C&B Deep Dive - Socialism 101

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

C&B Deep Dive – Socialism 101

Date: November 1, 2025
Podcast Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

In this special “Deep Dive” episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, joined by guest Curtis Sliwa (Republican NYC mayoral candidate), dissect the recent surge of left-wing populism and socialist policies taking over New York City politics, using the candidacy of Zoran Mamdani as a case study. The hosts critically assess the economic and social proposals being advanced, draw historical parallels, and discuss the consequences for city life, governance, and broader political trends. With a mix of sharp debate, humorous banter, and trenchant analysis, the episode offers a pointed critique of “socialist 101” dogma and its real-world ramifications.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rise of Left-Wing Populism: Zoran Mamdani and the New York Mayor’s Race

• Main Theme: The left is moving away from “race communism” and back toward classic class warfare.

• Mamdani’s Viral Moments: The hosts play and critique key soundbites from Mamdani's campaign and discuss broader implications of his rhetoric and the political energy it represents (01:15–03:23).

  • Clay: Criticizes Mamdani’s focus on post-9/11 Islamophobia, arguing the U.S. demonstrated exemplary tolerance.

    “The American tolerance after 9/11 is actually a shining example of how decent and reasonable the American people are in my opinion.” —Clay (03:10)

• Buck: Explains why identity-based arguments aren't legitimate substitutes for policy substance.

  “Claiming that someone is opposed to you because of your identity is not actually an argument for or against anything.” —Buck (03:23)

2. Populist Rhetoric & Economic Populism

• “Tax the Rich” Chant: The candidates turn class jealousy into policy, fueling calls for higher taxes and redistribution (07:40–08:23).

  • Clay: Sarcastically notes the exodus of high earners:

    “High earners who are like, hey Buck, how’s South Florida?” (08:02)

• Buck: Urges high earners to consider low-tax states, suggesting NYC is no longer worth the premium.

3. Policy Proposals under Fire

Free Buses and Public Transit

• Mamdani’s Claim: Removing fares makes buses safer.
  • Hosts’ Response: This will increase crime and turn buses into “mobile homeless shelters.”

    “This is lunacy from this guy. Lunacy.” —Clay (11:38)
    “Making all public transportation buses... free is going to do: decrease safety and increase dirty.” —Buck (12:09)

Rent Control & Housing

• Buck: Explains basic supply-and-demand economics, critiquing rent control and price controls, drawing parallels to Venezuela’s economic collapse (14:28–17:14).
  • Quote:

    “Freezing rent is actually the most destructive thing you could do if you believe you have major issues with rent in the city.” —Buck (14:28)

  • Notes vast construction costs are regulatory (often 40% or more), and strict building codes worsen the housing crunch.
  • Example: Venezuela destroyed its economy through price controls.

Government-Owned Grocery Stores

• Clay: Derides suggestion of government-run supermarkets, citing failed historical examples from the Soviet Union and Cuba, and explains why grocery stores are a low-margin, high-complexity business (23:09–26:24).
  • Quote:

    “It is one of the dumbest arguments I’ve ever heard from a politician that they’re going to make groceries more affordable by getting the government in the grocery business.” —Clay (25:14)

Central Planning and Regulatory Burden

• Buck: Laments how city planning, anti-car measures, and central economic policies increase costs for everyone—especially working-class businesses and consumers.

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• Norm Macdonald Reference: Commenting on post-terror-attack narratives:

  “Just imagine if America got hit with a nuclear bomb in one of our cities. Just think of all the Islamophobia.” —Buck (04:25)

• Bus Fare Analogy:

  “You know what the problem is in all these drugstores in New York... They expect to be paid for this stuff.” —Clay (11:38)

• Subway Experience:

  “There’s an empty subway car just for me. And you will go on that subway car, and it will smell worse than any smell you’ve ever come across in your life, because it is being used by homeless people who are deeply mentally ill as a toilet.” —Buck (12:36)

• Braveheart Analogy and Curtis Sliwa’s Pledge:

  “Think of that last scene in Braveheart where Mel Gibson is on the gurney... I’m saying impale me. I will never support Andrew Cuomo, the Prince of Evil.” —Curtis Sliwa (31:45)

• On Bribery to Drop Out:

  “Everybody has a price. $10 million is a lot of money to walk away from. I said, guy, you know me, I was born with nothing. I’ll die with nothing. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. This sounds to me unethical. It’s a bribe. It could be illegal.” —Curtis Sliwa (38:28)

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Key Segments (with Timestamps)

• [01:15–03:23] — Mamdani post-9/11 clip and critique on American tolerance
• [07:40–09:19] — "Tax the Rich" rally, advice to high earners, NYC vs. other cities
• [11:25–12:36] — Freeing bus fares and dangers of “mobile homeless shelters”
• [14:28–17:14] — Rent control, economics of supply and demand, Venezuela analogy
• [23:09–26:24] — Government grocery stores, failed central planning
• [29:10–36:42] — Interview with Curtis Sliwa: vote splitting, race dynamics, and Curtis’s campaign
• [38:28–39:48] — Bribe offers to Curtis Sliwa exposed
• [40:02–42:08] — Relationship with Donald Trump, historic Republican wins

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Curtis Sliwa Interview Highlights

• On Running Against Cuomo and Mamdani:

  “I am the Republican populous blue collar, working class candidate. That’s my pathway to victory. Andrew Cuomo is responsible for the rise of Johan Mandami and the Democrats are responsible for the Socialists taking over their party.” —Curtis Sliwa (29:26)

• No Intention to Drop Out, Even Under Pressure:

  “I will never support Andrew Cuomo, the Prince of Evil. He’s cold hearted. He is the worst of what the Democratic Party represents.” —Curtis Sliwa (31:55)

• Distinguishing Himself from Cuomo and Mamdani:

  “They are birds of a feather, two peas in a pod. They’re Democrats. They have caused the destruction of New York State.” —Curtis Sliwa (32:30)

• Animal Rights Angle:

  “I have a new line, independent line, protect animals... It’s the first independent line on the ballot. Try to find Andrew Cuomo in the maze. Very difficult.” —Curtis Sliwa (35:21)

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Tone and Atmosphere

• Intelligent criticism, snark, and satirical humor pervade the episode.
• The hosts repeatedly contrast central planning with the “common sense” of market economics and bring personal anecdotes to bear.
• The addition of Curtis Sliwa introduces an energetic, combative, and colorful perspective, infusing the episode with campaign vigor and high political stakes.

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Conclusion

For listeners seeking an in-depth conservative look at the ramifications of far-left populism, especially in urban politics, this episode delivers a detailed, passionate, and frequently entertaining critique. The episode links current NYC politics to broader trends, warns about classic socialist pitfalls, and previews the high-stakes outcome of the emerging mayoral race. Curtis Sliwa’s contributions provide both local color and a direct view into the trenches of the campaign.

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For full context and more soundbites, listen to the episode on the Clay and Buck podcast feed.

Transcript

[Clay]

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[Clay]

Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?

[Curtis Sliwa]

You're a good boy.

[Clay]

That's right, dude.

[Buck]

You're a good.

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[Podcast Announcer]

Clay and Buck's Deep Dive podcast. Taking an issue and going a little deeper. So you can too.

[Clay]

If we're picking the worst clip of Mamdani. That's a tough one. That's a tough one, though there are definitely some that are now rising to the top. This is a flashback to 2020 and you really see who these Democrats are in 2020 talking about this across the board because that's when it was the they thought there was maximum political advantage to showing you just how left wing and insane they are. Here is Mamdani back in 2020 about the lesson that he learned from 911 and his remembrance of it played too.

[Zoran Mamdani]

I want to use this moment to speak to the Muslims of New York City. I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.

[Clay]

Clay, that's the 3,000 people died.

[Curtis Sliwa]

A war was.

[Clay]

Was launched with a horrific terrorist attack against us. And Mamdani's concern is, and I'm just going to say this, people are already pointing out that this doesn't seem like it even adds up with whether his aunt was actually in New York, whether she actually wore a hijab. But this guy will say anything. But for 911 to be about your aunt creating this fear, you Know this Islamophobia thing, the truth of 911 and this, you know, talking to New Yorkers and the whole country, Americans were incredibly tolerant and, and, and decent toward Muslim Americans after 911 in 99.999% of cases, you find me another society where someone suffers a massive terrorist sneak attack that kills thousands of people that is responsible entirely by one religious group with one ideology. And trust me, it would not have gone the way that it went in this country. So the American tolerance after 911 is actually a shining example of how decent and reasonable the American people are in my opinion.

[Buck]

I think that's all 100% accurate. I would also point out that claiming that someone is opposed to you because of your identity is not actually an argument for or against anything. And I think where a lot of you come down on this issue, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, who are out there listening is make me an argument that is a good, sound, well constructed argument. You can't make an argument because it makes me uncomfortable. Is a part of the reason why Democrat party brand has collapsed. And so first of all, I think he's probably lying. OK, let's start with that second part. 24 years ago when 911 happened. Yeah, like the actual victims when we're still cleaning up. This is the great Norm MacDonald clip, if I remember correctly from back in the day. Was it a tweet or a. Yeah, like.

[Clay]

Well, it might have been both, but I always remember the tweet. Just imagine if America got hit with a nuclear bomb in one of our cities. Just think of all the Islamophobia.

[Buck]

Yes, and, and I mean the whole idea that the people who are victims here are not the people that actually died, but the people who in some way were looked on suspiciously after other people who embrace the same religion decided to fly airplanes into three different iconic American structures. I mean, or two different American iconic structures. I mean, I guess again that actually goes into. Was the World Trade Center 1. You know, this is like one discrete event or another. That's the lawyer in me going back. But the discrete terror attacker too. I think you look at all of this and I just, I watched that rally buck because I said I want to make sure that I'm not missing anything. The 14,000 people were in a stadium setting. They had AOC, they had mom, Donnie, and we got different clips from that and I think we should play it. But I, my big takeaway was no, I'm, I'm not missing anything here. This is a crazy person's campaign that is taken over new York City.

[Clay]

And, and he's. According to the odds, I know sleep was going to pull it out, you tell me. Fine. But according to the odds, he's looking like the odds on favorite and then some. And I would say what we're seeing, Clay, and one of the reasons why nationally this is getting attention, why people in Texas and California and Missouri and everywhere who are with us right now are at least observing this race with some degree of interest, is this is what left wing populism in America looks like. I think they are beginning to move away a little bit and it's a temporary tactical retreat. They have not repudiated, they have not given up on, on what many of us now call race communism and all. But they are going back toward a more class warfare communism, really the original communism and making this all about rich have to pay more, government has to give me more. And unfortunately it's very straightforward. Everybody thinks that Santa Claus is good when Santa Claus is giving them stuff and that there's no downside and that only the rich people who won't notice it are going to pay. These are all the usual lies. But this is at the heart of this whole left wing populist movement. I mean, here is at the Sunday Bernie rally you had or sorry, Mamdani rally. Right, but it's Bernie Aoc Mamdani. I mean these right now are the three. I was going to say shining lights, but what would be a, What's a. I have to think of some other. These are the three commissars in chief of the American Democrat commie movement. And here they are. Listen to what the crowd is chanting. Play cut four.

[Buck]

This crowd is fired up.

[Clay]

All right.

[Curtis Sliwa]

I can hear you.

[Buck]

Yeah.

[Clay]

What a stirring speech from New York Governor Hochul there. Okay, I can hear you. But just so you all know, that crowd is chanting tax the rich. Tax the rich. You know who's listening in New York City right now? High earners who are like, hey Buck, how's South Florida? Hey Clay, they got some extra houses in Franklin, Tennessee, I'd leave.

[Buck]

I, I, I, I, I mean, I respect the fact that New York City has been a great American town for hundreds of years. If I were one of the people that is having a great living and made a great living in New York City that you know they are going to come for and they are going to tax you to excess. There's lots of great American cities. Maybe in 1960 or 1980 you felt like you had to stay in New York City. Trust me, Nashville's awesome. Miami is awesome. Dallas pretty great. Houston pretty great. No state income tax in any of those big cities. You can get everything that you want in New York, except you can have a gun. And you can have zero percent state income tax.

[Clay]

Hold on, hold on.

[Buck]

That's a pretty good trade.

[Clay]

A gun, as in one place.

[Buck]

You can't even have a gun in New York City, like.

[Clay]

No, I know, but I'm saying in these other places, you're not going to have.

[Buck]

You can have it in time. You have a collection, have an entire arsenal, but you can have a gun. I mean, there are lots of restricted rights in New York City. And I think New York City is fine to visit. And I know you still have a ton of family there. And New York City is awesome.

[Clay]

And Momdadi is not going to single handedly ruin the city forever, but he's going to make some decisions that unfortunately the New Yorkers are going to pay a price.

[Buck]

The best case scenario for mom, Donnie, best case scenario if he wins is that he's so incompetent because he's never managed anything in his life. He's never had any success in life prior to this moment. And you can go back, you live through it. Buck, it's not a surprise to me that the people who have been the best mayors have tended to have a lot of experience in management or business that has prepared them to be able to take on the Leviathan that is the New York City government. So I think the best case scenario is Mamdani is so incompetent that he is not politically able to enact the agenda that he has run to say that he will enact.

[Clay]

And speaking of that agenda, this is. This has been recently released by the Mamdani campaign. So my understanding is this is not like deep oppo research that we're latching onto here or something. Here is Mamdani, meaning the campaign's like, look at mom, Donnie. Look at how great he is. Here he is talking about how when you get the problem on buses, and I have ridden on New York City buses many, many times. I'll tell you this. My high school, our sports teams used to have to travel to games because we had a very limited budget. It was a scholarship school. We would travel on public buses, city buses.

[Buck]

In your city forms, you would just get on with like your.

[Clay]

Yeah, we would get on with like 15 of us or whatever, and we would get on the city bus. I've been on buses many, many, many times. Here is Mamdani, this cut three, saying if we Just make all the buses free. Some of the problems we see will get better. Play it.

[Zoran Mamdani]

You have a farebox on a bus, it increases a site of tension, of conflict, of assaults. When you reduce. When you remove that farebox. Rather, what you find is a safer experience, not just for the riders, but also for the operators.

[Clay]

Clay, this is like saying, hey, you know what the problem is in all these drugstores in New York that have to have everything locked up. They expect to be paid for this stuff. You know what would erase the conflict? Let's just let them take whatever they want for free. Then all of a sudden, there's no problem. This is lunacy from this guy. Lunacy. What you really need to have are people who don't pay the fare get a big fine, and if they do it again, they get arrested. And if they assault the guy who's actually driving the bus, they go to prison.

[Buck]

I have done public transportation a lot in my life as well. I rode the public Nashville school bus, public Nashville city bus when I was a kid from my school. You know what people care about the most? Safety and cleanliness. Do you know what making all public transportation buses in particular, say, free is going to do? Decrease safety and increase dirty. The.

[Clay]

It's going to make city buses mobile homeless shelters. Yes, that's what this will become. Which, by the way, already is the case in the New York City subway system, where people just jump the fare. But, you know, if you jump the fair in the subway, you know, someone doesn't necessarily see. If you jump the fare on the bus, everybody sees and they know you haven't paid and you're on video. Right. There's. There's. It's. It's easier to jump the fare in the subway system, but there are. Holt, Clay, I have experienced this so many times. Producer Ali, you can weigh in on this either now or when we come back from the break, you'll be like, oh, my gosh, the subway is so crowded, Clay. It's so crowded. Oh, man, look at this. There's a. There's an empty subway car just for me. And you will go on that subway car, and it will smell worse than any smell you've ever come across in your life, because it is being used by homeless people who are deeply mentally ill as a toilet.

[Buck]

Yeah. And I would also point out, people say, well, why do you care about people jumping the turnstiles? Everything else, relatively low level crime. Well, the percentage of times that people are jumping the turnstiles, a lot of those guys have outstanding crimes Right. So when you are arresting somebody who is jumping a turnstile, you oftentimes are going to find out that they have a criminal history on top of that, to say nothing of the evidence supports that. When you don't enforce the law, you encourage more law breaking. And producer Ali rides subway all the time. I haven't been on the subway in a long time. I was trying to think of the last time I was on the New York City subway. I think it was when we were. I had my whole family up. Buck and my middle son, who was obsessed with Ghostbusters, wanted to tour the city of New York to see all the Ghostbuster places dressed as a Ghostbuster, which is kind of awesome.

[Clay]

Pretty awesome. Yeah.

[Buck]

Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

[Podcast Announcer]

This is a Clay and Buck deep Dive podcast.

[Buck]

I do worry because some arguments are so dumb that I don't understand how a major political party can make them. And let me take a step back and say some things you and I disagree with in policy perspectives. But you can make a reasonable argument that you are I or wrong or that some of you out there are right or wrong. There's lots of reasonable minds can differ perspectives. Freezing rent is actually the most destructive thing you could do if you believe you have major issues with with rent in the city. The thing I mean, this is just basic economics and I know a lot of you get this, but maybe your kids don't, maybe your grandkids don't, and you have to succinctly kind of explain why this is a lunatic idea. Here is just a simple argument. It's all supply and demand. Everything in life is supply and demand. If you want rent to come down, then you have to build more apartments and and or kick illegals that are using these apartments out. This is very basic. It is the essence of economics itself. The only way to drive down cost is to increase the supply of a good, by and large. And yet they are simultaneously making it very hard to construct new housing and telling the people who do own the housing, we're going to restrict what you can charge, which means the cost is going to continue to go up. For those who own these rental properties, the maintenance costs are going to continue to go up. Inflation is not stopping for them, which means their profit margin is gonna go down, which means the quality of the rental property will either decline or unfortunately, some of these properties will just be taken off the market because a landlord will throw up their hands and say, I'm losing money by renting this property out. If they have the ability to do so. They'll just pull it off the market, which will mean that rents are continuing to increase overall because the supply is declining. We're what? What is what? What? I don't even understand the argument that a rational human being could make that frees the rent is in any way beneficial for people. Even if you believe that rental costs are too high. I mean, you lived in New York City. I see what people have to pay for homes in New York City to rent. Just, we have to build way more homes. I mean, I don't understand how this is not the ultimate solution.

[Clay]

Okay, so there's a few things here for, for everyone I think to consider. One is this was even higher than I thought it was. If you were to just take a quick, a quick look at what the cost of new multifamily is in this country nationwide on average, and how much of that is taxes, regulations, fees, meaning not just, oh, I want to hire people and get stuff to make a home and you know, buy land, hire a construction crew, have them make it and sell it. But all the other things estimate that I just found online, just with a quick search, clay, is 40%, 40% of the cost. I tried to find a specific New York City cost and all they can really say is that whatever it is, it's higher than 40%. And there are reasons for that. There are reasons for this one thing, by the way, in New York City, building codes alone, building codes are 11% of the cost. Inclusionary zoning mandates are 7% of the cost. You know, you go through these things. Well, hold on a second. And another one is again, talking multifamily here, right? Because that's the only way you got to build up in New York for it to be worth, worthwhile in New York City, it's very hard. You know, you're not building like a, you know, on two acres, a single family home, unless you're going to sell it for 20 million bucks. So they look at this or whether you look at this and you find out that also the fact that New York City labor costs are so high and that there's all these union mandates for labor and you have all these things and these are the reasons that there's not more housing supply and the idea of freezing rent makes it worse. Give you an example of this, everybody. You could look at a lot of things that ruin the economy. I mean, Venezuela is now a failed state. Maybe it's gonna get a new regime soon. It's a failed state. It's a narco trafficker state and we don't even hear about the economy anymore. One because I think it's so hard to get real numbers, but it's been completely destroyed. One of the primary ways that Chavez and then Maduro destroyed the Venezuelan economy was price controls. Because people who are hurting and who don't have very much hear, hey, these guys are going to use government force to say that the cost of of this washing machine isn't $300, it's $100. That sounds great, right? Oh my gosh, now my watch. They mandate that it's a and only the fat cats are going to pay. You know what happens, Clay? No one can buy a washing machine anymore. No one can actually. Their shelves are empty. Right? This is what is going on in the New York City housing market writ large. And yet Mamdani is about to become mayor thinking that this stuff is the answer. It is so destructive, it is so damaging and it's essentially a repudiation of the free market replaced with social justice. It's commie nonsense.

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[Clay]

The Obama administration Clay. Remember Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign there was along with that when she was first lady. I'm taking you back a decade, folks. There was a food desert, a whole food desert thing. You know, you don't hear that term very much anymore. And the whole premise of the food desert was low income people, they're obviously not starving, right? To your point, it's not that there's no food, but they don't have access to lean, lean cuts of steak and, and organic salads and, and the, you know, these things that are generally considered more kind of upper end income lifestyle food choices. So they created this pilot program where not only did they bring in farmer's market produce into New York City, New York Times had all these stories on this. The reason, there's a reason I'm going to tell you why you don't hear about this anymore. Farmers market produce into all of these different cities or all of these different stores, rather subsidized it. Clay. The government said we're going to make this artificial choice.

[Buck]

We want you to make healthier choices. So we're going to make the healthier choices cheaper.

[Clay]

So they truck the food into these low income neighborhoods. There's a whole PR campaign around letting people know, hey, you can get all the artisanal wildflower honey you want now you know, telling everybody in low income neighborhoods of New York and bring it so it's artificially cheaper. So now it's not, oh, I have to get like the off brand potato chips because they're. Now it's oh my gosh, I can. Do you know how much they were able to change the buying habits in these neighborhoods?

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Zero.

[Clay]

They were not able to statistically in any way measure any change in the buying habits of. So unless you're going to force feed low income people the quote, healthy, organic, blah, blah, all that stuff, they just want to eat what they want to eat. But I think there's very important lessons here about the free market and about economics and choice and central planning. And you look at someone like Mamdani, he's saying, I want to set up government owned grocery stores. Clay. They had those in the Soviet Union. It did not work out well.

[Buck]

They have them in Cuba now.

[Clay]

Get meat.

[Buck]

They have them in Cuba. Every now and then you will see video of all the people in Cuba lining up to try to go into their government run stores. They're never anything on the shelves. And this is again, this goes to a just complete failure to understand basic business. If you were going to go in business a grocery Store, and many of you out there have been involved in this in the past, has one of the tiniest profit margins of any business. It is a high volume, low profit based business. One reason if you walk around and you look at grocery store shelves, that grocery stores themselves produce generic versions of Doritos or generic versions of soda is because that's much higher profit margin than the brand name, so to speak out there. And it is just, it's akin to someone saying, as sometimes you will hear, oh, these gas stations, the price of gas, they're, they're making so much money. And you say, wait a minute, you realize gas stations make almost no money on gas, right? It is a loss leader very often, as many of you who have run gas stations know, the way that gas stations make profit is typically off of the store. So when you walk inside and you buy products, you buy a drink, or you buy a lottery ticket, or you buy something in a gas station, that's how the business is run. And so when you have people like Mandani and Buck, you know this better than anybody. But one of the toughest places to be bringing product into is New York City because the streets are narrow, like the trucks are complicated. The cost of bringing in all that product and trying to deliver it to so many different stores, it is one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard from a politician that they're going to make groceries more affordable by getting the government in the grocery business.

[Clay]

And you have, you have the green energy, you know, climate change maniacs who have decided that we can't have any more places to park and we have fewer, fewer lanes. And we're going to force people onto buses. And now we're going to, if Mamdani wins, going to have buses with no fare. So they're just going to be traveling homeless terminals that smell like urine and God knows what else. And they do all this clay and what happens? And this is again the cause and effect reality of central planning by commie morons. People would be staggered to know how many parking tickets are written every day in Manhattan in particular, and how that actually becomes a tax on all businesses. Because to get your deliveries, all of your delivery guys for all of your restaurants and all of your supermarkets and everything are constantly getting tickets that go to the city of New York. And so there's an addition that's just a tax because it raises the cost of delivering food, it raises the cost of delivering goods and services. All of this made worse by people in City hall in New York and by the way any Democrat city across the country that's following a similar playbook. It's all made worse by their decisions all the time. All they do is make things worse most of the time. I mean, that's really what you see. And mom Donnie is certainly going to be somebody who falls into that category. It's, it's very frustrating.

[Podcast Announcer]

Find deep dives in the Clay and Buck podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Buck]

Also, voters going to the polls in New Jersey, Virginia and elsewhere. As we are continuing to break all that down, we've been talking a lot about Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa. And the Republican nominee for the New York City mayor's office is in with us now. He is Curtis Sliwa. And Curtis, we appreciate you coming on the show and I know that you are running around like crazy talking everywhere. So I'm just going to start off. Let's just dive right into it. I have pledged if you win so you know, to wear a red beret for a week and open up a bar tab at a sports bar not run by communists in New York City. So I'm on the record there. If you win, here's my concern. You can tell me why I'm a moron. If you stay in this race, I think on Wednesday we are going to wake up and we are going to see that Mamdani did not get the majority of the vote, but that you and Andrew Cuomo have split the anti Mamdani vote. And as a result, this awful Marxist left wing lunatic Mamdani is going to be the next mayor of New York City. If that happens, will you feel responsible? How would you respond to someone like me who thinks that that's the most likely outcome if you stay in the race?

[Curtis Sliwa]

Well, let's go back to your initial statement. That's too easy. A bar tab and a gin mill. How about riding the number four chain, the Muggers Express with me and your red Beret fighting crime? Yeah, yeah, that's a little more dangerous. But on the.

[Buck]

All right, I will join you on whatever public trans you would like me to join you on. If you are New York City's mayor in a red beret, I will join you. So I'll step it up a notch.

[Curtis Sliwa]

But remember, wait a second. The reason there is a Zorhan Mandami is that you had a failed mayor, Eric Adams, the most corrupt in the history of New York City. And that's saying a lot. Had he been a halfway decent mayor it would have been round to 2025, as it was in 2021. Eric Adams, incumbent Democrat, running against Republican challenger Curtis Lewis. So Eric Adams, failed Democrat. Then Andrew Cuomo, like a political zombie, came back from the Hamptons where he was hanging out with his billionaire friends with 40 points ahead on March 1, when he announced he was running in the Democratic primary to become the next mayor. Three and a half months later, with Zoran Mondami at 1%, when Andrew announced that 40%, he got beat by 13% and admitted that he ran a horrible race. He didn't do retail politics. Well, guess what? Just recently, the New York Post published a story that said that Andrew Cuomo has been absent from the campaign trail for 10 days since Labor Day. You don't win elections that way. I'm in the subways, I'm in the streets, I'm on the buses. I'm meeting the people, the voters. I am the Republican populous blue collar, working class candidate. That's my pathway to victory. Andrew Cuomo is responsible for the rise of Johan Mandami and the Democrats are responsible for the Socialists taking over their party. So why would I even drop out? And by the way, you can't drop out. I'm on the ballot. I'm not on the number two line. I'm the Republican candidate. There's no dropping out. I've never intended to drop out. Billionaires tried to bribe me with $10 million. Now I gotta walk around with armed guards along with my wife Nancy, cuz our lives have been threatened. You really think that Curtis Lewis, with everything I've been through in my life, is going to drop out? Think of that last scene in Braveheart where Mel Gibson is on the gurney and the executioner says, I want you to bow to the King of England or I'm going to impale you. I'm saying impale me. I will never support Andrew Cuomo, the Prince of Evil. He's cold hearted. He is the worst of what the Democratic Party represents.

[Buck]

Okay, so if I am right though, and mom, Donnie wins because you and Cuomo split the anti momdani vote, is it your contention that Mamdani is not going to be worse than Cuomo would be? And by the way, Bucket, neither Buck nor I have any love lost for Cuomo at all. And Bucks, you've won Buck over with your Braveheart analogy there. Yes, but.

[Clay]

Yes, I was going to say that's. That's all I needed to hear, but go ahead.

[Buck]

But if, if Mamdani is elected, do you not think that he will be worse for New York City than Cuomo. Or do you think they're both so awful there's no distinction at all? No matter who would win it there?

[Curtis Sliwa]

Well, the reason that we lock up toothpaste and not criminals is the architect of no cash bail, Andrew Cuomo. And then his apprentice is Johan Mandami. Guys, my oldest son, Anthony was nearly killed in a gang attack. Juveniles, they stomped him. He's lucky to have survived because of the architect of raised the aids, Cuomo and his supporter on that, the apprentice Zoran Mandami. These five juveniles who should have gone to criminal court and been charged with adult crimes, went to family court and were released on their own recognizance to their parents. And then lastly, Governor Cuomo, when he was in charge 10 years ago, before he fled impeachment to the Hamptons, he was the architect of closing our prison, Rikers island, and his apprentice, Zohan Mandami, they both have led to the crime crisis that we're in now. I see no differentiation. They are birds of a feather, two peas in a pod. They're Democrats. They have caused the destruction of New York State. They're looking to destroy New York City. And again, Andrew Cuomo has only himself to blame for Johan Mandami being the Democratic nominee because he didn't run a race. So I'm the Republican. I have Republican values, completely different than my adversaries, I believe. This is a strange notion in America, isn't it? Democracy should prevail. The billionaires aren't going to choose the mayor or the influencers or the insiders, the people. One person, one vote. Let the people choose the next mayor. Cuomo has already signaled that if he loses to Zoran Mandami, he's fleeing to Florida. I stay. I fight for what I know is right. Improve. Don't move. If I happen to lose his on, I will become his worst nightmare. 24, 7, 3, 6, 5. I fight, fight, fight, fight. Cuomo runs, runs, runs, runs.

[Clay]

All right, so now the other New Yorker here, Curtis, wants to jump in. I wanted Clay to be able to get out there because he's been. He's been worried about the ticket splitting issue. I just want to throw out there that I think blue face paint a la Braveheart along with your red beret would be a good look in these final days, because that is a fantastic movie. And now to his point, you have won me over with your fight till the very end. But tell me this. How is it that you could win? Is it that all the polls. If you win based on what the so called intelligentsia and the political, political class, pundits, et cetera, based on what they've been saying, it would be the biggest upset. I don't know, I mean, certainly along the lines of Trump 2016, bigger than that, based on the numbers. What do you say to those people who are telling you you're a long shot, you're a no shot and you're just helping the other side. Right. How do you win? What's your pathway look like?

[Curtis Sliwa]

Last time I ran against Eric Adams and remember I did warn everybody he would be corrupt and there would be chaos. I was right about that and I got 28% of the vote. So I build on the 28%. I not only have conservative Republican votes, there are two and a half times the number of independents and there are Republicans. I have that vote and I have a new line, independent line, protect animals. First time ever in electoral history my wife was able to get the signatures to qualify it. It's the first independent line on the ballot. Try to find Andrew Cuomo in the maze. Very difficult. And it calls for no kill shelters and put animal abusers in jail. Let me tell you something, there are a lot of women and men who are one issue voters out there when it comes to animals. Mahatma Gandhi said, a society that does not take care of its animals does not take care of its people. And look at us here in New York City. We don't take care of our homeless, our emotionally disturbed, our veterans. But Cuomo supported the $7 billion that Eric Adams spent on, on illegal aliens, people we didn't even know. I want to take care of our own. It's time we bring it home and care for our homeless, our emotionally disturbed, and most importantly, our veterans who have been forsaken. You don't hear Cuomo saying that and naturally you don't hear Zoro.

[Clay]

Curtis. Curtis. I love the protect animals thing. I love dogs as much as any human being I've ever met and other animals too. So I think that's fantastic. But I want to ask you about this, the Mamdani shape shifting situation here, or the code switching, the changing it up on some of this stuff. For example, now he's saying he would keep Jessica Tisch, who I actually worked with at the NYPD many years ago, keep her in the commissioner role. What do you make of that? I mean, is it just. He'll say anything to make people not as scared of his communist nonsense as they should be. What's going on?

[Curtis Sliwa]

Well, He's Bill de Blasio on steroids. Now, remember, he's more dangerous because Bill de Blasio, halfway through the night, would be on the back porch of Gracie Mansion smoking his Maui Wowie and Hindu Kush with his grifter wife, Charlay. With Zorah Mandami, he would give 20 hours a day to destroying the city. But de Blasio, when he was running in 2013, said, I will choose Bill Bratton as my police commissioner. That was his insurance policy. So he's following in the footsteps of his mentor, Bill de Blasio, by saying, I will keep Jessica Tish. The question is, if he should win. Will Jessica Tish stay? I don't know. I don't have conversations with her. I've got my boots on the ground. I'm in the subways. I'm dealing with regular, average day working class people. I'll let the elites determine that while I'm in the streets.

[Buck]

Curtis Lewa with us right now, running Republican nominee for mayor of New York City. You mentioned right off the top that you've been offered $10 million to drop out by billionaires. What are those offers look like? And will you tell us who's been offering for you to be paid to drop out of the race?

[Curtis Sliwa]

Yeah. Well, there were seven calls that I fielded from people I grew up with that are not supporting me. They're supporting Cuomo, which is fine, but they were calling on his behalf for me to drop out. And the last call, which my wife listened to, who is a attorney, Nancy, got to the point where I said, no, no, a thousand times no. And then he said, curtis, everybody has a price. $10 million is a lot of money to walk away from. I said, guy, you know me, I was born with nothing. I'll die with nothing. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. This sounds to me unethical. It's a bribe. It could be illegal. And from that day forward, my wife said, look, you got to put everybody on blast that if they're going to talk to you about bribing you, you're going to be wired up like a Christmas tree. Which I am now. And there've been no call since. Now, the people who reached me, their family, people, they have businesses in the business of politics, which, you know is the dirtiest business of all. Just ask the founder of ufc. He said the same thing, the dirtiest business. I give these guys a pass. They know not what they do, but anybody moving forward, hey, you're going to be prosecuted for obviously illegalities and for what are corruptive practices?

[Buck]

Have you talked to Donald Trump? He has discussed your candidacy. He's talked about the fact that sometimes he wishes you would drop out because he's concerned about Mamdani becoming the mayor of New York City. Have you talked to Trump? What have those conversations been like?

[Curtis Sliwa]

No, I have not spoken to the president recently. For 40 years, I knew Donald Trump as a New Yorker. We had a love hate relationship like most people had with Donald Trump. I mean, you look at his vice president, J.D. vance, doing a great job. He called him Hitler in 2016, and now he's the vice president. So I've been on the roller coaster with Donald Trump. Like most people. He's not reached out to me. He's not talked to me. He certainly has had conversations with Andrew Cuomo and with Eric Adams. And the president is free to do what he wishes. I wish he would endorse me. He hasn't. But I've always said publicly, Mr. President, you're trying to get peace in the Middle east and Persian Gulf, that you're the only guy who can do that. You got to get peace between Russia and Ukraine. You're the only guy who can do that. He's dealing with Asia now and the Red Chinese menace. He's the only guy who can deal with that. Comparably. To those bigger issues, do you think weighing in on the mayoral race in New York City is equal to those? I don't think so. And by the way, Zoran Mandami loves it because then he plays David to Goliath. He doesn't want to run against Andrew Cuomo or Curtis Leeway. He wants to run against Donald Trump, who happens not to be very popular in New York City. He is around the country. He is in other parts of New York State. The benefit of my running and winning a mayoral election as a Republican is it's 1993 all over again. Rudy Giuliani won. I AM Rudy Giuliani 2.0. And next year we set it up the way it was in 94 when Pataky beat the better Cuomo. Mario. And we had not only competence, no corruption, no chaos. Crime went down with Rudy and with Pataky. You elect me the Republican mayor, and then we pull out all the stops to elect Congresswoman Elise Stefanik the governor next year Republican candidate. And we can return to the days of Giuliani and Pataky and send Kathy Hochul packing back to Buffalo.

[Clay]

All right, Curtis, real quick. We only have 30 seconds before we get into a heartbreak here. Where can people Go. We got a big W or audience I want to mobilize for you. What's the site?

[Buck]

Where?

[Clay]

What do they do?

[Curtis Sliwa]

Just go to sliwa4nyc.com that sliwa f o r n y c.com thanks, guys.

[Clay]

Hey, Curtis. Thank you. Bring home the W. And Clay's gonna wear that red beret. I'll wear one too, actually. Thank you so much. Curtis could use some rapid radios while patrolling the subways with the Guardian angels. Look, you've heard us talking about rapid radios before. They keep you connected to people. Particularly when you experience service disruptions caused by natural disasters or power outages. Rapid radios are small, can slip into your purse or even a coat pocket. But don't let their size fool you. They go five days without a charge and connect to anyone anywhere in the US that's also carrying one. That's because they work on a nationwide LTE network. Let's just say these walkie talkies have come a long way since we were kids. Storms don't wait for the right time. Emergencies don't send invitations. You need to be prepared this holiday. Give a gift that keeps you connected to the people you love. No monthly fees, no complicated setup. Just pre programmed reliable communication when accounts. Because when everything else goes silent. Rapid radios. Don't go to rapidradios.com use code radio. That's rapidradios.com.

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[Clay]

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