Adams, Sliwa Renew Attacks, Retread Issues In NYC Mayoral Debate

NEW YORK CITY — Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa tread familiar ground in their final mayoral debate, but the rematch was anything but tepid.

Adams on Tuesday double downed on his charge that Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels, is a clown and a buffoon incapable of being New York City's next mayor.

“You’re acting like my son when he was 4 year olds,” he told Sliwa at one point. “Show some discipline.”

“I think New Yorkers are seeing examples of his clown-like actions,” he said at another point.

Sliwa, for his part, gave an even more animated performance than the last debate. He accused Adams of being out of touch and cow-towing to elites, Mayor Bill de Blasio and even gang members.

When Adams repeated the line that Sliwa admitted and apologized to faking crimes, Sliwa brought up the controversy over where Adams lives.

“Talk about faking — you fake where you live, Eric Adams” Sliwa said.

The debate unfolded with exactly one week before the Nov. 2 mayoral election.

Adams is widely considered the favorite to win the contest as a Democrat in a city where members of that party outnumber Republicans seven to one. A recent poll gave Adams a 40-point lead over Sliwa, a Republican.

Their debate rematch Tuesday followed a fiery first contest last week that — again — saw Sliwa riddle Adams with attacks.

Adams maintained his composure and appeared trying to contain laughter in both debates. While he did attack Sliwa, his answers largely focused on issues and were largely the same as last week.

Adams largely dodged a question over an upcoming vaccine-or-no pay mandate for all city workers by saying de Blasio failed to bring union leaders before unveiling the rule — the same answer as last week.

Sliwa gave the same stark opposition to the municipal worker mandate he did last week. He called it "madness" and promised to rehire workers — although the mandate doesn't call for them to be fired — with back pay.

“This Friday is a disgrace,” he said.

The two candidates' stances remained the same.

Both Adams and Sliwa broadly supported a gifted and talented expansion rather than a phase out. Adams supported congestion pricing, closing Rikers Island, keeping outdoor dining and expanding bicycle lanes, while Sliwa did not.

Sliwa lambasted Adams' support for a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for school children. He said students shouldn't be deprived of more educational opportunities.

“Kicking kids out of school? No, absolutely not,” Sliwa said.

Adams said his support comes from hard-fought experience seeing the effects of COVID-19 on the city.

"I’m not going to go backwards: we must protect the people,” he said.

The pair also split on their assessments of de Blasio.

Sliwa happily gave de Blasio a "F" grade.

“I can’t wait until he leaves us and goes back to Cambridge because he’s destroyed this city,” he said.

Adams was much more generous with a "B+" grade.

Both candidates agreed that de Blasio's greatest achievement was universal pre-K.

The debate was aired on ABC7 with that channel's anchor Bill Ritter moderating alongside the station's political reporter Dave Evans and Univision anchor Mariela Salgado.

As the contentious debate came to close, the moderators asked Adams and Sliwa to say something kind about each other.

Adams, with a smile, praised Sliwa for taking care of 17 cats and promoting animal welfare.

Sliwa returned the praise for Adams' vegan diet and said he's trying to commit to one himself.