Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday called on mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani to disavow his association with Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, whose 2019 remark that “America deserved 9/11” has resurfaced and drawn rebuke from a 9/11 responder’s family.
Cuomo made the comments at a press conference a short distance from Ground Zero, where he stood with Sal Tururici, a longtime Fire Department of New York emergency medical technician and 9/11 first responder who has since been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Tururici’s wife, Wendi Tururici, who became an EMT after the Sept. 11 attacks, said Mamdani’s appearance on Piker’s stream was disqualifying and called on him to publicly repudiate the streamer’s past remarks.
The Cuomo campaign displayed images from earlier this year showing Mamdani and Piker together, and an image from Piker’s 2019 Twitch stream in which Piker said the United States “deserved 9/11.” The campaign said the association was incompatible with a role that requires protecting New Yorkers and honoring the sacrifices of first responders.
Mamdani’s campaign called the attack “vile, dangerous and deliberate,” and accused Cuomo of exploiting grief and resorting to Islamophobic tactics. In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the campaign said Cuomo has “used Muslims as convenient punching bags for decades.”
Piker, who has sought to clarify the 2019 comments and called them inappropriate in subsequent remarks, responded on his livestream by accusing Cuomo of playing to racism and said the campaign’s strategy reflected desperation. Media outlets reported Piker characterized the attacks on Mamdani as part of a broader pattern of increasing anti-Muslim rhetoric as the election approaches.
Representative Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., previously cited Piker’s comments in a letter to Twitch executives, urging the platform to reconsider how it elevates personalities who spread hateful or antisemitic content. Mamdani appeared on Piker’s stream earlier this year and has told reporters he is willing to speak with a wide range of people about his campaign.
The Tururici family endorsed Cuomo on Tuesday, and Wendi Tururici told reporters the matter was more than political positioning. “This is not just politics, this is personal,” Cuomo said at the event. “Sal’s story is a reminder of why this work matters. Those benefits saved lives and honored sacrifice. Leadership is about life and death, protecting New Yorkers, doing the hard work, and delivering when it matters most.”
The press conference came days before the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and roughly eight weeks before Election Day. A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted Sept. 2–6 and released Tuesday showed Cuomo trailing Mamdani by 22 percentage points.
Cuomo’s campaign also announced two new hires this week — veteran Democratic strategist Greg Goldner and pollster Cornell Belcher — as it seeks to close the gap in the final weeks of the race. The Mamdani campaign has defended his outreach to a variety of media figures as part of a broad effort to engage voters and said insinuations that he supports violence are false and dangerous.
The exchange underscores tensions in the New York mayoral race over questions of allegiance, the political use of 9/11 memory and the boundaries of acceptable political association. Mamdani, a former state assemblyman and progressive voice in the race, has drawn both support and criticism for his positions and media appearances. Cuomo, a two-term governor with a high-profile political resume, has emphasized his record on governance and public safety.
Beyond the immediate campaign dispute, the resurfacing of Piker’s 2019 remark has reignited earlier debates about content moderation on streaming platforms and the responsibilities of public figures when they appear alongside controversial commentators. Twitch and other platforms have faced pressure in recent years from elected officials and advocacy groups to address inflammatory content and its amplification.
Both campaigns signaled they intend to continue contesting the narrative as the election approaches. Mamdani’s campaign reiterated its charge that the criticism is intended to stoke fear of Muslims and to distract from substantive policy debates, while Cuomo’s camp said those seeking the city’s top job must be able to unequivocally repudiate support for rhetoric that demeans victims of terrorism.
As the contest moves toward Election Day, voters will weigh the candidates’ policy proposals, records and judgments about the company they keep. The debate over Mamdani’s ties to Piker adds a politically charged element to a campaign that already features divergent views on public safety, housing and municipal governance.
