‘I will not be intimidated by this president,’ Mamdani says as Trump urges New Yorkers to vote for Cuomo
When asked by a reporter today about Donald Trump’s comments on Truth Social that he plans to limit federal funds to New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins, the Democratic nominee said that he will “will treat his threats as they deserve to be treated, which are the words of a president and not necessarily the law of the land”.
The progressive favorite also said the city deserves a mayor “who stands up for New Yorkers each and every day, not one who’s willing to sacrifice those New Yorkers so that they can stand up for themselves”.
“I will not be intimidated by this president. I will not be intimidated by anyone, because my job here is to serve the people of the city,” he added.
Key events
Senator Alex Padilla says he won’t run for California governor in 2026
Democratic senator Alex Padilla announced earlier today that he will not be running for California governor next year, ending months of speculation about the possibility of his looking to succeed Gavin Newsom.
“It is with a full heart and even more commitment than ever that I am choosing to not run for governor of California next year,” Padilla told reporters at an impromptu news conference on Capitol Hill.
He said while he appreciated the encouragement and support he had received from those who wanted him to run, he would instead continue to serve in the Senate and continue to focus on fighting Trump’s agenda in Congress.
I choose not just to stay in the Senate. I choose to stay in this fight because the constitution is worth fighting for. Our fundamental rights are worth fighting for. Our core values are worth fighting for. The American dream is worth fighting for.
Recalling the time federal agents tackled him to the ground and handcuffed him when he asked homeland security secretary Kristi Noem a question during a news conference about immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, an emotional Padilla said:
As alarming as that experience was, not just for me and our family, but for most people who have seen the video, countless people have told me, ‘I’m glad you’re fighting for us. I’m glad you’re there.’
Referring to Trump’s mass deportation agenda and tariff policy, he added:
I’ve tried to do my part in fighting against these attacks both here in Washington and back home in California. These are not normal times. We deserve better than this.
Pope Leo calls for ‘deep reflection’ in US about migrants’ treatment under Trump
Pope Leo has called for “deep reflection” about the way migrants are being treated in the US under Donald Trump’s administration and said the spiritual needs of those in detention needed to be respected.
Speaking to reporters in Castel Gandolfo, his residence outside Rome, the pope was asked about immigrants detained at a federal facility in Broadview, near Chicago, who have been refused the opportunity to receive holy communion, an important religious obligation.
Leo, who is originally from Chicago, cited Matthew’s gospel, chapter 25. “Jesus says very clearly at the end of the world, we’re going to be asked, you know, how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not? And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening,” the pontiff said.
“Many people who’ve lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what’s going on right now,” he added.
Leo, the first American pope, has previously decried the federal government’s treatment of immigrants caught up in a hard-line crackdown that has roiled cities across the country.
In reference to the Broadview inmates, he said on Tuesday that the spiritual rights of detainees need to be considered.
“I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people,” he said.
“Many times they’ve been separated from their families for a good amount of time; no one knows what’s happening, but their own spiritual needs should be attended to.”
Under Trump’s hardline approach in Chicago, the US Department of Homeland Security says more than 3,000 people have been held.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Election day is ongoing throughout the country. We’re bringing you the latest from some of the most pivotal contests, including the closely watched New York City mayoral race. Frontrunner and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo who is running as an independent, and Republican outlier Curtis Sliwa all cast their ballots earlier today. Polls are set to close at 9pm ET, but more people have already voted in this election than in the entire 2021 mayor’s race, according to city election data. The first results will come in shortly after the polls close, and will continue to come in throughout the night. We’ll bring you the latest from our reporters on the ground.
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Earlier, Zohran Mamdani said he “will not be intimidated” by Donald Trump, as the president urges New Yorkers to vote for Andrew Cuomo. When asked by a reporter today about Trump’s comments on Truth Social that he plans to limit federal funds to the city if Mamdani wins, the Democratic nominee said that he will “will treat his threats as they deserve to be treated, which are the words of a president and not necessarily the law of the land”. Earlier, Trump also said that “any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!”
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Meanwhile, in another Truth Social post, Trump seemed to defy his administration’s agreement to abide by a federal judge’s order, and issue partial payments to the 42 million Snap beneficiaries across the country, using the program’s contingency fund. During a press conference, Karoline Leavitt said the administration is “fully complying” with the court ruling. “The president does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future, and that’s what he was referring to in his Truth Social post,” Leavitt said. “The best way to get the full amount of Snap benefits to those beneficiaries is for Democrats to reopen the government.”
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Also today, Karoline Leavitt said the president would continue to push Republican lawmakers to abolish the filibuster, as the government shutdown enters its 35th day, and is set to be the longest on record. Despite congressional GOP leaders refusing to scrap the filibuster, Leavitt was cryptic but hinted that Trump’s ambitions weren’t over. “I think you’ll see the president continue to engage very strongly and consistently with his friends on Capitol Hill,” she said. “You should stay tuned and keep your eyes on Truth Social on this matter, the president is making his position on it quite clear. And again, he is right. Republicans need to play tough.”
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Former US vice-president, Dick Cheney, died on Monday, aged 84, according to a family statement. Cheney, the vice-president to former Republican president George W Bush between 2001 and 2009, was a key architect of the so-called “war on terror” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and an early advocate of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. “History will remember him as among the finest public servants of his generation – a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence, and seriousness of purpose to every position he held,” Bush said in a statement today. Notably, Donald Trump – a noted Cheney adversary – has yet to issue an official statement following the former VP’s passing. Flags, however, are flying at half-staff at the White House today.
Trump remains quiet about Dick Cheney’s passing
The president has yet to offer any comment – official or otherwise – about the death of Dick Cheney.
It’s worth remembering that Cheney became one of Trump’s sharpest critics. In the lead up to the 2024 election, the former vice-president said “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic” that the current commander-in-chief.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today that she didn’t believe the White House would be involved with any of the funeral planning, but that Trump was “aware” of Cheney’s passing, and pointed to the US flags being lowered to half staff “in accordance with statutory law”.
Transportation secretary threatens to close off airspace if government shutdown continues
Sean Duffy, the Trump administration transportation secretary, has said the ongoing government shutdown could force him to close national airspace.
“You will see mass flight delays. You’ll see mass cancellations, and you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it, because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” Duffy said at a press conference earlier, continuing to blame Democrats for the shuttered government.“We will restrict the airspace when we feel it’s unsafe.”
At the White House today, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that air traffic controllers continue “to work unpaid”, and “every single major airline” in the country is “begging the Democrats to please reopen the government”.
The real Bill de Blasio casts his vote for Zohran Mamdani
After an erroneous article from The Times, which quoted a Long Island wine importer who shares a very similar name with the former mayor, the Bill de Blasio who the paper was really hoping to speak with cast his ballot for Zohran Mamdani today.
Decked out in a “Hot Girls for Zohran” T-shirt, de Blasio said that it was “one of the happiest votes I ever cast” in a post on social media.
Jake Wasserman
In Colts Neck, a bucolic town near the Jersey shore that voted for Jack Ciattarelli in 2021 (when he first ran for governor) and Donald Trump in 2024, at least one voter is bucking his community’s support for Republican candidates.
Two miles from a golf course owned by the president, retired federal worker John Stolz, 74, said he was voting for Mikie Sherrill for governor because, as a gay man, “the Republicans are going to hurt me”.
In October, Politico reported that a Ciattarelli campaign ally advocated for a ban on same-sex marriage in the Garden State. Ciattarelli reaffirmed his support for marriage equality, but did not condemn the comments. As a state assemblyman in 2012, Ciattarelli voted against a state bill legalizing same-sex marriage.
Marriage equality was legalized in New Jersey by a court ruling in 2013, and was later codified into law in 2022 by Governor Phil Murphy.
It’s worth noting that the president’s posts on social media to end the filibuster come as the Senate failed to pass, for the 14th time, a stopgap funding bill to reopen the government.
It’s now day 35 of the shutdown – poised to be the longest on record.
By a vote of 54-44, the upper chamber didn’t clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the legislation.
Press secretary says that Trump will continue to push abolishing the filibuster: ‘This is the only option for Republicans to move forward’
When asked about Donald Trump’s insistence in recent weeks for Republican lawmakers to abolish the filibuster, despite congressional leaders refusing to entertain the idea, Leavitt was cryptic but hinted that it wasn’t over.
“I think you’ll see the president continue to engage very strongly and consistently with his friends on Capitol Hill,” she said. “I don’t have any meetings to read out for you at this time, but I think you should stay tuned and keep your eyes on Truth Social on this matter, the president is making his position on it quite clear. And again, he is right. Republicans need to play tough. We know that this is what the Democrats will do if they are ever given the keys to power again.”
White House repeats Trump’s baseless claims that voting in California is ‘rigged’
Today, the White House press secretary repeated the president’s baseless claims that voting in California is “rigged”, and said that the administration is still working on an executive order that Trump telegraphed earlier this year which would seek to ban mail-in voting. A move that voting rights experts say is almost impossible, legally.
“It’s absolutely true that there’s fraud in California’s elections,” Leavitt said. “It’s just a fact. It is just a fact.”
She offered no proof to the question, posed by PBS News’ Liz Landers: “Rigged fraudulent ballots that are being mailed in the names of other people and the names of illegal aliens who shouldn’t be voting in American elections. There’s countless examples, and we’d be happy to provide them.”
Leavitt clarifies that administration will make partial Snap payments, following Trump’s contradictory social media posts
Karoline Leavitt confirmed today that the administration is “fully complying” with the court order by a federal judge to disperse partial Snap payments to beneficiaries, using a USDA contingency fund.
This comes after a Truth Social post earlier, in which Donald Trump said that funds will only be released after the government shutdown ends – apparently defying the judge’s ruling.
“We are digging into a contingency fund that is supposed to be for emergencies, catastrophes, for war, and the president does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future, and that’s what he was referring to in his Truth Social post,” Leavitt said. “The best way to get the full amount of Snap benefits to those beneficiaries is for Democrats to reopen the government.”
White House says that it is ‘continually pushing Mexico to do more’ in tackling drug cartels
Karoline Leavitt said today that the White House is “continually pushing Mexico to do more to tackle the drug trafficking and the drug cartels within their country”. This comes as Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has denied reports that the US is planning to send troops into Mexico to confront the country’s powerful cartels, noting that she has repeatedly rejected such offers from Donald Trump.
“The president has obviously used the full range of executive options and his authorities to crack down on drug trafficking at our southern border and to designate these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in additional actions as well,” Leavitt said.
She added that Trump has “a lot of respect for her as president of Mexico, and he also really appreciates the coordination that she has provided to the Trump administration”.
Musk promotes his own tweet as anti-Mamdani ad
Nick Robins-Early
Elon Musk is leveraging X, the social media platform he owns, to push a last-minute anti-Mamdani message out to millions of the site’s users. One of Musk’s posts was also listed as an advertisement and used a feature on X that boosts reach to show more users the content.
“Bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is,” Musk said in the post that he pinned to the top of his profile and also appeared as an ad. “VOTE CUOMO!”
The Texas-based Tesla CEO attacked the Democratic candidate in several posts this week and suggested on Tuesday that New York City’s ballots were a “scam” – misrepresenting basic aspects of the city’s electoral system, such as candidates being nominated by multiple parties.
Musk, a top Republican megadonor who has also backed far-right parties abroad, previously criticized Zohran Mamdani as a “charismatic swindler” during an interview last week on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
We’re waiting to hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is due to hold a briefing for reporters shortly.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as it happens.
It’s 12.48pm in New York and the New York Times has noted that more people have already voted in this election than in the entire 2021 mayor’s race, and the polls don’t close until 9pm tonight.
Almost 460,000 New Yorkers cast ballots between 6am and noon, the City Board of Elections told the NYT. Added to the 735,000 early votes, the total number of votes cast so far stands at about 1.2 million. In 2021, when Eric Adams beat Curtis Sliwa, turnout was about 1.15 million.
