WASHINGTON (TNND) — Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in New York City’s mayoral race, sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum, in which he directly addressed President Donald Trump, opponent former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, and New York City police officers.

Mamdani’s nearly 20-minute interview with MacCallum comes a day before his debate against Cuomo on Thursday evening. It’s a warm-up for Mamdani as he answers MacCallum’s questions about how he intends to fund many of his proposed social programs, like free city buses and free city childcare. Mamdani said he plans to raise personal income taxes and corporate taxes to cover the costs, but MacCallum points out that would fail to align with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s promise not to implement any new taxes. Mamdani insisted that he’d ensure taxes would only be raised on the wealthiest before pivoting to share that many New York City Trump supporters are worried about affordability.

When I’ve spoken to Trump voters right here in New York City… they’ve told me it was cost of living that drove them to vote for Donald Trump,” Mamdani said.

Minutes later, Mamdani sought to extend an olive branch to Trump while ragging on Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams, who had dropped out of the race.

“I want to speak directly to the president,” Mamdani said. “I will not be a mayor like Mayor Adams, who will call you to figure out how to stay out of jail. I won’t be a disgraced Governor like Andrew Cuomo, who will call you to ask how to win this election. I can do those things on my own.”

“I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living,” Mamdani said. “That’s the way that I’m going to lead this city, that’s the partnership I want to build, not only with Washington, DC, but anyone across this country. I think it’s important, because too often the focus on the needs of working class Americans, working class New Yorkers, are put to the side as we talk more and more about the very kinds of corrupt politicians like Andrew Cuomo that delivered us into this kind of crisis.”

Mamdani did not hold back on his criticisms of Cuomo, suggesting that the former governor is owned by the uber wealthy and would put their desires over working-class New Yorkers. Mamdani said he wished the debate was “more like NASCAR so New Yorkers could see the billionaires that were sponsoring him right on his suit jacket.”

Andrew, you had your chance to lead the state,” Mamdani said. “You took that time to sell out working class New Yorkers to your billionaire donors, and instead of actually meeting the needs of people who couldn’t afford to live in the city, you gave $959 million in tax breaks to Elon Musk, and now you want us to believe that we can’t spend less money than that to make every bus fast and free in the same city.”

The interview also spends a substantial amount of time discussing Mamdani’s plans for addressing crime and public safety in the city. Mamdani previously came under fire for comments he made in 2020 in which he called for defunding the police. He’s since allegedly met with police officers in closed-door meetings and offered his apologies. MacCallum asked if Mamdani would like to make a public apology.

“Absolutely, I’ll apologize to police officers right here, because this is the apology that I’ve been sharing with many rank and file officers, and I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers,” Mamdani said. “And I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day.”