New York City Mayor Eric Adams endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the city’s mayoral election Thursday, throwing his weight behind a bitter rival as he cast the Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani, as an avatar for radicals and gentrifiers.

Adams had deemed Cuomo a “snake and a liar” before dropping his election campaign last month. “Brothers fight,” Adams said on Thursday. “But when families are attacked, brothers come together.”

The endorsement comes as Cuomo has lobbed increasingly caustic attacks on Mamdani, equating his criticism of Israel with antisemitism and warning of a city beset by crime, hatred and disorder if his opponent wins.

The mayor did not elaborate on what those Islamic terror attacks had to do with Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor.

Cuomo then thanked Adams for his comments, describing him as a “real Democrat and a real New Yorker.”

It’s not immediately clear if Adams’ endorsement will help Cuomo in the city’s November election. Adams has seen his political capital crumble under the weight of a federal corruption case that was ultimately dismissed following an extraordinary intervention from the Trump administration.

Cuomo, a centrist, has cast himself as the only candidate who can beat Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist and state assemblymember who shocked the political establishment by soundly defeating the former governor in the June primary.

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