whereas maybe people wouldn't think that there would be a Cuomo or Mamdani voter, voters are not textbook voters. People, most of the time vote not based on a poll, based more on how they feel about a certain candidate.

Then also, yes, I think Cuomo continuing to discuss issues he has with Mamdani; he's also trying to shore up more of his support for people who, for whatever number of reasons, whether it's local or global reasons, not want Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City.

Brian Lehrer: Let's get some deliberating voters in here. Emma in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Emma.

Emma: Hi. Thank you so much for having me on. I did not expect this. I got tongue-tied.

Brian Lehrer: You'll be fine.

Emma: All right. Let's hope you're right. Last night, I went in, I'm feeling pretty torn between who to rank first between Mamdani and Lander. I also was just surprised. I did not go in with high expectations for Cuomo, but wherever that bar was, I feel like he did not even come close to reaching it. I was pretty surprised with his inability to really address any of the things that people have really been hammering him on. Just name recognition alone, almost, seems like it's giving him a lot of momentum. I was surprised to see that he still kind of can't hit when the eyes are on him.

Brian Lehrer: What do you think will make up your mind between Lander and Mamdani for your first ranking?

Emma: I think that the difference for me is I think that I really am, like you were saying, invigorated by the Mamdani campaign. I think it's really exciting to see such a strong grassroots progressive movement surrounding him. However, the experience thing, I understand why people are concerned by that. Lander, I really am endeared by his clear commitment to wonky progressive policies. I think both of those are really compelling things to me. It makes it difficult for me to decide which of those factors I care most about when ranking.

Brian Lehrer: Emma, thank you very much for your call. We really appreciate it. We'll go next to Nancy on Staten Island. Hi, Nancy. You're on WNYC.

Nancy: Hi. How are, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good, thank you. Did you watch last night or are you just hearing the clips in the news?

Nancy: No, I watched last night. I wanted to watch last night. I was really impressed with Michael Blake. I know that he's not doing very well in the polls. I thought he really held his own. I liked his answers. He gave some specifics. A lot of people said they had plans, but I really like that he actually had some specifics. Like, for example, with housing, he was talking about actually gaining a little more access, like the restrictions on credit. I really like him. There's also Adams, I really liked her. I thought she did a great job. Stringer, I thought, also did pretty well.

Brian Lehrer: Nancy, thank you. Go ahead. Sorry. Finish your thought.

Nancy: I was not impressed with Cuomo at all. As opposed to him being the top star, I never got that impression of him at all last night. I thought this debate hurt him a lot.

Brian Lehrer: Nancy, thank you very much. Jackie, on the Upper West Side, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jackie.

Jackie: Hi, there. I did watch last night. I thought it was an absolute mess. I did think that everybody on that stage was there to gang up on Cuomo. I have always gone in saying immediately when Cuomo did announce that he was running for mayor, I think I breathed a sigh of relief. To be quite honest, I thought everybody in the city was going to breathe a sigh of relief with that. I was shocked to see everybody just completely turn on him. To have an adult running the city when we have Trump who literally has it out for the entire state and for somebody who, during COVID, during this unprecedented time, had to deal with de Blasio and with Trump and being the adult in the room and learning to appease everybody so that New Yorkers got what they needed to survive. I think it's saying something.

I also think during Hurricane Sandy, when we've had disasters in the past, in the state, and then mostly the city as well, we didn't see de Blasio step up, and we did see Cuomo step up in disasters. That makes a big difference to me. He's proven and he's shown.

Brian Lehrer: You said you expected everybody to breathe a sigh of relief, as you put it, when Cuomo entered the race. What about the sexual harassment issue?

Jackie: All the charges were dropped.

Brian Lehrer: The [unintelligible 00:17:31] [crosstalk] resignation, the nursing home. The legal charges were dropped, yes.

Jackie: When the charges were dropped, just call a double standard there. Trump has all of these charges that we're all like, "What's going on? He needs to be held accountable." In the same breath, we want to believe in the judicial system, and all charges were dropped, so why are we continuing to hammer on with Cuomo?

Brian Lehrer: You're staying with Cuomo. Did you tell our screener that you were undecided about who to rank below Cuomo?

Jackie: I have been because everybody around me my age is all for Mamdani, and they want a progressive. Don't get me wrong, I want progressive change in this city, but we have to be realistic. He has not held a job. He has not held a job, period. Cuomo is a lawyer. I'm surprised nobody said that on stage as well.

Brian Lehrer: He's in the state assembly, just to say. He did hold a job.

Jackie: He's never had a shift. He's never had a shift at a restaurant so much as then you call the working man. His parents are fantastic, amazing people. At the end of the day, to have any type of managerial-- I don't know. Cuomo being a lawyer and knowing the law in and out, I think makes a major difference between him and the other candidates when we have somebody in the White House who is unhinged, insane, and trying to go after our city and state.

Brian Lehrer: Jackie, thank you very much. All right. We'll continue in a minute with Katie Honan from the news organization THE CITY and the podcast FAQ NYC. More excerpts and more of your calls on last night's mayoral primary debate. 212-433-WNYC, call or text.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC with Katie Honan from the news organization THE CITY and the podcast FAQ NYC. More of your calls and texts on last night's mayoral primary debate, especially if anything about it affected your thinking about any of the candidates. 212-433-WNYC. Now we'll play a clip of each of the candidates whom we haven't sampled from yet, so we get all nine in here as we continue to take your reactions.

We mentioned Adrienne Adams for her being ranked number two by AOC. We also have a text that just came in from a listener who writes, "For me, Adrienne Adams was the surprise. I understand now why Tish James has endorsed her. She is strong, clear, has good ideas. I think now I will do further research to decide if she will become number one for me. It was one of the things I was watching for, I should say, whether she would break out to any degree as a result of the debate." We don't know if that's going to happen.

Here's a moment of her from last night that seems to be getting some notice. It was an attack against Cuomo in the section of the debate when the candidates were asked if they had any regrets about their own past actions. The speaker, Speaker Adams, she's speaker of the city council, said she regretted ranking Eric Adams first in 2021, but then she laid into Cuomo for his lack of stated regrets.

Speaker Adrienne Adams: No regrets when it comes to cutting Medicaid or health care. No regrets when it comes to cutting child care. No regrets when it comes to slow walking PPE and vaccinations in the season of COVID to Black and brown communities. Really, no regrets. No regrets.

Brian Lehrer: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams last night. Here's State Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens on some of how she would manage Donald Trump cutting a lot of funding to New York if she becomes mayor.

Jessica Ramos: Not only should my administration litigate to protect immigrants, to protect gender-affirming care, but we should be ready to withhold our federal taxes when Trump unlawfully takes away funding from the things that we need.

Brian Lehrer: Senator Jessica Ramos. Here's former Comptroller Scott Stringer during the public safety part of the debate after some other candidates were squabbling, and you will note how he attacks Cuomo.

Comptroller Scott Stringer: Kids, it's grown-up time, so just give me a second, okay? Let me straighten this out for you.

Andrew Cuomo: Thank you, Scott. We appreciate that.

Comptroller Scott Stringer: You got it, man. Look, we're spending $1.3 billion in police overtime because we don't have enough police officers. We have the lowest police count in generations. We need to hire 3,000 more cops. In order to get them, we have to go into our communities to get the wonderful, diverse citizens to come into a department. We also have to make it worthy of doing it. That's something I'm going to do.

Look, I will say this to you. The crisis that we have is twofold. It's not just about policing. It's about also helping the people who suffer from mental illness. We have to align policing with the mental health initiative. Why Andrew Cuomo has the nerve to talk about defund when he signed the bail reform bill with loopholes, you didn't even read the bill.

Brian Lehrer: Former Comptroller Scott Stringer, we'll talk about that clip among the others. Next, here's State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn in a section of the debate about education.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I went to PS 161, The Crown School and made my way to Cornell Law School with Brooklyn Tech and Fordham in between, only because there were teachers that got up every single day and put their best foot forward so that I can be on a path to success. We also have to think about what is happening after school. We had learning loss over COVID-19, and I want to provide universal after-school to help make up for that learning loss. I wouldn't be here today if I didn't have an after-school program that taught me karate, even though I was terrible and-

Female Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Myrie.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: -and I was the only boy in [unintelligible 00:23:31] [crosstalk] team who had the moves to prove it.

Female Speaker: Thank you.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie: I want to give that to every single kid.

Brian Lehrer: State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn. Finally, former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson in the section about housing. You'll hear part of his plan and part of how he tried to break out last night, establishing himself as a critic from the center-left of Zohran Mamdani.

Whitney Tilson: The key, I think, is to unleash the private sector to build a lot more supply, which wouldn't just stabilize rents, we have the highest rents in the country, we need to bring them down. I think they can come down by 20%. Austin just demonstrated how to do this in only three years. How do we do that? We need to ease zoning restrictions, fight NIMBYism, properly staff the city departments to streamline that process, and overall, just speed up the process. It's taken four years to build, start to finish, and it should take only two.

I will say, my plan is basically the opposite of Zohran's. He wants the city to build all new affordable housing. [chuckles] We've seen the city is no good at building and operating housing. He would also saddle us, he proposes, with $70 billion of debt.

Brian Lehrer: Whitney Tilson. Katie, let's talk about a few of those clips and candidates. Ramos mentioned withholding tax money from the federal government if Trump defunds the city. Michael Blake also mentioned that. Do you know how that would work? Would they ask regular New Yorkers not to pay their federal income taxes? Do you know the mechanics of that?

Katie Honan: I don't, unfortunately. I wish I did because I didn't know you were allowed to do that. I think asking regular New Yorkers to do that, I hope the IRS wasn't watching last night. They might be curious about that. The clips of a lot of the people, even though Cuomo was the main target for a lot of people, it gave an opportunity for them to at least try to explain some of their ideas. Senator Myrie, especially his homegrown, "I'm from Brooklyn and I want the same life for my future family that I grew up with," that kind of message he's tried to make resonate with voters around the city. He hasn't gotten that high up in the polls.

Just one point for clarification. The previous caller, Bill de Blasio, was not mayor during Hurricane Sandy. He was just a Public Advocate. Not to defend Bill de Blasio. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: That's right. That was 2012. Bloomberg was the mayor. Good point. Good catch.

Katie Honan: Yes, but [unintelligible 00:25:54] [crosstalk] listeners.

Brian Lehrer: On the Stringer clip, criticizing Cuomo for bail reform. Stringer counts himself as a progressive. If he's implying the bail reform law produced more crime, first of all, is that how you heard it? If so, did he oppose that law at the time?

Katie Honan: I'm not familiar with his exact stance of the bail reform bill, but I will say a lot of people on the stage who are, let's say, very progressive around this time in 2020, they've shifted their views a little bit. The full defund, the police, politicians, especially in the wake of George Floyd's killing, I think they've softened their stance on that. With bail reform, I think it's a good thing to point out when you're pointing out the former governor's trying to position himself as the law and order public safety governor, people say, "Well, you did sign bail reform into law. That was your bill." There were plenty of issues in there, especially if you read certain publications about why there is so much crime, especially the recidivism and things like retail theft that you see in drugstores around the city. I think pointing that out and reminding people that this came from him.

It's something that Mayor Adams frequently brings up as well because although he was on, on the stage last night, he sort of was the ghostly figure looming over it because he is running in November.

Brian Lehrer: On the Whitney Tilson clip, I guess he's trying to be the Michael Bloomberg of this race in a way. Tell me if you think that's a good way to it. Wealthy, hedge fund guy, business guy, maybe trying to position himself as center-left compared to Democratic socialist Mamdani, but kind of a less baggage alternative to Cuomo, would you put it anything like that?

Katie Honan: I don't know if Mike Bloomberg would like the comparison, but yes, the businessman. I think he's like Ray McGuire who we had in 2021. This, "I'm not like a regular politician. I'm a business person. I'm focused on schools." He's a charter school backer. That's clearly where his views are with public education in the city. I will say he's not wealthy enough like Bloomberg. He did take matching funds, so he can't self-fund. He is trying to get this lane of, "The city hasn't been working for you because of the politicians and some of the people in this field who are trying to run for office again. I'm an outsider, and this is where I land on that." A youth center, a couple of times, he said on our podcast, and he said last night he wants to make crime illegal again. That's where his public safety, I guess, vision is.

He's also attacking Mamdani. He attacked him last night on the stage. He has a press conference, I think around right now, or at least later today, criticizing some of Mamdani's previous social media posts, critical of the NYPD, and that kind of thing. He's going after not Cuomo so much as Mamdani.

Brian Lehrer: Let's hear from some more still deliberating voters. Chris in the East Village, you're on WNYC. Hi, Chris.

Chris: Last night, if I was younger, I'd probably be on the Mamdani train, too. I was into Bernie, but Bernie, we got Trump instead. Cuomo, I can't really get over those nursing home deaths. I feel like I was the only one who remembered that until recently. Not the paperwork or who filed this. It's just decision-making. We're in a major health crisis and you're sending people into sickness and death. We had those medical shifts standing by or whatever, then we had quarantine shifts.

Blake, I thought sounded smart and good. I didn't like the-- He said he wished [unintelligible 00:29:29] went for mayor because I wasn't a fan of her and her having private security when we were all getting beat up on the streets here. Ramos, I felt, was a good everyman/woman. I understand she pushed some AI legislation to help actors. I think that's the sort of vision that we need. I don't know if we're caught up in the binary, we even think of these other candidates as anything other than third-rate.

Brian Lehrer: You're still deciding?

Chris: Oh, I'm undecided for sure. In fact, I'm a registered [unintelligible 00:30:07], so I'm going to vote in this primary. I'm not above going independent in this race. I was just going to say I'm sick of Republicans or these people who always put these comments like, "This is what you voted for," I guess, as far as us New Yorkers. I always think, "I didn't vote for that person," but there is some logic to that thing. I'm going to keep an eye out on these independents. [unintelligible 00:30:34] obviously has dedicated this life to the city. He's Republican.

Brian Lehrer: Eric Adams will be on there as an independent. Could you see yourself voting for Adams?

Chris: I could, because I don't think he's Al Capone. He put out he got some free airline tickets and helped with a fire permit. I think he got taken out. What does he do that was so wrong? If he is Al Capone, sure, show me the proof and I won't vote for a swaggering gangster. I think he's just some guy who got taken out. I'm not hardcore to the point, I still will.

Brian Lehrer: Still considering. Chris, thank you. Thank you very much. A very undecided voter there. Anthony in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Anthony.

Anthony: Thank you. Hello. I watched the debate last night. I was really excited about the energy. It got really feisty. I appreciated everyone's critique of Trump. It relieved my fear, grief, and anger of the rising power of the Trump regime. I'm still undecided about who I'm going to rank. I know I'm ranking Mamdani, Adrienne Adams, Lander, Stringer, and Ramos. Last night did relieve my fear and anger of the Trump--

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. One more. Nancy in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Nancy.

Nancy: Hi, Brian. Thank you for taking the call. Actually, you read my Adrienne Adams text. That was from me.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, that was from you.

Nancy: That was a surprise. Yes. I'm calling because, knowing that you're doing the debate next week, I'm concerned. This is not the first time or the first debate where candidates do not have enough time to even finish a sentence. Granted, there are nine of them. I understand the time frame. To me, it's more frustrating to have a candidate not be able to end a complete sentence with only 10 seconds as opposed to perhaps having to ask them fewer questions because you want to give them at least time to finish their thoughts. To me, it's not helpful to the candidate to have to be cut off.

I was just wondering if you and the others who are doing the debate next week, who are monitoring it, would you be willing to think a little differently about the time frame for the answers to your questions.

Brian Lehrer: It's a great way to end this segment, Nancy, because, Katie, as you of course know, you and I and the NY1 people have a debate between prep meeting this afternoon where we will no doubt be planning how to build on last night's debate when you and I and Errol Louis co-moderate the second and final one next Thursday night. It is a difficult dynamic, with so many issues to cover and so many candidates on the stage. I think we're going to have two hours like they had two hours last night. I don't expect you to have the answer right here, but I think it's one of the things that we're going to be talking about because Nancy's not the only person who raised this concern to me. In this kind of circumstance, how do we balance breadth versus depth? Right? That's an issue.

Katie Honan: It's really hard because you want to hold people accountable for things they've done or said in the past, but you also want to move things forward and ask them, "If there is another disaster, how would you approach it?" Whether it's a medical disaster, a pandemic, or something like that. It's really hard to come up with these questions, as we know, because we sit through these meetings, and obviously, you're dealing with lots of professional people. How do you strike that balance between answering the correct questions and having enough time for everyone to answer them? Then, you don't know how people are going to respond. You prep for it by thinking, "Okay, this is what they said to this question in the past. This is the kind of way that they speak. This is the thing that they're prone to do," but you don't know what's going to happen.

It's really difficult. Figuring out that balance of also making it watchable, you don't want to ask people really long, boring questions about stuff that's important when you can actually give people a sense of who these candidates are. It is really hard. We're trying very hard. Our three outlets, still, we want to hear from viewers, listeners, and readers about what they would like to ask and try to get to the core of those important questions. It's hard. I guess we have a week to figure it out.

Brian Lehrer: That's right. I can say, Listeners, that I definitely have my eye on the questions that you've been submitting. We set up a webpage for that, and we've done a call-in on the air for questions that you're interested in hearing us ask the candidates next week. I definitely plan to bring some of those into my part. From Brian Lehrer Show listeners, WNYC listeners.

Katie, I wish sometimes that there could be a series of debates for these important offices, like mayor, that are issue-specific. In New York, maybe it would be one on housing, one on public safety, one on transit, and we could keep going. One on inequality in education and et cetera, et cetera. The candidates won't sit for that many. A lot of the people who I think we're going to be talking to next week, like they were last night, are not people who might be very engaged in politics like a lot of people who listen to the show, but a lot of people who will be getting their first, even a little in-depth exposure to these candidates, and especially when there were so many on the stage. Then it kind of requires you to go through a number of basic issues and get through a number of basic responses. I just think there's the tension. I wish there could be more, but I don't know if people would watch more.

Katie Honan: There are a lot of forums, issue-focused forums, by so many of the nonprofit organizations. However, I'll look at Andrew Cuomo as the perfect candidate. He never appeared in any of them when other candidates were on stage.

Brian Lehrer: Right, because he was leading in the polls, why take the risk?

Katie Honan: Exactly. I forget which football player said it, but I'm only here so I don't get fined. I wonder if he would have appeared in last night and next week's debate if he was not required to by the Campaign Finance Board. That is the rub with that.

Brian Lehrer: Those are the rules, just for these two debates.

Katie Honan: Yes, those are the rules.

Brian Lehrer: If you're getting public matching funds, then the Campaign Finance Board requires you to participate in two televised debates. All right, Katie, I'll talk to you in a few hours. We'll keep planning this.

Katie Honan: Thanks so much.

Brian Lehrer: Katie Honan, political reporter for the news organization THE CITY. Thank you for today.

 

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