Jones rips Goldman as others play nice in NY-10 House debate

Five of the top Democratic candidates in the House race to represent lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn met in a key primetime debate Wednesday night that offered plenty of substance and a splash of Trump-inspired sparring.

The TV tilt arrived at an uncertain time in the campaign for New York’s 10th Congressional District, deep-blue territory that stretches from the West Village in Manhattan to Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.

Dan Goldman, an ultrawealthy one-time federal prosecutor who helped impeach former President Donald Trump, has pushed to the front of the field, leading in polling and boosted by the influential endorsement of The New York Times editorial board.

But his newfound status has come at a cost: his more progressive rivals have banded together against him. And Wednesday night, just two hours before the debate, Trump dished Goldman an unwanted — and not clearly genuine — endorsement that quickly became fodder on the debate stage at Medgar Evers College.

“It was horrifying that on our way to this very debate, Donald J. Trump endorsed Daniel Goldman, who is on this stage right now,” said Rep. Mondaire Jones, a progressive first-term congressman who moved to Brooklyn from the suburbs after he was drawn out of his district.

“This is not someone you want to send to Congress if you care about solving the immigration crisis in this country,” Jones sniped at Goldman.

In reply, Goldman said Trump “likes to meddle in elections” and is “pretending” to offer an endorsement.

“The fact that my opponent seems to actually take him seriously just shows how little he knows Donald Trump,” Goldman declared.

Jones claimed Trump looks fondly on Goldman’s moderate positions, including his opposition to expanding the conservative Supreme Court and to Medicare for All. And he continued to attack Goldman through the final bell of the debate, devoting much of his closing statement to criticizing the heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune.

But the three other progressives on the stage — City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon — mostly avoided tapping the Trump endorsement or entering direct conflict with Goldman.

Though the trio all ripped Goldman after the publication of the Times endorsement, they stayed issue-focused in the rapid-fire PIX11 debate, which was hosted by two dogged local reporters, Ayana Harry and Henry Rosoff, and plainly intended to inform rather than inflame.

On other issues from immigration to monkeypox to Rikers Island, the hopefuls presented similar visions, etching out the sorts of small differences that have defined the primary.

Still, at the end, Rivera joined Jones in knocking Goldman — subtly and without raising the specter of Trump — by saying the district needs a “progressive fighter who knows that we have to combat an extreme Supreme Court.”

And post-debate, Simon took to Twitter to grouse about a lack of questions on abortion protections, an issue that tripped up Goldman earlier in the campaign.

“Talking points aside, I urge voters to look at which candidate knows the issues, knows the communities, and has actually done something about it,” she tweeted.

When the dust settled, viewers had been treated to a Jones-Goldman showdown and a buffet of detailed answers from the rivals. But it was not clear if the debate would move many voters in the late hours of the race.

“A lot of people have already started voting,” Sid Davidoff, a longtime lobbyist and fixture in New York politics, said after the mostly muted debate. “I can’t imagine it’s going to make a big difference.”