A comedy skit about cat allergies reignites GOP accusations of a secret nonaggression deal
A Skit, a Cat, and a Political Firestorm
When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Republican Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa appeared together in a pre-taped comedy sketch at the Inner Circle dinner Saturday night, it looked, on the surface, like a lighthearted bit about cat allergies. In the skit, Sliwa played “Dr. Cliwa,” administering shots to help the mayor with his feline affliction. The crowd at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Midtown laughed. Some prominent New York Republicans did not.
What Was the Inner Circle, and What Happened There?
The Inner Circle is a decades-old tradition in New York City, an annual roast put on by the city’s press corps, where journalists lampoon the mayor and city officials in song-and-dance sketches, and the mayor fires back with a rebuttal show. This year, the show was dubbed “Free-For-All,” a swipe at Mayor Mamdani’s progressive policy agenda. Reporters parodied “Mamdani Math” and explored the political relationship between the mayor and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. Mamdani’s rebuttal featured a mock horror movie trailer called “Smile: A Municipal Grin,” in which he haunted City Hall with his trademark optimism. The cat skit with Sliwa was part of that rebuttal package. According to the mayor’s communications director Anna Bahr, the skit arose simply because everybody knows Sliwa loves cats. Sliwa, who shares a home with six geriatric cats including one with neurological problems, said he agreed to the bit immediately. “I promote people adopting, or getting cats and dogs, not having them euthanized by shelters, absolutely,” Sliwa said Sunday.
Republicans Cry Foul, Raise Nonaggression Allegations Again
But the laughter barely faded before the accusations began. Former Gov. David Paterson, who had backed Andrew Cuomo in last year’s mayoral race, told reporters he was flooded with outrage from dinner guests. John Catsimatidis, the grocery magnate and radio station owner who ran for mayor in 2013, was blunt. He said he was disappointed, suggesting the skit confirmed what he has long believed: that Sliwa and Mamdani had a mutual nonaggression arrangement that helped hand the election to the democratic socialist. The allegation has a history. After the November election, allies of former Gov. Cuomo argued that Sliwa’s relentless attacks on Cuomo during the campaign had poisoned Cuomo’s prospects, even though Sliwa received fewer votes than the margin by which Cuomo ultimately lost. They contend that Sliwa’s constant radio criticism shaped voter perceptions in ways that cannot be measured by vote totals alone. Sliwa flatly denied any pact. He explained that members of Mamdani’s staff saw a Wall Street Journal article in which Sliwa praised the mayor’s cat adoption policies and thought it would make for a funny bit.
Who Is Sliwa Talking To These Days?
The accusations of hypocrisy flew in multiple directions. Sliwa pointed out that Catsimatidis himself had met with Mamdani at City Hall just the week before the dinner. He also noted that President Trump has twice invited Mamdani to the Oval Office. Joe Borelli, a Republican lobbyist and former Staten Island councilman, said he harbored his own suspicions about Sliwa, accusing him of having “scummed me over” with radio attacks in recent years. Sliwa fired back, accusing Borelli of texting Mamdani nonstop. Mamdani’s spokeswoman, Dora Pekec, confirmed that Borelli and the mayor do communicate by text, and offered no immediate comment on the nonaggression allegations.
The Political Meaning of a Comedy Sketch
Political satire has a long history at events like the Inner Circle. Sliwa drew a comparison to a 2016 White House Correspondents dinner video in which former President Barack Obama and then-House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, appeared together in a comedy sketch. The question worth asking, in fairness, is whether a comedy bit about cat adoption amounts to political collusion, or whether the Republican outrage is more about the raw wound of losing the 2025 mayoral race than about anything that happened on a Saturday night at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. The Inner Circle has hosted cross-partisan moments for over a century. New York City politics has always been contact sport. Whether Mamdani and Sliwa had an arrangement, formal or informal, remains unproven. What is clear is that losing the mayoralty still stings deeply in New York Republican circles, and every reminder of last November comes with its own aftershocks. For those interested in the history of New York City political humor and satire, the New York Public Library maintains extensive archives of past Inner Circle shows. The Federal Election Commission maintains public records of campaign contributions, which remain the most transparent tool for assessing financial relationships between campaigns. And for a thorough examination of how political humor functions in democratic life, scholars and journalists have long relied on Columbia Journalism School research on press-power dynamics.
