By: Carl Schwartzbaum

Independent New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo ignited a political firestorm Saturday after publicly accusing Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani of lying about his connection to a virulently anti-LGBTQ Ugandan official, as reported on Saturday in The New York Daily News. The controversy—centered on photos showing Mamdani smiling alongside Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda’s first deputy prime minister and a longtime champion of legislation that once sought to impose the death penalty for homosexuality—has plunged Mamdani’s campaign into crisis just weeks before Election Day.

The images, taken at Entebbe Airport during Mamdani’s trip to his native Uganda for his wedding following his surprise primary victory on June 24, show the 32-year-old Assemblyman-turned-mayoral front-runner beaming beside Kadaga. Another photograph from the same meeting includes Mamdani’s father, noted academic Mahmood Mamdani, standing alongside the pair.

According to the information provided in The New York Daily News report, Cuomo wasted no time in attacking the Democrat’s explanation that he did not know who Kadaga was when the photos were taken. In a sharply worded, minute-long video posted to X, Cuomo called Mamdani’s claim “a lie,” adding that the episode represented a “reprehensible betrayal” of New York’s values.

“Zohran, you should be ashamed of yourself for posing with a woman who would have had a death penalty for gays with that smile—and then lying about it,” Cuomo declared in the video, which the Daily News said was viewed tens of thousands of times within hours. “He said he didn’t know who she was. It turns out that was a lie. His father knew Kadaga very well for many years. She’s a longtime, well-known public official. It was a lie, and it was reprehensible—especially to New Yorkers.”

Kadaga, who served as Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament from 2011 to 2021, gained international notoriety for backing the 2012 “Kill the Gays” bill, a measure that sought to impose capital punishment for same-sex relations. The legislation drew global condemnation, including from the United Nations and the U.S. State Department, which called it “a grotesque violation of human rights.”

The New York Daily News reported that Mamdani sought to calm the controversy during a Saturday event marking National Coming Out Day, where he addressed reporters directly. “Had I known that she was the architect of this horrific legislation and attack on queer Ugandans, I would not have taken it,” he said, echoing his campaign’s earlier written statements.

Following the event, Mamdani’s spokesperson, Dora Pekec, told the Daily News that the photo “was just a selfie” taken in passing at the airport. “Zohran didn’t know who he was taking a photo with,” Pekec said. “If you zoom in, you can even see his passport and boarding pass in his hand.”

Pekec dismissed Cuomo’s remarks as political opportunism. “It’s not a legitimate attack,” she said, scoffing at the former governor’s tweet. “Andrew Cuomo is trying to distract from his lack of a vision or plans to address the city’s affordability crisis.”

Yet, as The New York Daily News report observed, the controversy has already taken hold in the public conversation, particularly among LGBTQ advocacy groups and voters in liberal enclaves of Manhattan and Brooklyn—key constituencies for Mamdani.

Not content to stop at accusations of dishonesty, Cuomo expanded his criticism on Monday, calling on Mamdani to renounce his dual Ugandan citizenship, citing the African nation’s systemic persecution of LGBTQ citizens. “Why would you keep a citizenship in Uganda, which is a country that outlaws the LGBTQ community—why?” Cuomo asked during a press availability covered by the New York Daily News.

“I believe in the LGBTQ community, and it would be a total act of hypocrisy to be a citizen of a country that abuses LGBTQ people,” Cuomo continued. “It’s pure hypocrisy.”

Uganda’s anti-gay laws remain among the harshest in the world. In 2023, the country’s parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, criminalizing same-sex relations and imposing life imprisonment—and, in certain cases, the death penalty—for what it called “aggravated homosexuality.” President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill into law despite international outrage and threats of economic sanctions.

Mamdani, who was born in Uganda but moved to the United States as a child, became a naturalized American citizen in 2018. In statements to both NY1 and the Daily News, he reiterated his condemnation of Uganda’s homophobic policies, calling Kadaga’s record “a horrific attack on queer Ugandans” and describing Uganda’s laws as “deeply unjust.”

Still, Cuomo’s campaign maintained that Mamdani’s explanation was insufficient. In remarks shared with the Daily News, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said bluntly that the Democratic nominee “flat-out lied” when he claimed not to recognize Kadaga. “This isn’t about an innocent photo,” Azzopardi told the paper. “It’s about honesty—and whether New Yorkers can trust a man who smiles for a camera with someone who wanted gay people executed, and then lies about knowing her.”

The New York Daily News report noted that Cuomo’s latest offensive adds yet another twist to what has already become one of the most combative mayoral contests in recent memory. With just weeks to go before the Nov. 4 general election, Cuomo has been mounting an aggressive independent campaign, seeking to capitalize on the fallout from sitting Mayor Eric Adams’s decision to withdraw from the race amid legal troubles.

Polls published by the Daily News earlier this month showed Mamdani leading the three-way race by double digits, with Cuomo trailing in second place and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa—founder of the Guardian Angels—lagging in third. Analysts say the Kadaga controversy could narrow that gap, especially among socially liberal voters.

“New York’s political culture is extraordinarily sensitive to questions of social justice, especially on LGBTQ issues,” one Democratic strategist told the Daily News. “A photograph can be explained, but a lie can’t. If Cuomo successfully casts this as a question of truthfulness and integrity, it could shake Mamdani’s standing.”

Mamdani’s team, meanwhile, has tried to frame the issue as an act of political desperation. In comments to the Daily News, spokesperson Dora Pekec accused Cuomo of “Trumpian tactics,” drawing a direct comparison between the former governor’s rhetoric and the style of the former U.S. president. “Andrew Cuomo’s recent behavior is increasingly Trumpian—issuing desperate personal attacks to distract from his lack of any vision or plans to address the affordability crisis,” Pekec said. “Does Cuomo want every dual citizen in a city of 3 million immigrants to give up their citizenship?”

As The New York Daily News report documented, the scandal comes at a sensitive moment for Mamdani, whose candidacy has drawn both enthusiasm and scrutiny as the first Ugandan-born and Muslim front-runner for New York City mayor. His progressive platform—centered on rent reform, climate action, and police accountability—has energized young voters and left-leaning activists. Yet it has also attracted sharp criticism from centrists and conservatives who see his politics as too radical for City Hall.

Cuomo’s attacks over the Kadaga photographs, analysts suggest, are calculated to test Mamdani’s vulnerability among moderate voters and LGBTQ New Yorkers. The former governor, who as New York’s chief executive signed same-sex marriage into law in 2011, has long cast himself as a defender of LGBTQ rights—a theme he has revived in his campaign rhetoric.

“Cuomo knows that New Yorkers remember his record on marriage equality,” a longtime Albany insider told the Daily News. “He’s trying to remind voters that while he was making New York a leader in LGBTQ rights, Mamdani was taking selfies with someone who wanted gay people dead.”

While the long-term effects of the controversy remain unclear, The New York Daily News reported that LGBTQ advocacy organizations are monitoring the situation closely. Several groups, including the New York City Gay and Lesbian Alliance, have privately urged Mamdani to issue a more forceful apology.

For now, the candidate appears determined to ride out the storm. His campaign has doubled down on outreach to LGBTQ voters, with upcoming events in Chelsea and Jackson Heights focused on promoting inclusivity and combating hate.

Still, Cuomo’s barrage has forced Mamdani onto the defensive—a posture he has rarely assumed since his shock primary victory. As one political consultant told the Daily News, “This is the first time Mamdani looks rattled. And if voters start to doubt his honesty, that’s more damaging than any policy disagreement.”

As the campaign hurtles toward its final stretch, the Kadaga affair has become more than just a scandal—it is now a proxy battle over moral leadership, identity, and truth in New York’s most consequential municipal race in decades.

And as The New York Daily News report observed, the stakes could not be clearer: “In a city that prides itself on diversity and integrity, New Yorkers deserve a mayor who not only shares their values but tells them the truth.”