Zohran Mamdani accuses pro-Cuomo super PAC of racism for altering his image

A pro-Andrew Cuomo super PAC produced a flier featuring a manipulated photo of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani with a darker, thicker beard, prompting the mayoral candidate to accuse the former governor of Islamophobia.

How the image emerged was still unclear. The super PAC, Fix the City, said the design was “proposed by a vendor” and rejected, but still made the rounds on social media. The mailer reads, “Rejects Israel” and “Rejects Jewish Rights,” among other statements next to Mamdani's doctored photo.

Cuomo is leading in most polls for the Democratic primary for mayor, with Mamdani in second place. Fix the City was formed by Steven M. Cohen, a lawyer who has advised Cuomo for more than a decade, and has raised an unprecedented $13 million.

Mamdani posted the manipulated photo alongside its original on social media.

“This is blatant Islamophobia — the kind of racism that explains why MAGA billionaires support his campaign,” Mamdani said on X on Thursday.

“This wasn’t an accident,” Mamdani added in a separate statement. “Thickening and darkening my beard — playing into racist tropes — was meant to make me look threatening, because Andrew Cuomo and the donors propping up his flailing campaign are scared.”

Andrew Epstein, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said the campaign learned of the mailer from Jacob Kornbluh, a reporter at The Forward who posted what appears to be a digital copy on social media.

Campaign mailer targeting Jewish voters by pro-Cuomo super PAC Fix the City says Mamdani “rejects Jewish rights” for refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. pic.twitter.com/u6ob4hI1fk

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) June 11, 2025

The controversy comes hours before Cuomo and Mamdani are scheduled to face off with other candidates in the second and final debate of the Democratic primary for mayor, which will be co-hosted by WNYC and co-moderated by Brian Lehrer.

“The mailer was proposed by a vendor; upon review it was immediately rejected for production and was subsequently corrected,” said Liz Benjamin, a spokesperson for Fix the City. “We are outraged that this was posted online without our consent.”

Epstein said the campaign has not obtained a physical copy of the mailer.

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo’s campaign, said in a statement: “It’s absurd and disrespectful for anyone to attempt to distort anyone else’s image in campaign material — period.”

Cuomo has previously been linked to controversial and inaccurate fliers about his opponents. In 2018, his gubernatorial campaign printed false claims about his rival Cynthia Nixon that suggested she was antisemitic.

Nixon, who is not Jewish, was at the time raising her two children in the Jewish faith.

The campaign said a former top aide and current MTA board member, Larry Schwartz, had signed off on the mailer. Cuomo acknowledged the flier was a “mistake” but said he had no knowledge of its production.

A poster reading “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo” also appeared on city streets in the 1977 mayoral primary pitting Mario Cuomo against Ed Koch. Andrew Cuomo was involved in his father’s campaign, though both denied any involvement with the notorious poster.