Interviewer 2 (3:32)

What is your message to New York City residents these last days of the campaign?

Curtis Sliwa (3:37)

I am the only candidate, GOP Kennedy, that wants to slash taxes, corporate tax, income tax, especially the property tax, which a mayor does hold sway over. And the Citizens Budget Commission said, I'm the only one who's talking about fiscal constraint. $118 Billion budget for the city, and there are no cuts. Cuomo and Zorron would actually increase it. I would take $10 billion right out of the Department of Education, which is all being spent on the bureaucracy, start cutting the Department of Buildings, and get fiscally reliant on people like Larry Kudlow, who's my advisor, George Pataki, who did that as governor.

Interviewer (4:17)

Right.

Curtis Sliwa (4:18)

And then Rudy Giuliani, who is the best law and order mayor we've ever had in the city of New York. Now, those are three titans.

Interviewer (4:25)

This came up this weekend. I said, I got slew on Monday. They said, you got to ask him this question. Mayor Sliwa with the City Council. Can you get along with the City Council to get things done?

Curtis Sliwa (4:36)

Well, the benefit of my life is that I spent 13 years raising two boys with Melinda Katz, who was a City council person for 12 years. Head of land use. She's now the Queen's Democratic da. She taught me how you get along with.

Interviewer (4:49)

How do you do that?

Curtis Sliwa (4:50)

It's called discretionary funds. You go into the district, they beat you up. You meet with the staff because the staff does all the work. Remember the elected officials with Bloomberg surveillance?

Interviewer (5:00)

Always.

Curtis Sliwa (5:01)

Because the staff, the electeds, are always dialing for dollars, shaking people down for political contributions. And then you say, I just want one vote from you, and I get you your discretionary funds. You're looking for a new park. You're looking for a new playground. You're looking for capital improvement.

Interviewer (5:16)

What's our politics?

Curtis Sliwa (5:17)

A trade. I get one vote that I desperately need to show that there is dialogue even with those who are considered liberal, progressive, Democratic socialists of America. If you don't do that, no matter who the mayor is, you're not going to be able to get the city council in a majority way to back any of your initiatives. You'll be impotent as Eric Adams is now because Adrian Adams, the speaker of the council is the real mayor of the city of New York. What do you.

Interviewer 2 (5:46)

What's your policy for which is an issue that's very closely intertwined homelessness and crime in New York City. What's your policy?

Curtis Sliwa (5:54)

Well, homelessness, I deal with emotionally disturbed in the subways because I'm the only candidate that actually rides the subways campaigns takes the buses, the Express buses. That's 6 million New Yorkers and others who at one point of the day or night are using mass transit. I've been dubbed by the Staten island advance the mayor of mass transportation. We need to get the homeless into the shelters, but we have to make the shelters safe now. They're not. It's like Darwinian survival of the fittest. And we need to get the emotionally disturbed in state mental hospitals, the very hospitals that Andrew Cuomo cleared from 40,000 beds down to 4,000 before he fled fearing impeachment to the Hamptons.

Interviewer (6:33)

For you, Curtis Levi, for all of you across America, good morning. He is a Republican candidate in a fractured New York City mayoral contest. Let me quote exactly from AI because that's the way we roll. Curtis. In the 2021 New York City mayoral election, Curtis Lewa received 21% of the vote in the Bronx. I would suggest President Trump stun the nation with his minority success in the last election. Do you need that to win? How are you going to get the minority vote? And everybody thinks they don't go near you. Come on, you got 21% in the Bronx. How do you improve that?

Curtis Sliwa (7:13)

Everybody knows that Curtis Lewitt is a Republican who can go into 350 neighborhoods in some of which the only Republican they've ever seen is Abraham Lincoln on a five dollar bill. I've led a group of guardian angels that are predominantly black and Hispanic. I'm polling now at about 30% in the Bronx. Remember, Eric Adams was supposed to be the new face of the Democratic Party that I ran against.

Interviewer (7:35)

Is Mamdani the new face of the Democratic Party?

Curtis Sliwa (7:39)

Well, let's face it, the Democrats allowed the Fox into the chicken coop first with Bernie Sanders and AOC and now Johan Mandami. I blame Adams, I blame Cuomo, I blame the Democratic establishment because they have surrendered their party, they to socialism. And I am the only one who is advocating capitalistic policies. Cutting taxes, cutting the budget, law and order. We live in a city where we're best known around the world for locking up toothpaste and not locking up criminals. Now, who does that? That's the Democrats.

Interviewer (8:11)

You got to run like 15 times to get a line like that. I mean, that's great. Locking up toothpaste.

Interviewer 2 (8:16)

Immigration, what's your views on immigration here? This is a city that's got a history of supportive of immigration. We got a statue out there in the bay there. What's your view?

Curtis Sliwa (8:28)

Well, many of the migrants now are essential workers in the restaurant industry and the hospitality industry. If you start snatching them up because they're not wanted for crimes committed either the country or origin or here, then you're going to be depleting that workforce. I have three sons. None of my three sons would do that kind of work. Now you, you go after, as Trump called them, the bad homage. The drug dealers, the sex traffickers, the cartel runners. Yes. And ICE was being applauded when they first did that.

Interviewer (8:58)

But your, your card here, maybe Adams could say the same thing. I don't buy it. But your card is. You got a special relationship with President Trump, with what we see in Chicago, Portland, Louisiana. Give me some other towns, Paul. They're out there.

Curtis Sliwa (9:13)

Baltimore, Memphis.

Interviewer (9:15)

People in New York I know from personal experience are scared if they're migrants, immigrants, green card holders, to go out in the street. What's your relationship with President Trump that will make New York City, not Chicago, not L. A?

Curtis Sliwa (9:31)

First of all, I'm leader of the Guardian Angels with groups in every one of those cities you mentioned. And they need the National Guard. We don't. Kathy Hochul, the governor sent a thousand National Guardsmen into the subway last year when we had a crime crisis. We're okay in that. Regards focus on the really crime ridden cities. I would have dialogue with not only President Trump respectfully, but the members of his cabinet preemptively. When you see something is coming in your direction, you've got to meet. You're not going to win. You're going to try to sort of, as we would say in Italian, mezze, mezze, poco, poco. Half and half. The Trump administration will get some of what they want. Hopefully the city will get some of what they want. But when you have Zoran Mandami and and Andrew Cuomo saying I'm going to fight Donald Trump, guess what? You're going to lose if you fight the President of the United States because he holds the purse strings.

Interviewer 2 (10:23)

What do you make of the rise of Mr. Mamdani?

Curtis Sliwa (10:25)

Here it is simply because the Democrats were asleep like Rumpelstiltskin. I saw Zoran Mandami. He was out organizing votes for Democratic socialist candidates. They know how to get their vote out. The moderate Democrats are now dependent on Republicans, conservatives and independents. It's over for the moderate Democrats. They've sacrificed. They've waved the white flag. They don't even primary the liberals, progressives and the Democratic Socialists of America, they're afraid of them. I'm not afraid of them. I stand up to them.

Interviewer (10:57)

If we assume that Mr. Mumdami is getting out an original vote, I mean he's getting out. People you know as a stereotype have never voted before. How do you get out the slave of vote of Democrats? You can't do this. Just how do you get out that vote? Let's like Mamdani is getting out these.

Curtis Sliwa (11:15)

First time voters because I'm out in the streets. You see the headquarters in 10 neighborhoods, you see the plackets everywhere. I'm the law and order candidate. A lot of moderate Democrats are for law and order. They're not for Andrew.

Interviewer (11:26)

I was in. I want you to do this. 10029 110th Street, Spanish Harlem, that post office between 3rd and Lex. You walk in that post office, everybody in there is some form of a first or second generation immigrant. What do you say to those people to get them to vote for Lincoln's party?

Curtis Sliwa (11:47)

How? Law and order, right? They're against no cash bail. They want the raise, the age lowered back to 16. Because now we have all these juveniles doing drive by shootings. And they want Rikers island kept open. Why is Cuomo and Zora Mandami wanting to close Rikers Island? Where are they going to put inmates? They're going to be cut loose and they're going to just terrorize people in the streets. And remember, the number one number of workers in New York City are women. Talk to the women. They go on the subway, they're being sexually harassed. They're being perved on. They're afraid to go out at night. They can't afford taking yellow cabs, Ubers and lifts. And nobody is talking about what women have to go through in New York City. I know because my wife, who's an E attorney, has explained it and has done my very first commercial about the plight of women being victims of random attacks. What random attacks? This is being directed at women and they're not being protected.

Interviewer (12:40)

There's a lot of talk about financial support. What financial support do you have for the next 20 day dash to the election?

Curtis Sliwa (12:47)

I have collected actually in the three the last three quarters. Average donation $119. More matching funds than Zorhan Mandami, Cuomo and Eric Adams combined. We're talking about donations from New York City residents. The others are getting their money from out of state. I would take the money of the local New Yorker who obviously is putting their reputation on the line when I'm getting an eight to one match and I'm on TV and I'm in the neighborhoods and I have the money to run a campaign.

Interviewer (13:18)

People want our news reporters want to know, are you even considering dropping out to shift this campaign?

Curtis Sliwa (13:23)

You know what? Talk to the dropout king who dropped out against Karl McCall running for governor. Andrew Cuomo who dropped out and fled to the Hamptons because he feared impeachment. Andrew Cuomo. Did Donald Trump flee to Mar A Lago because he feared impeachment? Did Donald Trump flee to Mar A Lago because he was a victim of Lawfare by Alvin Bragg and Tish James? No. He showed up in court each and every day. Cuomo is a coward. He's the only one who's ever dropped out.

Interviewer (13:51)

Thank you for joining Bloomberg this morning. Curtis Lewa, of course. Mayoral Ken we hope to get all of the candidates in here as we dash the first Tuesday of November.

Bloomberg Audio Studios Announcer (14:01)

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