Cuomo calls Mamdani a ‘liar’ for saying he didn’t know about top Ugandan official’s shocking homophobia
Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo on Saturday accused Zohran Mamdani of lying about not knowing a virulently anti-LGBTQ Ugandan official with whom Mamdani recently posed for smiling photos.
The inflammatory photos — and Mamdani’s response to criticism about him — have put the Democratic candidate in New York’s Nov. 4 mayoral election on the defensive.
The photos were taken at an airport in Uganda during Mamdani’s trip to her homeland for her wedding following her resounding victory in the June 24 Democratic primary.
A photo shows Mamdani smiling with Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda’s first deputy prime minister and former speaker of parliament. Kadaga, one of the country’s longest-serving and most powerful politicians, championed a bill in 2012 making homosexuality punishable by death.
In another photo taken during the same meeting, the two are joined by the candidate’s father, Mahmood Mamdani.
Mamdani, the Big Apple mayor’s favorite, claimed he didn’t understand who Kadaga was when he posed for photos with her. But Cuomo, in a minute-long video statement posted to X, called it a lie.
“Zohran, you should be ashamed of yourself for posing with that smile with a woman who would have been subject to the death penalty for homosexuals and then lying about it,” the former governor said.
“Zohran said he didn’t know who she was,” he continued. “It turned out, after reporting, that it was a lie. Her father knew Kadaga very well for many years. She is a long-time, well-known public official. It was a lie and it was reprehensible especially to New Yorkers,” Cuomo said, adding that the bill was condemned internationally.
Mamdani attempted to quell the ongoing controversy Saturday during a campaign event he hosted for National Coming Out Day.
“If I had known that she was the architect of this horrible legislation and attack on gay Ugandans, I would not have accepted it,” he told reporters, according to NY1.
Additionally, in connection with the photos, Cuomo on Monday called on Mamdani to renounce his dual Ugandan citizenship due to the African nation’s institutional homophobia.
“Why would you maintain citizenship in Uganda, which is a country that bans the LGBTQ community – why? Why be a citizen of this country?” » said Cuomo.
“I believe in the LGBTQ community, and it would be a complete act of hypocrisy to be a citizen of a country that mistreats LGBTQ people,” Cuomo continued. “This is pure hypocrisy.”
Mamdani was born in Uganda but moved to the United States as a child and became a US citizen in 2018.
Mamdani said he didn’t know who Kadaga was when he took the photos with her, and called her extreme anti-gay legislative efforts a “horrible attack on gay Ugandans.”
But Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told the Daily News that Cuomo claims Mamdani outright lied about not knowing who Kadaga was when she approached him for a photo.
The Mamdani campaign countered that Cuomo’s attack on Mamdani’s happy photos with the gay-hating Ugandan cop is a distraction from more important issues.
“Andrew Cuomo’s recent behavior is increasingly Trumpian – he is launching desperate personal attacks to distract from his lack of vision or plans to solve the affordability crisis,” Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec said. “Does Cuomo want every dual citizen in a city of 3 million immigrants to renounce their citizenship?
Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Cuomo’s latest X-rated post calling the candidate a liar.
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