A Republican who ran for mayor in 2021 is now throwing his support behind incumbent Eric Adams — as he urged President Trump to step in to help on Sunday.
Fernando Mateo, who is a spokesman for the United Bodegas of America, is asking the commander-in-chief to convince Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa to drop out as this year’s GOP candidate to get Adams to appear on the Republican Party line.
“Of course, we need the president’s help, ” Mateo said on WABC’s 770 the “Cats Roundtable” program with host John Catsimatidis. “We need the President to basically tell Curtis Sliwa, ‘Hey, drop out of the race. Give that line to Eric Adams.”
Adams, a Democrat, didn’t run in his party’s primary last month but is pursuing re-election as an independent. He’ll face an uphill battle in the deeply blue city against Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist.
Also appearing on a minor party line is Democrat Andrew Cuomo, the former governor who lost to Mamdani in the primary. Mateo said Cuomo could only be a “spoiler” in November.
“We need to make sure that Eric wins. Andrew Cuomo should not be on the ballot,” Mateo said.
“He’s a divider. He’s a hater,” he added. “He is someone that hates New York and loves himself. If [Cuomo and Sliwa] were to drop out, and Eric Adams had the support of every New Yorker, there’s no way that we could lose.”
Mateo lost to GOP hopeful Sliwa by a resounding 40 percentage points four years ago, before Sliwa lost the general election to Adams.
Sliwa said he isn’t going anywhere.
“I crushed Mateo in the Republican primary four years ago. He hasn’t been seen with a Republican since,” Sliwa quipped.
“It’s over. I’m on the ballot. There’s no way to get me out.”
Adams is unpopular with Republicans as he is with Democrats, Sliwa said, citing polling consistently showing the mayor’s high negative ratings.
Catsimatidis, the billionaire WABC owner, is pushing Adams’ re-election bid as an independent. He’s hosted fundraisers and is trying to woo Republican support despite the fact that he has employed Sliwa as one of his radio hosts.
He had no comment when asked if he’s spoken to Trump about backing Adams.
Meanwhile, former Gov. David Paterson said Mamdani, as the Democratic nominee, will be “hard to beat” in the general election and likened his rise as a left wing version of President Trump.
“The support that Mamdani is receiving … the number of people he’s registering, the number of people who go to his rallies … if I blinked my eyes 10 years ago, there was another person who was able to do that, and his name is Donald Trump, whose political ideology is the polar opposite of what Mamdani’s might be,” Paterson said in a different segment of WABC’s the “Cats Roundtable.”
“I don’t know to what extent Mamdani is going to attack his opponent in the election, but it gives him a real plurality now that’s going to be hard to beat … He is going to be a difficult candidate to beat.”
Paterson, who backed Cuomo in the Democratic primary, said he’s sticking with the ex-governor as the best choice to stop Mamdani.
