“2Way” host Mark Halperin discussed on Wednesday why the New York City mayoral race is still winnable for independent former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo:

MARK HALPERIN: All right, let’s talk about the New York City mayor’s race. Michael Bloomberg just tweeted-first, I told you he’s putting more money into the anti-Mamdani super PAC. Here’s what he just tweeted: Four months ago, I endorsed Andrew Cuomo because I thought his management experience and government know-how made him the best choice for New Yorkers. I still do. And today, with early voting underway, I wanted to reiterate my support for Andrew Cuomo. Being mayor of New York City is the second toughest job in America, and the next mayor will face immense challenges. Andrew Cuomo has the experience and toughness to stand up for New Yorkers and get things done. I hope you’ll join me in supporting him. Mike Bloomberg used to be my boss. I can tell you this: he would not be giving money, he would not be retweeting his endorsement, if he wasn’t shown data that shows this is a winnable race. He just wouldn’t. So what happened today? Another poll came out showing the race within about 10 points-Quinnipiac… Look at the crosstabs-Cuomo’s doing quite well. Here’s the Cuomo press release on this poll. I’m going to read the whole thing to you because this gets to the question I want to ask you ladies, which is how a campaign that’s clearly behind but seems to have momentum balances being optimistic with not wanting to seem like you’re assuming you’re going to win. So here’s the Cuomo press release about the poll and the situation generally. This is from a Cuomo spokesman: Make no mistake, the race is tightening and Andrew Cuomo is closing in fast. This is the second poll in a week showing Mandami stuck below 45% of the vote, despite a lack of scrutiny and glowing press coverage, and Andrew Cuomo gaining. He’s closed the gap by three points from the last Quinnipiac poll, and his coalition is expanding-keeping a third of Democrats, winning half of Republicans, and leading with independents. More importantly, older voters are breaking hard for Cuomo, and they’re the ones showing up early. That’s how you win in New York City. We’ve seen this movie before. In the Bloomberg and Giuliani races, late polls missed the surge of real working-class voters who turn out when it counts. The same thing is happening now. So while Mandami continues to spew word salad, he’s stuck in the mud. The momentum is with Andrew Cuomo, and it’s only growing every day. I rate about half those sentences as true, but that’s politics. But the true ones are important. Cuomo went on Fox today and once again went hard after the left wing of the party. Here he is-Number 18-and roll 18 right into 19, please: CUOMO: The truth is there’s a quiet civil war going on in the Democratic Party right now. You have an extreme left, radical left-Bernie Sanders, AOC-Mamdani is just the banner carrier for that movement-versus the mainstream moderate Democrats. They now call me moderate. They used to call me liberal. Now I’m a moderate because the whole party shifted, and that’s what this election is about. It is that civil war. I believe that far left will destroy the Democratic Party. I believe it will destroy the Democratic Party nationwide if that far left becomes dominant.” CUOMO: “It would be the death-It would be the death of the Democratic Party. The Republicans are licking their lips hoping this kid, Mamdani, wins because they can pick him up and carry him around the country and say, ‘Here’s the Democratic Party: 34-year-old, never had a job, wants to decriminalize prostitution, doesn’t like the police-defund the police, abolish jails-literally a socialist, anti-business, anti-corporate. Government should control the means of production. That’s their first motto. That’s Marxism. So, okay-socialist.’ Just to clarify, the first bite was from Fox Business, not Fox News, and there’s obviously Stephen A. Smith on SiriusXM. So, let’s review what’s happening. The polls are showing it tighter than it was. The early vote data-in terms of the size of it and the makeup of the electorate-it’s older; favors Cuomo. Cuomo had the best debate of his life, I think, in the final debate of the race. Mandami has been a bit on the defensive on a few issues. And the New York Post is rat-a-tat every day; opposition research has dropped on him now three days in a row.