NYC Democratic mayoral candidates meet in person in fiery debate

The leading New York City Democratic mayoral candidates met in person on the debate stage for the first time on Wednesday night, bringing new energy to the race just 10 days before early voting starts. Two of the frontrunners, Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, received the most heat, and the in-person debate gave the pair the chance to condense their attack lines to each other.

At one point, the candidates were tasked with asking a competitor a question, leading to a fiery exchange between Adams, the Brooklyn Borough president, and Yang. Adams repeated his attacks on Yang in which he accused the former presidential candidate of being a newcomer to New York City government and leaving the city for his upstate house amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "You can't run from the city if you want to run the city … you may flee again during the difficult time," he said. Yang shot back that Adams has been "investigated for corruption everywhere you have gone" and said he had achieved the "rare trifecta of corruption investigations" in the city, state and federal levels. Adams insisted he had been cleared of any wrongdoing and called it a racially biased line of attack.