He’s losing his mind!
New York City can’t afford to elect former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as Big Apple mayor because his “mental acuity is in decline” — and residents can’t afford a “Joe Biden moment” at City Hall, a rival for the Democratic nomination said.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos made the stunning claim about the 67-year-old Cuomo during a Post editorial board meeting Thursday.
“I don’t think the City of New York can afford a Joe Biden moment. I think that there are real reasons why he’s not answering questions,” Ramos, referring to the former president’s mental decline in office.
The Queens lawmaker referenced Cuomo’s testimony before the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, where he was raked over the coals for a controversial administrative edict that ordered nursing homes to accept recovering COVID patients discharged from hospitals and lowballing the deaths of nursing residents.
“Even when he went before Congress, he just can’t remember details about what he did,” Ramos, 39, said.
Republican lawmakers and other critics accused him of lying, which Cuomo denied.
“His mental acuity is in decline,” Ramos repeated when The Post edit board pressed her to clarify her bombshell accusation.
Cuomo would be the oldest mayor elected to City Hall since Abe Beame took office in 1974.
She surmised that Cuomo having to “resign in disgrace” as governor in 2021 — under the threat of impeachment amid sexual misconduct accusations from a slew of women — took a toll on his mental health and memory. Cuomo has denied the harassment accusations.
“I imagine having to resign in disgrace must have really taken a toll on, at the very least, at the very least, his ego, but most certainly his mental health,” Ramos said.
Cuomo campaign spokesman Richard Azzopardi, asked about Ramos’s claim that the former governor is in mental decline, said, “You can quote me rolling my eyes – this is a desperate attack from a desperate extreme left socialist who is in debt and polling at 3 percent.”
“Was she sober when she said it?,” the Cuomo rep added.
Asked if Cuomo would take a mental competency test to prove his acuity, Azzopardi shot back, “F–k, off.”
Despite his baggage, the former thrice-elected governor is the clear front-runner in the Democratic primary for mayor, according to a series of recent polls.
Left-wing socialist Zohran Mamdani has surged to second place, well behind Cuomo, but ahead of Ramos and all other candidates who’ve failed to break single-digit support from Democrats in surveys.
Ramos also is struggling to raise funds, with a cash balance of $1,039 in her campaign kitty, according to the Campaign Finance Board.
The primary election is June 24, preceded by a week of early voting.
Ramos insisted there’s time for her to breakthrough, noting that polls indicate that about 20% of Democrats have yet to make up their mind in the mayor’s office.
The Iron Workers union earlier this week endorsed her as the number two choice after Cuomo, indicating some support in the labor movement.
She chairs the Senate Labor Committee.
“The second large, portion of the electorate right now is undecided. There are more undecided voters than those supporting the DSA candidate. So I want to say that there’s still a very wide lane that someone can take, and I’m betting on myself,” Ramos said.
On the issues, Ramos said she is against Mayor Eric Adams’s decision to allow US Immigration Customs and Enforcement access to the Rikers Island jail complex to accelerate deportations.
“Due process is a human right,” she said, backing the city’s sanctuary law.
Ramos defended her “defund the police” statement from five years ago, and said she would rein in bloated spending on costly overtime and high-tech gizmos like K5 police robots.
She said the police crackdown on sex trafficking and other crime and disorder along the Roosevelt Avenue corridor in her district has largely been a bust.
Her priority would be going after the gangs and human traffickers.
A daughter of Colombian immigrants, she supports dramatically increasing the number of legal permits for street vendors.
On education, she opposes legislation to lift the cap on charter school openings in New York City, saying she would focus on improving the traditional public schools and work on a labor contract with the teachers’ union to promote recruitment and retention as well as accountability.
She said making it easier for working class residents to own a home would be a priority in her housing program.
