Curtis Sliwa on Why He Won't Drop Out of NYC Mayor Race

0:00The most important man in New York right now, arguably one of the most important people in America, Curtis Sliwa joins me in the waning days of one of the craziest mayoral elections of my lifetime. Even if you don't live here in the Big Apple, you're going to want to hear this conversation. I'm not just going to sit home and let this situation get totally out of hand. I love my city and I'm going to do something about it. It's us versus them. The insiders and the billionaires. Ackman is a jerk. It's us versus Cuomo. I view Andrew Cuomo as the architect of our destruction. It's us versus Zorhan.

0:32And Zorhan is the apprentice. Who wants to make Gracie Manchin a home for the cats? The bottom of anger. Hey, Zoe, my best bud in the whole world. Would you keep, kill, or modify the congestion pricing program? Dead. Would you expand, decrease, or keep the same number of so-called safe injection sites? Close them down. The last two mayors proposed allocating 1 % of the city budget for parks. Will you make the same pledge here tonight? And another 1%, 2%. Keep your hands off the parks, you greedy developers. Would you direct the NYPD to ramp up speeding tickets and other moving violations on the motorized two-wheelers?

1:13License them, register them, and yes, do enforcement on them. Would any of you accept Mayor Adams' endorsement? Absolutely not. Put that crook in jail. What is your favorite live music venue in New York City, Mr. Sliwa? Oh, Chainsmokers. EDM. Under the K Bridge, I presume. That's right, the Kajjusko Bridge. If there was a ranked choice election, how would you vote, Mr. Mondani? Myself, number one, and Curtis, number two. Oh, please don't be glazing me here, Zoran. Good day from Newsweek's Brooklyn Bureau, a.k.a. my apartment, where I'm convalescing from a particularly nasty case of the coronavirus.

1:48So no World Trade Center fancy studio today. I am Carlo Versano, and this is The 1600. So Tuesday is Election Day here in New York City, as well as in other states and cities around the country, and we are in the final stages of a doozy of a mayoral campaign here in the Big Apples. Zoran Mamdani, a young Democratic socialist. You've probably heard of him. He's a state assemblyman riding an anti-establishment wave that has galvanized the left. Mamdani looks like he's cruising to victory on Tuesday, but he has not put this thing in the bag quite yet here in the final days. Andrew Cuomo, our disgraced former governor who is running as a third-party candidate, he's running about nine or ten points behind Mamdani, according to the latest polls.

2:28And then we have the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa. He's running a distant third. He's taking roughly the margin between Mamdani and Cuomo, according to Quinnipiac and Fox News polls that came out this week. So we'll explain in the interview why that is important. If you're a New Yorker like me, you probably know or at least know of Sliwa. You may have even met him. He's been around forever. He's been a fixture of the city for decades. He's not really a politician by any sense of the word, at least not by trade. He's an animal rights activist. He's a big law and order advocate. He actually is probably best known for starting the subway vigilante group known as the Guardian Angels back in the bad old days of subway crime in the 80s.

3:07Now, he lives in a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with six rescue cats down from, I believe, 16. He is a classic New York character if ever there was one. Take a look. This country was stone cold dead. Curtis Lewa is with me now. Curtis, thank you so much for taking the time during a very busy campaign season. Well, it's raining here. I got drenched and then I came out of the subway. So you're giving me a bit of relief. I was going to say, I haven't been, I have COVID right now. So I'm just sort of like here in my apartment. I haven't been outside in a few days, but it looks pretty gnarly out there.

3:43I'm just hoping that, you know, it clears up for trick-or-treating tomorrow night so my daughter doesn't have her week ruined. I'd say one benefit of COVID, you wouldn't smell the stink in the subway on a rainy day, that's for sure. Yeah, you could say that again. So, Curtis, a lot of interviewers start by asking you when you plan to drop out of the Mayweather race, just given your polling. I don't want to do that. I know you've answered that question a million times. I'd like to start by hearing about your platform. I'm a New Yorker born and bred just like you. I care very deeply about this city.

4:18I don't think you would disagree that I think that we've been going in sort of the wrong direction as a city for some time now. And I'm an undecided voter. I mean, I guess that sort of potentially makes me a Curtis Lewe voter. So to that end, can you, you know, what's your pitch to me? Can you articulate the most important policies that you would prioritize on day one of your administration? The most important policies are the ones that people associate with me, law and order, public safety, quality of life. It's right up there in the polling data with affordability and cost of living. It's almost side by side.

4:54So when you look at the two Democrats I'm running against, because they are two Democrats, they're following in the path of a failed Democratic mayor, de Blasio. That's who Zoran wants to be just like. I want to be just like Bill de Blasio. Oof. And then, of course, the most corrupt mayor in the city of New York history, and that's saying a lot about New York, Eric Adams, who should have been one and done and in jail with go-bars Bobby Menendez. And you look at them and you say, well, all the policies that all of them put into effect has led to this crime crisis. So no cash bail, which has been a catastrophe, a disaster.

5:32The architect that Governor Cuomo, the apprentice, Assemblyman Zoran Mandami, they're like two peas in a pod. Raised the age, which has now caused a spate of juvenile drive-by shootings and gang violence. one that almost took the life of my oldest son, Anthony. And when the five were captured, they were 16 and 17. Instead of going to criminal court, they went to family court, pat on the wrist back in the streets. They are both supporters of Raisi A's. And then where we put our inmates, Rikers Island, the architect for the closure 10 years ago was Andrew Cuomo. And his apprentice is Zohar Mandami.

6:10So when it comes to law and order, public safety, quality of life, I am distinct from the Democrats. For example, we're a city that's best known for locking up our toothpaste and not locking up our criminals. How did that come about? Because of the policies that were implemented by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. Then you look at other issues. As Democrats, they want migrants to vote. I don't. They are in favor of a sanctuary city. I'm not. So you go down a laundry list of concepts and ideas, and we couldn't be any more opposite. I believe you've got to cut the corporate taxes, the income tax, the property tax, which the mayor can cut, the property tax, and shrink the budget.

6:54They don't want to cut taxes. They don't want to shrink the budget. So I think it's clear when you put the three of us up on a menu, Cuomo and Zora Mandami share the same menu items, and I'm totally different. So I would say, compare me to Rudy Giuliani 2.0. Zoran Mandami is Bill de Blasio on steroids. And Cuomo is the typical dystopian person. He's always been mean, curmudgeon, no heart, cold hearted. He hasn't even reinvented himself when it comes to that. And so that's why I think that democracy should prevail. The billionaires are not going to pick this mayor. Neither are the insiders or the influencers.

7:38The people are going to pick the next mayor. And that's where the vote should be with the people, not with all the elites. Well, I agree with you there. So I want to this is sort of like a niche question that you may appreciate. But just again, as somebody who grew up in the city who rides the subway, you know, you were just talking about coming off the subway. Your campaign makes a big point of highlighting that you're sort of the subway mayor. So I have this. I got this, I think, from one of your canvassers the other day coming off the train says Curtis is the only candidate for New York City mayor who rides the subway just like you.

8:13So in the debate, I forget if it was the first debate or the second debate, but you said that you would trade the Second Avenue subway extension in Harlem for Trump in order to keep the Gateway Tunnel project funded. Now, the Gateway Tunnel, if you don't know, it's this big tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey. It's been, you know, they've been trying to get it done forever. Same with the Second Avenue subway. But I guess my question is, how can you be the subway mayor and not support the biggest extension to the system in 50 years? Because that's a boondoggle implemented by Kathy Hochul in advance of her gubernatorial race, where she's challenged by Elise Stefanik, the congresswoman that I'm supporting next year.

8:48There's no need for these three additional stations to East Harlem. I'm in East Harlem all the time. Nobody's clamoring, oh, I got to walk a few blocks to catch the sixth train on Lexington Avenue. Now, the Gateway Tunnel moves millions of people from D.C. to Boston. It's vital for New York. You don't bump with Donald Trump and expect to win and prevail. You're going to bump Chess with Donald Trump, you lose. So this is where the art of the deal comes in. You sit down with the president or whoever he assigns is and says, hey, look, we need that Gateway Tunnel. Superstorm Sandy almost destroyed it.

9:26If that tunnel gets destroyed, that's it. Commerce is affected all up and down the Northeast Corridor, the movement of passengers. We'd like to preserve that and we'd like to give up the Second Avenue extension, which is not a vital need. We need money for infrastructure improvement of the regular subway that's falling apart. And I think if you approach the president and all of his men and women who are in his cabinet and he delegates to these discussions You he's gonna lend you an ear because you're basically saying the art of the deal And that's something we know that Trump always loves give in order to get But if you're just gonna bump chess with Donald Trump like Zoran and Andrew want to do in a macho maniacal way You end up getting bupkis and the people of New York City will suffer because especially the poor and the indigent, we've seen already.

10:17He's cut Medicaid. He's cut food stamps. He's threatening to cut NYCHA. He's already said as Zohan Mandami is elected the mayor, he's going to take$7 billion out of federal funding, which would have helped support the pie-in-the-sky fantasy, not reality, idea of universal child care that's helped propel Zohan Mandami in this election cycle. Why would you want to make enemies of the strongest man in the world? Didn't Zelensky try that in the White House? And within 72 hours, boy, did he do a pivot in ship because he had to think of the Ukrainian people and not just his egomaniacal, macho maniacal self.

10:55I mean, I agree with you. I think and thank you, because that's actually teased up my second follow up perfectly, which is that, you know, your strategy with dealing with Trump is very different, as you said, from Mamdani and Cuomo's. They're all about fight, fight, fight. You are more in the appeasement, make a deal camp, which, to your point, I think is probably the better way to go. just given how he operates. But, you know, Trump is not withholding funding on Gateway or threatening to withhold funding on Gateway because it's too expensive or anything. He's doing it because New York City is not cooperating to his satisfaction on these ICE raids.

11:27Now, unless I'm mistaken, I think that you've said that you would not cooperate with ICE either. So do you stand by that, even if it means that both Gateway and 2nd Avenue subway extension could potentially be lost in that? Well, the real reason for him stymieing the Gateway Project, which benefits states all up and down the Northeast corridor, is because of Chuck Schumer. Sure. It really is because of Chuck Schumer. He's made that very clear. Yeah, he hates Schumer. And I kind of understand that. Chuck Schumer, my God, the most annoying person in politics who's afraid of AOC challenging him. So he's like Michael Corleone.

12:07Now that he's president again, he's trying to settle all scores, but not on the backs of New Yorkers. Now ICE. When Governor Andrew Cuomo was in charge in Albany, he called ICE thugs. I took him on on that. I said, wait, these noble men and women, they're going out risking their lives to get to really bad hombres, as Donald Trump described him when he flew into central ICE, to the central courthouse, the federal courthouse. And in the company of Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, and Peter King, the congressman, He launched war on MS-13, and he ordered all law enforcement agencies to cooperate with ICE.

12:42They listened to President Donald Trump, not to Governor Cuomo. So now let's speed it up. ICE is put on ICE, joining the Biden administration. They're like persons of no consequence. Revived when Trump is reelected. Tom Homan in charge. I mean, that guy has testosterone crashing through his cranium. We're going after the bad hombres. So initially I saw, wow, they really were gang members, drug dealers, narco terrorists, sex traffickers, and people were applauding. And then all of a sudden, somebody in Washington put a quota on the arrest, 3 ,000 a day. And I know ICE agents, some of whom are former guardian angels, would tell me, Curtis, this is not good, quotas, because now the pressure is on us to make arrests every day.

13:27The bad hombres, they hide in the shadows because they know we got to stay out of the off the radar screen of law enforcement. But average everyday people shaping up at a Home Depot shopping center or going to federal court at Foley Square. And they have the card that they were given when they came through the portal, as they were told. They were paroled into the United States by Mayorkas, who was the head of Homeland Security. and they were told on this date at this time you got to show up for your court hearing. If they're doing that, why would ICE be snatching them up upon their arrival? Now, if they missed a parole hearing, just like if you're paroled for having committed a crime, you go back to jail.

14:09No problem. Snatch them up, prepare them for deportation to their country of origin. But the way it is now, they're being forced to meet a call each and every day and they're really snatching up a lot of people who should not be snatched up. Kids going to high school. I mean, come on. And essential workers because, look, I got three sons. You think they're going to be working in the hospitality industry and in the back of restaurants and doing day labor? They are not. So they become pretty much essential workers. And Trump has toyed with the idea, well, we've got to create a pathway. No, we don't.

14:45You've got to create a pathway. Who's going to pick the crops? Who's going to pack the crops? who's going to work in his slaughterhouses. It ain't going to be my three sons. It's going to be the migrant. Sure. Okay, so let's switch gears a bit here. So John Ketchum, writing in City Journal this week, he calls you the most important man in New York. His argument is basically that you do not have a viable path to victory, and therefore remaining in the race is going to hand this election to Zoran Mamdani, given that the margin between Mamdani and Cuomo is roughly the same or less than the support that you are garnering in polls.

15:19Now, Ketchum's not the only conservative to argue this. Bill Ackman, although honestly, who cares what that guy thinks because he's annoying beyond words. But it's not just Ackman. Republican city councilwoman Ina Vernikoff telling the New York Post this week that she was going to pull her support for you, quote, as much as it hurts me to say this, a vote for Curtis Lewa is a vote for Zoran Mamdani. Ex-Republican council member Joe Borelli said on Fox, quote, I am no fan of Andrew Cuomo, but I also don't want to light my vote on fire, end quote. So, look, I appreciate you are not a creature of the establishment GOP, right, nationally or in New York.

15:53And you're not worried about getting invited to their parties. I think that's what people like about you. But these are members of your party, right? You are the Republican nominee. These are people who should be out there canvassing for you, and they are essentially begging you to drop out of this race so a Democratic socialist isn't put in charge of a$2 trillion economy. Why are none of those police persuasive to you? First off, they're not canvassing out there. We've had a get-out-the-vote effort three months already underway like Zohar Mandami. That's how you get your vote out. You get your vote out with dedicated volunteers.

16:25Of course, sure. Who go door-to-door. The people you mentioned, they don't canvass, but they're entitled to their opinion, and that's fine. The time to have challenged me would have been in a Republican primary. Nobody challenged me. How come? Because nobody could beat me. And they know that. But now all of a sudden, as they succumb to fear, fright, hysteria, is that's what's gripped New York City. They're not street warriors. They don't understand that. Every time you suggest that you're afraid, you're in fear, you're gripped by hysteria, that's another good day for Zoran Mandami and the Zoranistas because they're empowered.

17:02You actually empower them because they say, yeah, and if you don't like it, leave. And they will take over the city. You have to be able to stand your ground. You have to be able to fight for your principles. And also, you have to rally up your supporters, which is something that Andrew Cuomo cannot do. So if they want to back Andrew Cuomo, who failed us all in the Democratic primary and mailed it in and is mailing it in now, go ahead, knock yourself out. But he's not, he does not have a field operation. He doesn't go out into the streets. He doesn't press the flesh. That's where the people are.

17:38That's why he lost the primary by 13 points after being 40 points ahead is Zoran Mandami, who was at 1 percent on March 1st of 2025 when Andrew Cuomo decided that he was entitled to become the mayor. It's not like that. That generation's day has come. That's my generation, baby boomers. There's a generational change, and my baby boomer generation is not willing to accept it. You've got to go out, get the millennials. You've got to get the Gen Zs. You've got to be in all the neighborhoods that Zoran did extraordinarily well against Cuomo. I am every day. I don't see any, any presence of Cuomo or his supporters.

18:16Well, I mean, you're absolutely right. Cuomo is running one of the worst campaigns I have ever seen in my lifetime for any for dog catcher, no less New York City mayor. And I'm not arguing that he deserves this the the the the mayorship by any stretch. But I want to hold you to this for a second. You've been running for mayor for more or less five years, right? You won two GOP primaries, the most recent one unopposed. You won back in 21. Why have you not been able to build a bigger constituency in New York City? I know that New York City is blue. We are very blue. We're very liberal. But this is also a city that has moved eight points towards Trump since you last ran for mayor.

18:51I think there's plenty of New Yorkers, I mean I even know them, who would not hesitate to cast a ballot for a moderate, pro-business, tough-on-crime Republican. Why haven't you sealed the deal with these voters? Well, number one, I think I have because I'm the Republican candidate and this fantasy idea of yours of creating a candidate never stepped up, never chose to run. I am the people's mayor. I'm the only one who could go into neighborhoods where the only Republican they've ever seen is Abraham Lincoln on a$5 bill and be accepted and be received. Well, I handled myself in those two debates.

19:26I seem to be mayoral. I seem to have a grasp of all the subject matter. I was also very entertaining, which is something that Cuomo, who's so dystopian, so angry. I mean, nobody can relate. When your unfavorables are over 50%, you're not going to get elected to anything. And yet, you see, the problem with Andrew Cuomo and his supporters is they don't understand what no means. And for Andrew Cuomo, he's never understood what no means, if you know what I mean. So the point is he feels he's entitled. He was one and done in the primary. If anything, he should have left, gone back to the Hamptons with his billionaire friends.

20:07He has another billionaire come on board today, Bloomberg, who wasted$8 million on him in the primary. Now he's giving him$1.5 million. Hey, Bloomberg, you're another billionaire who's not going to change this election. Why don't you give that money to the homeless and the emotionally disturbed that I deal with every day in the subway? See, that's the difference between me and those traditional Republicans. They're up in the suites. I'm in the streets. And that's why I trust the people to make the decision. Now, if they don't choose me, I'm staying. I'm fighting for what I know is right. I'm improving, not moving.

20:39What did Andrew Cuomo tell his Medici's and billionaire friends in the Hamptons? Oh, if Zoran wins, I'm fleeing with you to Florida. What kind of a leader is that? When you want to be in the foxhole with Andrew Cuomo, he'd be the first to bail out. You make a good point about Bloomberg. So Bloomberg is giving$1.5 million, I believe, to Cuomo's PAC after saying that he was done with Cuomo months ago. Now, Bloomberg is not a—whatever you think about him, he's not a dumb guy. Does that suggest to you that he sees movement which would suggest that if you dropped out, Cuomo could win? I don't know.

21:14It depends on what day, what poll. Today's Emerson poll says that I've gained the most. 11 points, I'm at 21 percent. Cuomo has dropped significantly to 25 percent. And they say the John is over 50%. You keep looking at the polls. From one day to the next, it gives me vertical. I know what I sense in the streets, in the subways, where the actual voters are. Cuomo is not there. Bloomberg, please. When's the last time he was with normal people? He has Jeeves drive him around in the stretch limo. And, in fact, this is the guy who said the only good thing about Queens is that it has JFK, that I can have my limo take me to so I can get the hell out of Queens.

21:56This is not a man of the people. Time has passed Bloomberg and the billionaires by. They just don't know what's going on. This is a generational change. They know Wall Street. They know hedge funds. But they know nothing about the streets in New York City. And quite frankly, they don't know anything about politics. When is the last time that Bloomberg's been right? He spent a billion dollars to run for president and thought everybody has a price. What did he get for that? He got eviscerated by Elizabeth Warren twice on this stage. He won Guam. He won Guam. How could you forget about Guam? American Samoa, I think.

22:29American Samoa. And then who did he pick in the other elections? He picked Harris. He picked Cuomo. He hasn't picked a winner. If his life depended on it, Bloomberg couldn't pick a winner now in politics because he's so disconnected. And he believes, like the billionaires, that everybody has a price. Well, there's one man here you can't bribe. They've tried it already. $10 million to drop out. And a guy actually told me on the other end of the line, you know, Curtis, everybody has a price. What's your price? As if it was the price is right. We know Eric Adams, the price was right for him to be won and done.

23:04And you can't buy me, lease me. I'm not for sale. You know, I'm going to put a big sign outside of City Hall. Lobbyists, stay the hell out of here. City Hall is not for sale. And billionaires, we don't need you. If you want to leave, fine. If you want to stay, fine. But stop moaning and groaning. This election is not about you. They think the whole world is about them. No, this election is about working class people who are being screwed in the city of New York. And it's been by the Democrats, de Blasio, Cuomo Adams. I want to come back to that, the$10 million thing in a minute. But first, let me just ask you one thing.

23:37Cuomo has called Zoran Mamdani a, quote, existential threat to New York City. Do you agree with that? Of course. Of course he's a threat. He's promoting socialism. In the debate, the second debate, I got very personal with him. I said, you know, my two youngest sons were raised Jewish. They're afraid of you, Zoran. Their family, their friends, their extended relatives, everybody they know that's Jewish is afraid of you. And you're the arsonist because every time you embrace a supporter of terrorism or a terrorist himself, you're the arsonist. and now you're telling this community that my son's living in that you if elected you will be the fireman you will come to the rescue doesn't work that way of course he's a threat but then why is it that 30 to 35 percent of the jewish community is voting for so there's a lot of hysteria i get it there's a lot of fear and fright in the jewish community i get it but apparently they're not executing uh tough love in their households because again it's a generational divide.

24:39There are young Jews voting for Zoran. So if you're afraid of Zoran and the implications of his election, I would suggest to older Jews who may be paying the bills for the younger Jewish members of their family, that they say, hey, you ain't living in my household if you're supporting Zoran. I'm not paying for your college education or your European education. But it seems there's an unwillingness to teach their children and grandchildren. So don't let you me you can't even get your own your own household together 35 percent of Jews are proudly supporting Zoran Mandami even though he doesn't have Jewish people's interests at heart is that a problem for for me no that's a problem for the Jewish community and they don't want to address it all they want to do is say could it stop I'm not dropping out just five days left if you haven't figured that out by now you'll never figure it out well I appreciate you're not dropping out, but this is what I'm speaking to you as an undecided New York City voter because this is what I'm having trouble understanding.