Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, considered a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic Party presidential nomination, raved about New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's attempt to "bring people together."

In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg lauded the Democratic Socialists of America member while taking aim at former New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead of the Nov. 4 election.

"I don't live in New York, but I think he has the capacity to be a great mayor," Buttigieg said, adding that Mamdani, the Democrat nominee for mayor, has taken "steps that are not just about winning, but about trying to bring people together."

Buttigieg stopped short of formally endorsing Mamdani, but said the race was "really important and exciting to watch."

The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor has long sought to straddle the Democratic Party's widening divide between its far-left and liberal wings.

Instead of criticizing Mamdani's leftist agenda, Buttigieg turned his fire on Cuomo, saying the former governor "disqualified himself in so many ways, including morally," citing sexual harassment allegations and his pandemic-era nursing home scandal.

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi shot back in the New York Post, accusing Buttigieg of hypocrisy.

"He doesn't have a vote in this race, and one would think he'd have a moral problem with a New York City with a diminished police force, a decriminalized sex trade, no jails, and a weakened education system that encourages mediocrity — and that's exactly what Zohran Mamdani is running on," Azzopardi said.

Buttigieg's praise for Mamdani comes as leading Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, hesitated to back the socialist nominee.

Jeffries ultimately endorsed Mamdani only last week, prompting the National Republican Congressional Committee to launch attack ads linking Democrats across New York and New Jersey to Mamdani's "socialist agenda."

"Every single one of them owns the socialist agenda and is now a willing accomplice in their own party's collapse," NRCC spokeswoman Maureen O'Toole said in a statement.

The praise for Mamdani also highlights Buttigieg's delicate balancing act ahead of 2028.

Newsweek recently reported a Noble Predictive Insights poll showed Buttigieg trailing Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., among Democrats and independents in a hypothetical race for the party's 2028 presidential nomination.

Meanwhile, Institute for Public Accuracy Executive Director Norman Solomon wrote an opinion column for The Hill to argue that Buttigieg risks looking like a "political windsock," frequently changing positions when politically expedient.

Solomon noted Buttigieg's shifting stances on Medicare for all and his recent hedging over U.S. arms shipments to Israel, saying such reversals "underscore that Buttigieg is vulnerable to charges of making U-turns whenever it is expedient."

Buttigieg, once hailed as a fresh face in Democrat politics after a strong 2020 primary showing, has tested the waters in early states such as Iowa.

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