The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Socialism on the Rise: The Battle for New York’s Future

Summary

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The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Socialism on the Rise – The Battle for New York’s Future

Guest: NY State Assemblyman Jake Blumenkranz
Host: Tudor Dixon
Release Date: October 8, 2025

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Episode Overview

Tudor Dixon tackles growing concerns over the perceived rise of socialism in New York City, focusing on the candidacy and policies of Democratic Socialist Zoran Mamdani. Joined by New York Republican State Assemblyman Jake Blumenkranz, the discussion zeroes in on the ideological shifts in New York politics, controversial proposals on sex work, crime, and policing, threats to religious institutions, and the strategic failures of Republican opposition in urban centers. The episode delivers a warning about the risks of radicalism in urban governance and its potential national implications.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rise of Zoran Mamdani and Socialist Politics in NYC

• Momentum behind Mamdani: Blumenkranz notes the surprising level of support for Mamdani, attributing it partly to a Democratic Party detached from its base and Republican failures in urban messaging.

  “It is pretty unbelievable to see the momentum and the trajectory of this election thus far... It speaks volumes for the way the Democratic Party has become so detached from their own base in New York.” –Jake Blumenkranz [00:43]

• Mamdani's Appeal: Mamdani effectively speaks to both ultra-left DSA voters and segments of the city's religious, conservative Muslim population, tailoring his rhetoric to the audience—a skill Blumenkranz credits to Mamdani’s theatrical PR abilities.

• Generational Shift: With traditional city political machines weakened, highly motivated groups like the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) have gained outsize influence by dominating low-turnout primaries.

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2. Sex Work, Sex Trafficking & Policy Hypocrisy

• Controversy and Contradictions: Dixon condemns Mamdani for voting against “revenge porn” protections and for sponsoring legislation to legalize sex work, which she frames as dangerous for women.

  “When you legalize prostitution, like he wants to do... you essentially create a slave system where women are the slaves to whoever decides to become a pimp.” –Tudor Dixon [01:20]

• Statistical Failures: Blumenkranz highlights New York’s low rate of sex trafficking convictions, accusing Democratic leadership of failing to protect women and trafficking victims.

  “New York has in the last decade only 132 cases where convictions of sex trafficking were applied... the federal government is consistently doing better.” –Jake Blumenkranz [02:16]

• Immigration Loopholes: He links New York’s "green light" laws on driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants to broader risks, making it easier for traffickers to operate.

  “These programs are toxic, and they lead to people going everywhere with the backing of New York State.” –Jake Blumenkranz [05:02]

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3. Politics, Party Machinery & the Shift Left

• Primary Takeover: The breakdown of traditional party machines allows radicals to win with tiny turnouts.

  “We’re seeing less than a quarter of 1% electing the individual who's gonna represent them... the DSA run against Democrats in a primary.” –Jake Blumenkranz [06:13]

• Gerrymandering & Court Maneuvers: Blumenkranz accuses Democrats of gerrymandering and litigating moderate candidates out of existence, leaving only extremes.

  “They’ve done so in such a way that New Yorkers are left with a race to the left with no finish line. And that race to the left will continue to hurt New Yorkers.” –Jake Blumenkranz [07:40]

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4. Crime, Policing, and Public Safety

• Collapse in Public Safety: Dixon and Blumenkranz connect the city’s rising crime and attacks on women to progressive leadership, arguing that police are being undermined by both policy and rhetoric.

  “He is about having a social worker show up to a domestic dispute… But he is totally against policing.” –Tudor Dixon [25:52]

• Laws Favor Criminals: Blumenkranz shares an anecdote about a shopkeeper arrested for detaining a thief, emphasizing how current laws tie the hands of police and reward criminals.

  “Our laws are what let that man down that day... the laws had supported the thief and not the shopkeep.” –Jake Blumenkranz [29:08]

• Results of Enforcement: Presence of police or National Guard in high-crime areas demonstrably reduces crime; Dixon laments that this is undermined by anti-police rhetoric and policy changes.

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5. Financial Policy and Urban Decline

• Debt and Urban Decline: Blumenkranz warns that Mamdani’s openness to freeing up more debt for NYC recalls the city’s fiscal crises of the 1970s, predicting catastrophic results if left unchecked.

  “He wants to liberate the ability for New York to debt spend. Now, in the 70s... when they did that before, they bankrupted the city.” –Jake Blumenkranz [14:07]

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6. Threats to Religious (Especially Jewish) Institutions

• The 'Not on Our Dime' Bill: Blumenkranz alerts listeners to a bill sponsored by Mamdani that would allegedly give the NY Attorney General power to shut down any Jewish institution supporting Israel.

  “His idea was… allow the AG to be boots on the ground closing institutions with tax exempt status who do support the state of Israel in any capacity.” –Jake Blumenkranz [17:27]

• Broader Consequences: Dixon and Blumenkranz argue these policies represent a broader intention to target Jewish communities and potentially suppress religious freedom.

  “If you can go in and you can destroy the religious buildings… then you have a plan to really hurt Judaism across the country.” –Tudor Dixon [19:22]

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7. GOP Strategic Failures & Lack of Investment

• Republican Inactivity: Dixon expresses frustration at the lack of financial or strategic opposition to Mamdani, noting that real estate moguls and business leaders seem apathetic.

  “He has listed you as a target. He has said he will go after you. He has said he wants to take your money, and make it hard for you to live there. And yet they’re not investing in the campaign against him.” –Tudor Dixon [21:06]

• Advice for the Party: Blumenkranz advocates for innovative messaging, more active youth engagement, and attention to organic, grassroots communication strategies that have worked for left-wing candidates.

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8. Youth, Social Media Strategy, and Education

• Connecting with Voters: Blumenkranz notes that the left’s success in reaching voters where they are—especially online—is something Republicans need to emulate.

  “They are meeting people online in platforms, in parasocial relationships... I think many young candidates are.” –Jake Blumenkranz [32:05]

• Holocaust Education: Blumenkranz highlights a disconnect between mandated and actual teaching of the Holocaust in New York, viewing it as a symptom of broader institutional neglect.

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9. Future Scenarios & Final Thoughts

• What’s Next for NYC: Blumenkranz thinks a two-way race between Mamdani and Cuomo could see a late surge, as NYC elections are known for last-minute shifts.

  “New York City is notorious for an 11th hour shift… as long as the race is not split amongst the never Zorin camp… you can see a consolidation that could put up a real fight.” –Jake Blumenkranz [34:04]

• National Stakes: Dixon and Blumenkranz warn that if Mamdani wins, the consequences will serve as a harsh lesson on socialism for the rest of the country—and could offer a warning for other states if the tide isn’t turned soon.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We hate socialism on this podcast. Like, totally hate it. And yet we are hearing that it is coming to our beautiful city of New York. We can’t believe it.”
  –Tudor Dixon [00:00]

• “When he says he’s going to legalize sex work, he’s going to legalize sex work. When he says that he’s going to freeze rents and stop construction of housing or seize the means of production—those are tactful virtue signaling language mechanisms.”
  –Jake Blumenkranz [15:31]

• “I think you see in Michigan... unique political environments... We have the same kind of system in New York. You can’t just say, you know, red, blue, politics makes sense in a one size fits all fashion.”
  –Jake Blumenkranz [33:32]

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Introduction & Framing the Issue: [00:00–01:20]
• Mamdani's Sex Work Legislation & Women’s Issues: [01:20–04:28]
• Immigration, Sex Trafficking, & Institutional Failures: [04:28–06:13]
• NYC Political Machinery, Primaries, and Radicals' Rise: [06:13–08:29]
• Impact on Crime, Policing & Public Safety: [25:52–30:46]
• Attack on Jewish Institutions & Religious Freedoms: [17:11–19:22]
• Republican Failures & Messaging Gaps: [21:06–22:12]
• The Role of Education & Social Media: [32:05–33:54]
• Predictions for NYC's Future: [34:04–34:51]

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Conclusion

This episode offers a stark, critical perspective on the direction of New York City politics, warning of dire outcomes if radical leftist policies expand unchecked. Assemblyman Blumenkranz provides both anecdotal and legislative evidence to support these claims, stressing the need for better Republican messaging and mobilization. Dixon and Blumenkranz both call for urgent action to preserve the core values of capitalism, public safety, and religious freedom—not just for New York, but as a lesson for the nation.

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Transcript

[Tudor Dixon]

This is an I Heart podcast. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon podcast. You guys know that we hate socialism on this podcast, like totally hate it. And yet we are hearing that it is coming to our beautiful city of New York. We can't believe it. We've seen what's happening with the Zoran Mamdani. He's out there, like, spouting that he wants this crazy socialism and people are jumping on this bandwagon. We don't understand it. So we found one of his, his colleagues in the New York Assembly, New York Republican State Assemblyman Jake Blumenkranz. Thank you so much for coming on the program. What is happening?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Tudor, thank you so much for having me on your program. And it is pretty unbelievable to see the momentum and the trajectory of this election thus far with my colleague Zoram Mandami and the way he's been able to captivate New Yorkers. I think it speaks volumes for the way the Democratic Party has become so detached from their own base in New York and the fact that we as Republicans have not been messaging correctly in cities like New York. But most importantly, it's. It's scary to see the way that the message that he holds, the ideals that he hopes to espouse throughout this campaign and as mayor, have captivated so many.

[Tudor Dixon]

I think what totally shocks me about this guy is he's like a. A real scumbag when it comes to women. He was one of the few people that voted against the revenge porn law to protect women against reven porn. And he's come out and he's been a, a huge advocate of, I'm going to use air quotes, sex work, which is prostitution. And that, to me is horrifying because you have somebody who doesn't want women protected. He's actually voted against laws to protect women against being abused by men. And when you legalize prostitution, like he wants to do in the city of New York, you essentially create a slave system where women are the slaves to whoever decides to become a pimp. I just am like, what it. How does this happen? How do people jump on? How does he have so many women that follow him when he has this terrible policy for women?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

I don't think it even comes down to just women. And I think it comes down to a little bit more of the way he's been campaigning. So he speaks to two audiences at a very high volume. He speaks to the ultra, ultra left, the dsa, as they're called here in New York, to the Democratic Socialist, which is the party that he ran with. Along with running as a Democrat. And he also has a bit of a religious conservative Islam focused group that has a large population here in New York as well. And he speaks to both at the same time, but delivers very different messages. So he is a sponsor on legislation in the New York State assembly to legalize sex work in a much, much greater capacity than we've ever seen in any proposal ever in America. While he also speaks to this religious group as he's gonna bring, you know, a more conservative blend. This, this first Muslim in office in New York City in the way that he would be serving. And it doesn't make any sense that in some of the. I think there's a viral moment where Cuomo says this guy's gonna legalize sex work. And these Islamic cleric is like, well, that's absolutely not true. I bet my life on it. When he's the sponsor on in the Assembly, I think what he's leaving behind and his message on what New York has been leaving behind is systematically, we think that, you know, these individuals on the left are gonna protect women in a greater way than those on the right. But New York, the statistics have not been lying. New York has in the last decade only 132 cases where convictions of sex trafficking were applied. Out of the 233 of those same tribe, those same cases that were, that were pleaded down. So we have a 60% lower rate in which we are convicting than the federal government. The federal government is consistently doing better than the state when it comes to these convictions on sex trafficking crimes. And there is no plan in place under Zoron's leadership or under state leadership under Tish James or any of the DAs or AGs in New York state on the left who are not actually tackling this issue. So we really need to focus on if we are going to even have a conversation about what we're going to do when it comes to sex work, if we're not talking about trafficking and the way trafficking along with immigration becoming a problem.

[Tudor Dixon]

But okay, so what is the plan? What is the plan for what they will do using New York City? Because we know a lot of immigrants are coming there. They're like calling the illegal immigrants there. We know that that is a huge area where we have a big sex trafficking problem. How do you manage this? Is this going to be the hub for them to abuse children? Because we're trying to figure out how this is happening and it seems like they're just Zoron mom, Donnie is just calling all the scumbags to New York to say, hey, we want to make sure that kids are as unsafe as they possibly could be.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Well, Tudor, I don't know if you saw recently, there's a viral moment in which someone was pulled over in another state with a New York state license with a name on the license as. As. As no name. That was their. Their name on the license. The green light laws have allowed for individuals here in New York to basically get access to services, access to licenses, without virtually any identification at all. It's a form of protection to them. But the people they leave behind are those who will end up being trafficked like this are people who end up being forced into work, forced into sex work. I worked when I was younger in a district court, in a county court RA where we had an adolescent diversion program. And we would just systematically see individuals who've been stuck in this cycle who are just being let in. They were let out to services were not being provided in the way they needed to. And that entire system has just become institutionalized by the state. And you'll see it spread, because if you can come in here, get a license, get legitimacy in New York State and then spread around the country, these programs are toxic, and they lead to people going everywhere with the backing of New York State.

[Tudor Dixon]

How did he go from nobody knowing him to suddenly being the Democrat candidate for mayor?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

It's a great question. I think that he hit a nerve because in New York City, party boss system of politics has allowed for there to be a festering discontent with the Democratic process and Democrats in general. So in a lot of these races for assembly and Senate are state houses. Um, we're seeing less than a quarter of 1% electing the individual who's gonna represent them. Because there's so much fatigue towards politics without any real representation. And so you're having the DSA run against Democrats in a primary. The Republicans aren't even putting up a candidate against them because we don't even have the institution to run candidates in the way that we could. And they can either defeat incumbents with just a few hundred votes, or they can win races unimpeded. And they're able to go to the state House and just wreak havoc on the institutions that we.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, even Schumer is afraid of AOC right now. So we're talking about a statewide race for a federal office. And you've got someone who, I guess in this world is a more moderate Democrat who's now afraid of the. I would say one of the most radical Democrats in federal office right now. And, and people are saying in New York, we think that she could actually win. I mean, Hakeem Jeffries, he doesn't even know what to say. He's like at a complete loss because he doesn't want to lose his race. But your has become like in love with socialism. How is this possible?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Well, it's kind of an interesting dynamic here in New York. You have the very, very moderate Democrats who exist in the suburbs and then you have the very, very radical far left Democrats and DSA members who are in the cities unlike, not unlike many other states. I just say that that scale has been tilted through legislation on a state level that has sort of disenfranchised the voter, whether it be through gerrymandering on which has been very robust, or it's been the way that they have used the courts to eliminate moderate candidates and to silence moderates who are trying to win in at risk districts. They've done so in such a way that New Yorkers are left with a race to the, a race to the left with no finish line. And that race to the left will continue to hurt New Yorkers.

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[Tudor Dixon]

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[Tudor Dixon]

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[Leon Neyfak]

What I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi. Nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes or.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Just asked why Benghazi? The truth became a web of lies.

[Leon Neyfak]

It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.

[Fiasco Benghazi Narrator]

Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?

[Leon Neyfak]

Bad faith, political warfare and frankly, bullshit.

[Fiasco Benghazi Narrator]

We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You put two and two together.

[Leon Neyfak]

Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?

[Fiasco Benghazi Narrator]

Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.

[Leon Neyfak]

I'm Leon Naifak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This is fiasco Benghazi.

[Tudor Dixon]

What difference at this point does it make?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Yeah, that's right. Lock her up.

[Leon Neyfak]

Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tudor Dixon]

How can we learn from this? Because, I mean, obviously I'm looking at this from a Michigan perspective. I just don't get it at. I look at. I mean, New York has become so much more dangerous. I lived there in the 90s and now I look at New York City today, it's totally different than when I live there. It's become way more dangerous. You have a massive amount of crime and that seems to be something that people aren't even concerned about. You've got hotels that have been taken over by illegals. I mean, my gosh, you even kill people's family. Squirrel. I like, how is this possible? That everybody's like, oh, it's lovely here.

[Ruff Greens Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

I mean, New York has always been a bastion of the capitalist ideal. New York has been the come with nothing and you can make everything place. It's a place where you can bootstrap your way from nothing to everything. That has been the American dream, has been the New York dream. And New York has been the stepping stone to go anywhere in the country and do anything you want or to make it here. And if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Right as, as, as they say. But what has happened is we've systematically forgotten history. And I think while Zoron, on his time in college, I guess, is his only experience before running for the assembly was important.

[Tudor Dixon]

How does somebody, I mean, just the fact that you just pointed that out, this is like a college graduate going to run the biggest city in the country. It's insane.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Not just the biggest city, one of the largest armed forces organizations in the, in the world, one of the largest standing armies and doing so with. What I would say is. And what I was trying to say is that he must have gotten an A in PR because he delivers his message in a way that he really speaks to people in theater, I think minus an F minus in history. He does not look at the way New York has been run in the past, the way New York progressives have done well and have done poorly in the past. One of his biggest positions he wants to do is he wants to liberate the ability for New York to debt spend. Now in the 70s, in the Dinkins era, when they did that before they bankrupted the city, services were eliminated. They started with good ideals and they ended, ended with, you know, where, where subsidies are going to be cut, where we're going to start cutting services. That is the New York that he inherited is one that is financially sound as, as much as it struggles today. And he hopes to liberate that. He needs the state to open the coffers up to let him spend as much as he wants to solve today's problem with tomorrow's money. And if you look at Chicago, if you look at some other inner cities that are just in a downward spiral, you could see America's greatest city fall into the same category. If we don't stop him now in his tracks.

[Tudor Dixon]

I think you give him too much credit by saying he doesn't know history actually think that this guy has a nefarious plan. I don't think that he's naive. I think he comes from a family of Marxists and his plan is to disrupt and destroy.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

I'd say you're not incorrect in that his plan is nefarious and he is not someone to be undermined that he doesn't understand. I think he. What I always say about Zorin is he means what he says and he says what he means. When he says he's going to legalize sex work, he's going to legalize sex work. When he says that he's going to freeze rents and stop construction of housing or seize the means of production, those are tactful virtue signaling, language mechanisms that he's using to speak to certain audiences. That's how he's attracting the Soros money of the world. That's how he's attracting the outside funds he's getting from nefarious sources. It is totally a calculated play. And if he gets his foot in the door to run a city like New York, the sky is the limit for someone like him with his tactful messaging.

[Tudor Dixon]

I mean, and he's been groomed since college. Now, obviously he's not very old, but he has been groomed in college. I mean, he was a part of the Democrat Socialists in college. He started this. His parents, as I noted, his parents have this, this same ideology, if not worse. And, and potentially he is the same and he will take this to a different level. But I, I just think that it's so bizarre to me to watch how he goes into one group and he's got a different accent, he's got a different style of dress. He's like. I mean, people are calling him Sham Donnie because he's just not even. There's. We don't even know who this guy is. You talk about him getting a great grade in pr. I mean, I think it's just acting. I puts on A great show. And his mother is a actress and filmmaker. I think they've been able to pull the wool over the eyes of New Yorkers. And I just can't understand how it was possible. But I think that the outcome will be detrimental for all of us.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Tudor, for me, I think what's scary to do is look at his record in the State Assembly. So what has he introduced, what work has he done there to try and make New York a better place? Now I'm a Jewish New Yorker, like many here, there's a lot of us in New York State and in New York City, watch out.

[Tudor Dixon]

I don't think he likes you.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

And no, and I'll tell you why. He has a piece of legislation called not on Our Dime. Now, it may sound, you know, what does this do? What is exactly this gonna do to the Jewish community here? His idea was, in order to stop the support of the state of Israel, he wants to allow the AG to be boots on the ground closing institutions with tax exempt status who do support the state of Israel in any capacity. So for me, my temple, if you go on birthright, if you're just a Jewish person who support, you know, programs that allow for planting trees in Israel, which almost every single synagogue does, you may fall into the scopes of government to close your religious institution. Now that is one of the scariest pieces of legislation I had to encounter. And when I saw a room full of legislators who I never thought would actively fight against me, my religion and who I am and what I stand for on a religious basis, it's a scary time to be combating messaging on a political standpoint because now it's transcended into what's inherently against our Constitution. I mean, what would our founders do?

[Tudor Dixon]

Wait, he sponsored this legislation?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

This was his. He is the prime sponsor of this. Not on Our Dime is his legislation. It would empower the AG to close religious Jewish institutions if they supported something he doesn't. He is a person who wants to end the conversation if he doesn't agree with you. And he wants to do so in a way where he will use the power of the state the same way many other socialist and ideology driven populist candidates have so many times, time and time again. I mean, you can look at so many examples in history and that did.

[Tudor Dixon]

Pass, or that is not. That has not passed, thankfully.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

A lot of forces in the state level thought that there was no way that anyone would ever believe that this would be even possible to pass with any sort of public support. What scares me is With a Zorin victory in November, when we meet in January, I could see that coming to the forefront of the conversation.

[Tudor Dixon]

Well, I don't think that New York mayor is the end for this guy. I think that his plan is power. His plan is to change how the state operates. I mean, New York has, what, the largest population of Jewish Americans in the entire country. And so if you can go in and you can destroy the religious buildings, the religious operations of the Jewish people in New York, in the state, then you have a plan to really hurt Judaism across the country. So if this is his plan as a state assemblyman and then he goes to become mayor, I don't think that mayor is the ultimate goal. I think that he goes on to be governor, and he goes on to continue to try to destroy. I mean, I really believe that this guy is a destructive force.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

I would agree. And I think it's imperative that everyone on either side of the aisle who seeks to protect the institution of. Of capitalism, the institution of the American way and the way that we love our country, this is a race with an antithesis of that and candidates who stand to hope and support and facilitate that, whichever side of the aisle you're on, whether it's. And look, I'm not a Cuomo fan by any means. I did not think I'd be in a world where I'd see Cuomo as an ideal candidate until you look at the. The inverse of that in every. Every single way. I mean, Cuomo has helped create so many of the problems that we have and are experiencing today in trying to deal with Zoran and his faction and trying to satisfy them, only for them to be consumed with a candidate like Zoron who will not only destroy anyone who tried to be moderate and sit at the table with him, but anyone who tries to get in his way.

[Tudor Dixon]

That's what I'm. I think to myself. I'm like, what kind of a world do we live in where the actual rational people are saying, okay, he resigned, indiscrimin grace as governor. But you know what? He's a heck of a lot better than what we have coming. If New York ends up with a Mudani mayor, I mean, this could be catastrophic. So now we're forced to go with the guy that none of us would ever choose. And yet it is still hard to get people to coalesce financially around him. There's a month left. There's time. There is time to educate the people of New York City on who Zoram Mandani actually is. However, There doesn't seem to be the money to do. And I don't understand. I see these real estate moguls in New York going, this can't possibly happen because he will destroy our businesses. Well, I mean, any business that is successful in New York City, he has listed you as a target. He has said he will go after you. He has said he wants to take your money and make it hard for you to live there. And yet they're not investing in the campaign against him. I don't understand what's going on.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Well, New York is a kind of a tricky place because right now you're stuck with, with a lot of pretty poor choices and that's kind of been a through line in New York. Yeah. I can't make fun of Zorin so much as being a young guy who entered the ring in the elected world. I'm a younger elected myself. But the system itself is broken here. I entered because the system was broken. Young people were not being heard. Young people on our side of the aisle, young people who hear and understand the call of freedom and democracy and the call to liberate our markets and allow the state to actually do what needs to be done to make sure we could have that era of success and of prosperity again, of allowing for more housing to be built in places where it should be, allow for free markets to do what they have to do to make sure we can bring down prices and to have someone like him come into this picture and call for government expansion as a way to not limit freedoms, but inherently that's what he's doing, a way to. I think he wants public housing to be built by the government. We've seen NYCHA now the worst and largest worst landlord in the history of the country and continues to systematically hurt its residents. People who live in NYCHA buildings are suffering. The government is the slowest and least responsive. There is no real litmus test to whether or not they're doing a good or bad job. And they've allowed the buildings to fall into a decay that we can't escape. And they think throwing good money after bad is a way to fix a broken system when it just simply is proven. In New York, it's not.

[Tudor Dixon]

Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on the Tudor Dixon podcast.

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[Leon Neyfak]

Told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Benghazi? The truth became a web of lies.

[Leon Neyfak]

It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.

[Fiasco Benghazi Narrator]

Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?

[Leon Neyfak]

Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.

[Fiasco Benghazi Narrator]

We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You put two and two together.

[Leon Neyfak]

Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?

[Fiasco Benghazi Narrator]

Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.

[Leon Neyfak]

I'm Leon Neyfak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.

[Tudor Dixon]

What difference at this point does it make? Yeah, that's right.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Lock her up.

[Leon Neyfak]

Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Tudor Dixon]

One of the things that has made me very concerned for New York City is his rhetoric against the police. He anti policing. He's trying to walk that back. I would ag. I would believe what he says at the beginning. He's been anti policing since the days of George Floyd. He is about having a social worker show up to a domestic dispute. One of the most dangerous places to send somebody in the midst of a domestic dispute, to not have a police officer with a weapon that can defend himself and the other person in that situation. But he is totally against policing. And, and that also is not getting enough attention.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

What?

[Tudor Dixon]

Why? I mean, the police force alone, if they came out and voted against him, would have a massive impact in this election. Where are people when it comes to public safety?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Unfortunately, I think you have a lot of people who just feel sick at the system to the point where they don't want to hear the rhetoric coming from the Democrats anymore that yes, I support the police, but you have had even in this administration, relatively supportive one when it comes to Eric Adams for our police institutions in some capacity. And it won't change or move the needle unless you have full throttled support for increasing our police force in a way that is not based on any sort of litmus test of diversity or anything else that the programs that we've seen in place. But really just trying to go back to the fundamentals, the Giuliani era of policing, the era in which, in Bloomberg's time, we were Talking about the 90s, the early 2000s, when New York was a place where you can walk around with your doors open essentially, and that those days are gone. And in a post Covid era, you need a really, really strong signal and force to say we're not only going to solve the problems of the past, but we're going to create structural changes for the future to make sure that we can actually make a New York City safe again.

[Tudor Dixon]

It's not even just that you want to be able to feel safe in your homes. I mean, we have watched over the past few years these attacks in the subway, these attacks on the street, they become so bad. And then you have Eric Adams, who I'm going to put police down in the subway. And it was interesting to me that did cut down quite a bit. Having just the presence, as you've seen in Washington D.C. and now in Memphis, having just the presence of the National Guard there has significantly reduced the amount of crime. I mean, Washington D.C. has had no murders, no carjackings. Just the presence of a police force around has a massive impact. We've seen that, that in the subways. Like I said, Eric Adams as mayor of New York has put a police presence into the subways. People didn't love that. I will say there was pushback from New Yorkers. Like we don't want to see cops down here. Totally. I think that's totally insane because it has certainly cut down on the crime. We were seeing people being pushed in front of the, the trains. We're seeing people being attacked on the subways. Certainly that that's not ended, but it has improved with Eric Adams making more of a focusing more on a police presence. Once that all gets taken off the streets, how quickly do you see the fall of New York City?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Well, let me reframe it for you. And this is where I think it's imperative and why you vote and who you vote for is important. I met with a shopkeep in an outer Borough relatively recently he was arrested and put in jail. The situation he was in was he had someone in his store who was stealing his merchandise and they were stealing high value merchandise. This is a merchant who needed this merchandise to survive, who was a small business owner. And because this individual was stealing his food, he ran out onto the street. He spoke to an officer, he said, officer, I need your help. Someone is trying to rob my store. They said, we cannot answer your call on the street like this. You need to call it in. He called it in. They said that they won't be there for a long time if they are gonna be there at all, because that's the protocol and there's this small kind of theft that they're having. So what does he do? He and his individuals who work in his store, they held the guy down. He got arrested that day for imprisoning this person until waiting for the police officers, that guy walked away. That man was facing serious charges and we needed to step in and make sure that he was going to be okay and that real justice was served. But our laws are what let that man down that day. It was not the fact that the police were not there to do their job. It was not the fact that there wasn't a policeman standing on the corner. It was the fact that the laws had supported the thief and not the shopkeep. And that's the kind of trajectory that Zorin wants the city to be on. And that's the scary part about having all the police. The largest standing army in police force in America. Doesn't matter if you don't have laws that support them. Who handcuff our police from doing their job.

[Tudor Dixon]

This is why, this is what I tell Republican Republicans across the country who invest in these races. Be aware of what is happening in blue and purple states because those people are getting elevated. Their bad ideas are being elevated. These local elections, when you have some of these radicals that are running for Congress or even state Senate and state House, I mean in Michigan we have the same situation. We've got this radical state senator has never met a tax she doesn't like. Now she's running for, for Senate, for U.S. senate. These people always get elevated. This is why I cannot understand why there is not a massive funding movement against Zoran Mamdani right now. But they're just the Republicans are not paying attention to once these people grasp a little bit of power. And here he has in the state assembly created this campaign that has launched him into potentially managing one of the most important cities in the world and then what will be next? I mean, that's the crazy part. Do you find it frustrating that you don't see the type of investment in the opponents on the good side that you do on the bad?

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Well, of course it's frustrating, but it's also important that we look, look at where successes are coming from in Azor and Mandami, in many of these candidates in aoc, what are they doing? They're talking to people, where they're at. They are meeting people online in platforms, in parasocial relationships that are important. I myself have been trying to operate in a way where I can do something similar. I think many young candidates are. How do you. When I see issues, when it comes to trafficking, I'm going to speak to people about it online, in person, anywhere I can, until they listen and they hear when I talk about. We've tried to all audit our, our education system here in New York. We have an issue where Holocaust education is one of three topics that are required teaching here. And you're seeing the city kind of neglect to teach it in many places because people are graduating, they don't know about the Holocaust. We want to audit it. They tell us nothing's wrong. And you can't, you can't say that, you can't say that they're not teaching because then you're going against teachers. We're not going against teachers. We're going against a system that's ignoring the law, which is you have to teach about the Holocaust. And we need to make sure we're auditing every single school. So if there's a deficit there, we can help understand where the deficit is coming from. We're not making any accusations. We just want to know why, when someone graduates high school and they don't know what the Holocaust is and it was one of three required teaching units, what happened? Right. How do you get that message to people when they're not, they're not necessarily listening in the way they used to to a news cycle? We need to think differently, we need to act differently. We need a couple of different messages for different parts of the country. Politics isn't one size fits all. I think you see in Michigan, it's a unique space. You're seeing very unique political environments that is meeting a very, very unique geography and a very unique demographic environment. We have the same kind of system in New York. You can't just say, you know, red, blue, politics makes sense in a one size fits all fashion.

[Tudor Dixon]

So, all right, last thing. Tell us what you think is the future of New York City. Does he win? Give us your, your best guess.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Well, I think if you have a two way race between Assemblyman Mondami and former Governor Cuomo, I think there's a world in which a last minute change can happen. New York City is notorious for an 11th hour shift. You saw it with Zorin, you saw it with de Blasio, you saw it with Mayor Adams at times, and you saw it time and time again in different elections. So as long as the race is not split amongst the never Zorin camp, which it very well may be, if we still have a Republican candidate in the race, and we still have, well, now the mayor has aptly departed from the race very recently, you can see a consolidation that could put up a real fight. I think then you'll see money start to follow when, when the math starts to make sense.

[Tudor Dixon]

Well, we'll be praying here that we don't lose New York City, but I guess there are some people that feel if we do, then people will really learn about socialism. I'd rather we not learn that way. But I appreciate having you on today. State Assemblyman Jake Blumenkranz, thank you for what you're doing.

[Jake Blumenkranz]

Tudor. Thank you.

[Tudor Dixon]

Absolutely. And thank you all for joining us on the Tutor Dixon podcast. For this episode and others, go to tutordixenpodcast.com or the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And you can watch it on Rumble or YouTube. Uterdixon. Join us next time and have a blessed day. This is an iHeart podcast.