New York City mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo has been widely labeled as racist after his official X account posted – and then deleted – an AI-generated ad depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani”.

Not even 20 minutes into the second mayoral debate, Cuomo’s official account, Andrew Cuomo, tweeted the video. It was reshared by many before being deleted.

The Cuomo and Mamdani campaigns did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. The video, which has been saved and reshared by various people, runs a little over two minutes and opens with an AI iteration of Mamdani, first running through the streets of New York and then eating rice with his hands. It goes on to show a Black man in a keffiyeh shoplifting, a man abusing a woman, a sex trafficker, a drug dealer, and others, all showing their support for Mamdani.

Reaction to the video, which was re-uploaded by journalist Prem Thakker, was fast and negative. Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots organization that advocates for gun violence prevention, called it “so gross and full of racist stereotypes, including a Black man dressed like a pimp trafficking a car full of white women. Cuomo needs to be thrown in the ash heap of history.”