Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was at the center of a pile-on during a rowdy mayoral debate Wednesday night — as flailing Democratic candidates seized their first chance to attack the primary’s frontrunner in a public forum.

Cuomo literally stood mid-stage between the other eight candidates, who repeatedly pelted the thrice-elected Democrat — with COVID nursing home deaths and his checkered record leading the Empire State hijacking much of the NBC-Politico debate.

“The people who don’t feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,” shot the Rev. Michael Blake, a former Obama administration official, who scathingly evoked the sexual harassment accusations that led to the former governor’s resignation.

“That’s the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.”

An often-heated Cuomo responded to the attacks, as well as pointed questions by debate moderators, with barbs of his own and conspicuous dodges for the chaotic more than two hours.

He directed fire of his own at the candidates closest to him in the polls: Democratic socialist Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and City Comptroller Brad Lander.

Cuomo, 67, cast Mamdani’s plan to offer $10 billion of freebies for hardworking New Yorkers as not rooted in “reality.”

He also argued that Mamdani, a 33-year-old who was elected to the state Legislature in 2021, lacked the experience to stand up to a hostile President Trump, if elected mayor.

“Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani like a hot knife through butter,” Cuomo said. “He has been in government for 27 minutes”

Mamdani, who is rising to within single digits of Cuomo in the polls, hammered the longtime politician as not being on the side of working-class New Yorkers.

The Democratic Socialists of America lawmaker skewered Cuomo’s super PAC, Fix The City, for cashing in on a $1 million donation from the popular app DoorDash — for which the former governor’s top-ranking aide Melissa DeRosa’s father works as a lobbyist.

He landed some big haymakers against Cuomo, but also peppered his answers with little jabs.

When asked his biggest regret, Mamdani was harsh — and stayed on point with attacking Cuomo.

“As a Democrat, one of my regrets is having trusted the leaders within our own party leaders like Andrew Cuomo, because what we’ve seen is that kind of leadership has delivered us to this point where we are under attack by an affordability crisis on the inside and a Trump administration,” he said.

Cuomo at one point quipped that Trump “gets sued 10 times before he gets out of bed in the morning.”

“Kind of like you,” Mamdani shot back.

Lander, for his part, subtly swiped Cuomo in nearly every answer — calling him as corrupt as Trump.

Cuomo went scorched earth at Lander, who is polling at third place.

He accused Lander of corruptly approving $500,000 in contracts associated with his wife — a charge the comptroller called a lie.

Cuomo managed to attack all of his opponents in one fell swoop by calling out their past support for the “Defund the Police” movement.

“We wouldn’t need more police if we didn’t defund them in the first place,” Cuomo said.

But when it came time to answer for his own record, Cuomo seemingly couldn’t find the words.

Asked about the controversial state bail reforms that he signed into law in 2019, Cuomo chose to use his 30 seconds to attack Lander — prompting the moderators to warn him he was running out of time to answer.

He also got heated — and raised his voice —  as he insisted nursing home deaths were not undercounted in New York during the COVID-19 pandemic, though they were.

“It’s very, it’s very clear that’s the Trump line, the MAGA line,” claimed Cuomo, who is facing a Department of Justice probe for allegedly lying to Congress about his handling of COVID nursing home deaths.

The crowded dais provided little oxygen to the struggling candidates, who for months now have struggled to topple Cuomo atop the polls or match the momentum of the socialist Mamdani.

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie were two of the few able to cut through the often chaotic barrage of attacks on the ex-governor, with Big Apple politicos saying the pair came across as authentic politicians with concrete agendas.

Hedge fund manager and longshot candidate Whitney Tilson went after Mamdani several times, dredging up a past X post that called the NYPD “wicked & corrupt.”

Political consultant and lobbyist Yvette Buckner said voters will likely be left wanting to hear more.

“There were some missed opportunities on the top issues of public safety and affordability and the question of the ‘biggest regret’ for candidates, which is something New Yorkers would want to hear more about, especially from the front runner,” she added.

But Blake, a former state Assembly member, proved to be the breakout star of what will be his first and final debate, repeatedly hitting Cuomo — including over a racially tinged comment from decades ago.

Democratic operative Ken Frydman, though, dashed Blake’s hopes, saying, “Cuomo will get more of the black vote than he will.”

“No one knows who he is.”

— Additional reporting by Carl Campanile