On this episode of The Karol Markowicz Show, Karol sits down with New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov to discuss her journey from Soviet immigrant to attorney to elected official—and why she felt compelled to enter politics during a time of rising anti-Semitism and public safety concerns.
Vernikov shares how her background shaped her views on justice, policing, and government, and offers a candid look at the political divide within New York City—including tensions between moderates and the far-left. She also breaks down the realities of running for office, the personal sacrifices of public service, and the challenges facing NYC today—from affordability to crime.
Plus, Vernikov gives her five-year outlook on New York’s political future, explains why she believes the current leadership may “implode,” and offers a hopeful vision for a return to common-sense governance.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
I love to talk too on iHeartRadio. My guest today
is New York City council woman Inna Vernikov Hiena.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So nice to have you on HI.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Thank you so much for having me so.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I feel a lot of affinity with you, obviously because
of our shared ex Soviet background. And I'm from South
Brooklyn where you are a councilwoman. I wish you had
been a councilwoman when I live there, but you know.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We'll take what we can get. Did you always want
to be in politics?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
No, actually not at all. I always grew up having
this dream of being an attorney, which I am. And
you know, I know that you understand this so well
because it's an immigrant from the Soviet Union to come
to the United States not speaking a word of English,
(00:56):
you know, not knowing what's going on in this country
because we so new here and being a child, and
then being able to go.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
To law school, go to college, then go to law school.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I'vetained a law of degree, past the bar exam, become
an attorney and open your own.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Law practice like my mom. Wou wasly on Broadway.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
It's such a big deal for someone who comes from
a small town in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I know you understand that so well. It's the American dream.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
And I'd always dreamed to be a lawyer, just because
I always.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Grew up with this like innate sense of justice.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
I always wanted to see justice, and whenever I sing justice,
I always wanted to correct it. So I did get
my dream of being a lawyer, but never wanted to
be in politics. Was never interested in politics at all.
In fact, with my dad used to try to feed
me politics and turn on and be, oh, hey, watch
Fox News, watch you know, never had any interest in
(01:57):
it until obviously I really grew up and started understanding
what's going on in this country. And it was during
the Benghazi attack that I became very interested and was
dumbfounded by what was happening in American politics and wanted
to get involved, and then still never wanted to run.
(02:18):
And then eventually, when I saw the tremendous rise in
anti Semitism in New York City, particularly also in the country,
but especially in New York City, and the Black Lives
Matter movement and the way that our cops were treated,
I decided had to take action, and eventually decided I
had to run for office and leave my law practice.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Were your parents supportive?
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Like, I know my parents they saw, you know, there
were three careers you could do there.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
You could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And at the time I was growing up, it was
the third one was computer programmist.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You know, like, oh yeah, very popular.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's it. That's it. Those were the three options.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The pharmacists, pharmacist, pharmacies.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yes, I feel like you had to be a barnister,
but yes, yes, that's absolutely right. And so choosing to
be something else is taking a leap. And I know,
you know, when you are here from another country, you
came from the Soviet Union, leaps are not that popular.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Were your parents supportive?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
My parents are very supportive of me being an attorney.
But half my family has very different political.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Views than I do. No, it's yeah, and most people
don't know that.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
And being one of five Republicans in New York City,
it's kind of interesting that half my family is actually
liberal progressives, which is.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Also very uneule for ourself.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, community is so conservative.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yes, I would say like ninety five percent of our
community is so conservative Republican. My family happens to be
a little different but you know, we try to make
it work, and it's it's not easy.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's not easy.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's not Yes, yeah, But do they worry about you?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Like another thing is my During the Obama administration, she
would be like, can you not constantly write about how
much the president is doing.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
A bad job?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like she worried about me getting into you know, trouble
being on the wrong side of the.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
President or something.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You Is your family concerned about you out there, like
putting your opinions out there?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Well, I think, like my very close family, they've kind
of gotten out of the Soviet mentality because I think
that's like the Soviet mentality, don't sure saying the thing
against the government.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You're gonna get punished. That's what they're used.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
So that's where they came from, right, So I think
they don't really have that. But you know, they're always
concerned for my safety because I do get threats. I
do get a lot of threats, especially after October seventh,
and since I've been so outspoken and all these controversial
issues shouldn't really should not be controversial, like anti semitism.
(04:55):
But I did get a lot of threats even during
the Ukraine War when I you know, stood up for Ukraine.
I got a lot of disgusting letters and threats, and
you know, we we have a very close contact with
the Accounter Intelligence Unit with the police Department, so they're
very very good, and you know.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
We can't we can't live our lives being scared. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You know, I think sometimes that I don't have a
lot of hope for New York City in the short term.
But when I think that, I then think of South Brooklyn,
which I think is such a functioning, like sane place.
You know, nobody in South Brooklyn is thinking that biological
boys should play in girls' sports. I mean, just little
things like that. And so I'm hopeful about your part
(05:40):
of Brooklyn. Do you are you optimistic about you know,
your area? And then are you optimistic about New York
in general?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I actually am optimistic about New York. I think that.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
First of all, you know, so many people here are
concerned about Mom Donnie, which is why I'm not sure
if you if you followed, but doing the mayor election,
I actually crossed party lines to support Andrew Cuomo just
to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You won't get mom Donnie.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
And it was actually see, I didn't know that at
the time that I was doing it, because I always
look to do it right.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
But it seemed it.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Came out to be a very popular move in in
this part of town where a lot of these Republicans
who vote for Trump went for Andrew Cuomo because they
understood that that was the only way to beat Mam Donnie,
that we actually couldn't vote for the Republican candidate. But
I think that a lot of the fears about Mom
Donnie are actually going to turn out to be frivolous,
(06:40):
because I think that with all of his rhetoric and
with all of his actions, there are that do reasonably
cause a lot of fear in our communities. I do
think that he's not going to be able to accomplish
the majority of the things that he promised when he
was campaigning, and we kind of see that, you know,
(07:01):
as he became the mayor and as things are progressing,
we see that everything he wants to push. I always say,
like the adults in the room are not going to
be and I don't think he's going to be able
to do a lot of the stuff. Some of it
is because he's just it's just impractical and impossible, and
some of it is because they're going to be moderate
(07:22):
Democrats and others who are going to push back and say, no, sorry,
we can't make free busses, we can't raise property to
nine point five percent. And so I think that's going
to be that's going to be his legacy. And I
think he's imploding now and I actually don't think that
he's going to be mayor again, just because he can't
accomplish things that he promised.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
The left and uh more, things are coming out as
we go.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
And I think that that, you know, the pendulum will
swing as it always does. And I just think that
we do have we should have hope, and there is
a and the tunnel.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I love your optimism. I hope that's right. I root
for New York.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Listen, I live in Florida, but I you know, I
still have family and friends in New York.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I want things to work out.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And I especially root for South Brooklyn because I think
that the South Brooklyn tries to vote itself to sanity.
They do, you know, they're the ones voting red, They're
the ones voting for the Republicans. They want a better
world for themselves and for their kids, and they're met
with this like far left, you know, insanity in New York.
So I hope you're right, and I hope that things
(08:32):
get better from here.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Do you think it would take Do you think that
New York does go back to like a Giuliani or something?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Could you be that Juliani.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I don't see you are going back to a Giuliani
anytime soon, but I do see you are going back
to a moderate Democrat, maybe like a Bloomberg, you know,
have you know, there's rumors that maybe Jessica Tish.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Will work mayor you know, maybe speaking in in. I mean,
there are others.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I look, Cuomo got close to a million votes, and
we're talking.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
About he's not even that great.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Not only that, I mean, with all his baggage, right,
not a well run campaign at all, you know, towards
to the end, I got a little bit involved and
got to see you a little bit of the campaign.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Not a well run campaign.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And then also he didn't run on the Democrat line,
which is the only line that ever wins.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Really it's almost.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Impossible lost the primary, Yeah, he lost.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
It's almost impossible to win on an independent line, and
he ran on an independent line, and his position on
the ballot was really.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Not a good position.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
If you saw the ballot, it was somewhere to the
bottom right, which actually really matters because voters just you know,
they they go in a few minutes to vote, and
if they don't see you on the ballot, they just
vote for someone else to just leave. So, with all
that said, he still got close to a million votes,
(10:06):
which says a lot about you know, the voters in
New York City and where we could go had we
had a really good moderate Democrat incident who wasn't the
Democratic line, I mean, yeah, order.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
A Republican who was like maybe a little bit more serious,
I like courtesy.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Well, but that was never going to happen.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Well, that's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
If he wasn't, If Courtesia wasn't on the race, I
do believe that I would have been mayor today.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
What would you have done, as like a plan be
had this not worked out, had you not become a
New York City council woman?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Would you just stay a lawyer?
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I mean I you know what kind of law? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
No. A lot of people I feel like, go into
politics when they kind of don't know they don't really
have another plan or another option, and this is kind
of like what they want to do, kind of like
their life.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
For me, my law practice was my life.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It was, like I said, my dream and I had
to leave it. And it was a very sec for
me to have to leave a law practice that I
built with my own hands.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You know, I worked.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
I stayed up till two o'clock in the morning the
first year and a half of my practice, you know, just.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
To make it work, bringing clients, you know. So it
was tough.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
And yeah, I absolutely would have made an attorney a
practicing Authorney.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes, we're going to take a quick break and be
right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I think people don't get what a sacrifice it is
to go into public service in so many ways. You know,
you leave the private life behind, and you leave the
business that you built and a life that you had
to make changes that you want to see.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I think a lot of people see, you.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Know, politics or political jobs and elected officials as like, oh,
they have this glamorous and stepped up life.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But actually it's a lot harder for a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, And I actually think that's why people like Trump
and Mom Donnie were able to get elected because, like,
you know, someone like Trump, he has all the money
supposedly in the world and the life that he wants,
but he gives that up to make a difference, to
make a change. They're kind of like the populist candidates
(12:28):
that people appreciate, you know. They go against the establishment,
they go against what we're used to, and they try
to fight for the people. I mean, you know, with
Mom Donnie, I think that's what a lot of voters
saw in him. I don't think that's that's true, but
they're still both populist candidates, and yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It is.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
It is not an easy life necessarily, and you get
so much pushback, and you get threats, threats to your.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Safety and you know, your life.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Sometimes you get involved in issues where there's protesters right
outside your office, your staff is scared, you know, you
have to sit home or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
You do give up a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
You know, I gave up something I love doing to
do this, to make a difference.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What would you say are you most proud of in
your life?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, I think now that my life is a lot
about what I'm doing, which a lot of it is
politics and representing constituents I think I'm very proud of
the fact that I have this immense opportunity and privilege
to speak up for so many Russian speaking Jews came
from the Soviet Union, and you know, I get so
(13:39):
many they reach out so many times, so much. I
hear from them a lot about how proud they are
to have someone who you know, comes from where they
come from and understands them and is able to speak
up for them because they just feel so unheard, especially
at a time like this. We have a socialist communist
(14:02):
in my opinion, and when there's so much anti semitism.
The two things that Soviet Jewry escaped, those are literally
the two things they escaped. And you know that better
than anyone, right, anti Semitism and socialism communism, and that's
where we're living today, and you know, anti Semitism and socialism,
and so to have this opportunity to represent them and
(14:25):
speak up for them and speak up against all of
that is I'm very proud of that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's huge. Yeah, And you know, look, you know it's funny.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You know we talk about how the ex Soviet Jewish
community really supports you, but they don't just support you
because you are like them an exso view Jew, it's
because you are also ideologically on their side. I think
we had so many elected officials who were Exsoviet Jews
and who were quite leftists, and it was like perplexing,
like how did these people I'm not going to name names,
(14:54):
but I have a few that are really I have
on my very very negative.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
List because I felt like they did not represent our
community and they did not.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Represent the values at all. They were on their own tangent,
going to the left. So I think that that's what
makes you so special to the community in that Yeah,
of course we're of the same culture, we're from the
same place, but you also have the same ideals and
that that's big.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Yeah, And I think that's a big problem that we
have today, kind of a little bit on both sides
of the al but obviously a lot more with Democrats,
which is that they're afraid to go against the grain.
They're afraid to speak up for issues that really matter
because they want to fit in with a Democrat establishment.
You know, for example, in the city council, a lot
(15:40):
of the Democrats, we have a lot of moderate Democrats
in the city council. Actually, people don't know this, but
we do have a lot of moderate Democrats. However, a
lot of them are afraid to actually publicly align with us,
which they do privately, but they're publicly afraid because they're
fate of pushback from a speaker, especially from the previous speaker,
(16:03):
because they get threatened with with uh, will take away
your funding for your district, or will you'll lose your
committees if you don't vote or support this bill. We'll
do all of that, right, there's consequences, and they don't
want to go against the grain. They don't want to
lose funding, they don't want to lose their status in
the democratic establishment. They don't want to lose, you know, committees,
(16:25):
they don't want to lose their power. So they just
well along and they don't go against the left. They
actually support the left publicly, even though privately, I can tell.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
You fact so privately, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Them they come to us and they say, I totally
agree with you, I totally agree with you in these
issues right, especially about like policing and YPD and semicism stuff.
But they won't they won't do it. They won't do
it publicly, and so that's actually more of a problem
I have more of a problem with those moderate Democrats
(16:59):
than I do the left, I.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Know what you mean, at least the left there. They
have some ideology, they have some beliefs. These people are
just opportunists. It's unfortunate, you know. But during the pandemic,
where I was writing about opening schools all the time,
I had CNN, you know, newscasters in my DMS being like,
I agree with you, I just obviously can't say anything.
Oh my god, you're the weakest person ever agree with me,
(17:24):
but you.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Can't say anything. Yeah, you coward right.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Give us a five year out prediction and it could
be about anything at all.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yeah, sure, Well, I think I kind of mentioned it before.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I do think things are going to change a lot,
you know how sometimes people say, you know, things have
to kind of burn down for them to better, And
I think that rock bottom, and I think we're going
to hit it here in New York City.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I mean, how much lower can we go?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Right with all the chaos and the antipe police and
the crime and the affordability crisis and all of that.
And I think people are struggling. You know, affordability is
number one issue in New York State right now. It's
not actually not crime. I think crime is second. But
people are really struggling, and I think they're going to
(18:16):
realize that all the promises to make everything free are
just not real.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
That was like a pipe dream.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
And I think that, you know, back to the mayor,
I have to just mention it. I think that that
he's basically a TikTok influencer who ran on the promise
of affordability because affordability was so attractive to New Yorkers.
And obviously he got all these votes because he promised
all these free things. But actually think his main focus,
(18:43):
based on everything we're seeing, really is to free Palestine.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I think, you know, every chance he gets.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I mean we saw yesterday it was Saint Patrick's Day,
and he used his platform to basically talk about the
you know, Gaza and Palestine. He basically hijacked Patrick's Day
after snubbing two point five million Catholics in New York
when he didn't show up for the installation of the
new archbishop. And I think everyone, I think a lot
(19:14):
of these ethnic communities are realizing that he's really there
for a platform for Palestine and Gaza, which.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Is really Look, I don't care he could.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Have his he could talk about free Palestine, you know,
even though.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Mayor of New York City, and his whole argument was like, oh,
the Mayor of New York City should be about New York,
shouldn't be about Israel. But he's literally over there, like
his mind is over there.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Absolutely, he's hyper focused on Israel and Palestine. And you
know what he's missing is that to free Palestine needs
to free Gaza from Hamas. But that's a whole sepperate conversation.
Whene is he should be focused on, you know, snow,
cleaning out the snow, which was a complete failure, these
two bl lizards.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
That we had.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I'm sure you've seen and heard about it, you know,
cleaning the streets, the Department of transportation at our schools,
which are miserably failing our students.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
He's completely not focusing on that.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
He's deflecting all its problems that are very real, uh
and talking about palist And I think he's going to implode.
And I think that the pendulum will swing and we
will see a different New York in five years from now.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So I said no surprises on this podcast, but I
have one question I want to throw in here. That
I didn't talk about. What's favorite restaurant in South Brooklyn?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Ow? I have so many?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
But you I just what should I check out when
I'm back?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Do you eat kosher or not? Okay? No, so you
should definitely wap out Michael's.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Been okay, But yeah I do. I do like a
lot of meetings like breakfast. My breakfast my favorite meal
of the day.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So I do a lot of breakfast meetings and opera.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
But yeah, I haven't been there in a long time.
I'll have to check it out.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, check it out.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know, I've loved this conversation.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I've really been such an appreciative fan of your work.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I think you're an amazing counselwoman. And again, I wish
you had been around when I lived there.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Maybe we can have you back at some point, Yeah,
well to visit.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Maybe we'll go to Michael's.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But leave us here.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
With your best tip for my listeners on how they
can improve their lives.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
My best tip would probably be do what you love
that is professionally. It's kind of like a mantre I
always followed. Even if you're afraid to do it or
it's difficult or it's challenging. I say, like, we only
have one life, and I think that you'll never regret
(21:54):
doing what you love. And you don't want to be
miserable doing a job just because you're making money. You
want to do it because you enjoy it and you
get a satisfaction out of it and you feel like
you're accomplishing something and making a difference. For me, that's
always been the more important, more important than making money,
and so that's why you know, I folowed my dream
(22:15):
to become an attorney, and now I really do love
what I do, speaking up, standing up and helping people
every day.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
She is counselwoman inna Ernikov. Thank you so much for
coming on, counselwoman
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
I love to talk too on iHeartRadio. My guest today
is New York City council woman Inna Vernikov Hiena.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So nice to have you on HI.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Thank you so much for having me so.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I feel a lot of affinity with you, obviously because
of our shared ex Soviet background. And I'm from South
Brooklyn where you are a councilwoman. I wish you had
been a councilwoman when I live there, but you know.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
We'll take what we can get. Did you always want
to be in politics?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
No, actually not at all. I always grew up having
this dream of being an attorney, which I am. And
you know, I know that you understand this so well
because it's an immigrant from the Soviet Union to come
to the United States not speaking a word of English,
(00:56):
you know, not knowing what's going on in this country
because we so new here and being a child, and
then being able to go.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
To law school, go to college, then go to law school.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I'vetained a law of degree, past the bar exam, become
an attorney and open your own.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Law practice like my mom. Wou wasly on Broadway.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
It's such a big deal for someone who comes from
a small town in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I know you understand that so well. It's the American dream.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
And I'd always dreamed to be a lawyer, just because
I always.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Grew up with this like innate sense of justice.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
I always wanted to see justice, and whenever I sing justice,
I always wanted to correct it. So I did get
my dream of being a lawyer, but never wanted to
be in politics. Was never interested in politics at all.
In fact, with my dad used to try to feed
me politics and turn on and be, oh, hey, watch
Fox News, watch you know, never had any interest in
(01:57):
it until obviously I really grew up and started understanding
what's going on in this country. And it was during
the Benghazi attack that I became very interested and was
dumbfounded by what was happening in American politics and wanted
to get involved, and then still never wanted to run.
(02:18):
And then eventually, when I saw the tremendous rise in
anti Semitism in New York City, particularly also in the country,
but especially in New York City, and the Black Lives
Matter movement and the way that our cops were treated,
I decided had to take action, and eventually decided I
had to run for office and leave my law practice.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Were your parents supportive?
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Like, I know my parents they saw, you know, there
were three careers you could do there.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
You could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And at the time I was growing up, it was
the third one was computer programmist.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You know, like, oh yeah, very popular.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
That's it. That's it. Those were the three options.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The pharmacists, pharmacist, pharmacies.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yes, I feel like you had to be a barnister,
but yes, yes, that's absolutely right. And so choosing to
be something else is taking a leap. And I know,
you know, when you are here from another country, you
came from the Soviet Union, leaps are not that popular.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Were your parents supportive?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
My parents are very supportive of me being an attorney.
But half my family has very different political.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Views than I do. No, it's yeah, and most people
don't know that.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
And being one of five Republicans in New York City,
it's kind of interesting that half my family is actually
liberal progressives, which is.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Also very uneule for ourself.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, community is so conservative.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yes, I would say like ninety five percent of our
community is so conservative Republican. My family happens to be
a little different but you know, we try to make
it work, and it's it's not easy.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
It's not easy.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's not Yes, yeah, But do they worry about you?
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Like another thing is my During the Obama administration, she
would be like, can you not constantly write about how
much the president is doing.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
A bad job?
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Like she worried about me getting into you know, trouble
being on the wrong side of the.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
President or something.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
You Is your family concerned about you out there, like
putting your opinions out there?
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Well, I think, like my very close family, they've kind
of gotten out of the Soviet mentality because I think
that's like the Soviet mentality, don't sure saying the thing
against the government.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You're gonna get punished. That's what they're used.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
So that's where they came from, right, So I think
they don't really have that. But you know, they're always
concerned for my safety because I do get threats. I
do get a lot of threats, especially after October seventh,
and since I've been so outspoken and all these controversial
issues shouldn't really should not be controversial, like anti semitism.
(04:55):
But I did get a lot of threats even during
the Ukraine War when I you know, stood up for Ukraine.
I got a lot of disgusting letters and threats, and
you know, we we have a very close contact with
the Accounter Intelligence Unit with the police Department, so they're
very very good, and you know.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
We can't we can't live our lives being scared. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
You know, I think sometimes that I don't have a
lot of hope for New York City in the short term.
But when I think that, I then think of South Brooklyn,
which I think is such a functioning, like sane place.
You know, nobody in South Brooklyn is thinking that biological
boys should play in girls' sports. I mean, just little
things like that. And so I'm hopeful about your part
(05:40):
of Brooklyn. Do you are you optimistic about you know,
your area? And then are you optimistic about New York
in general?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I actually am optimistic about New York. I think that.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
First of all, you know, so many people here are
concerned about Mom Donnie, which is why I'm not sure
if you if you followed, but doing the mayor election,
I actually crossed party lines to support Andrew Cuomo just
to make sure that.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You won't get mom Donnie.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
And it was actually see, I didn't know that at
the time that I was doing it, because I always
look to do it right.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
But it seemed it.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Came out to be a very popular move in in
this part of town where a lot of these Republicans
who vote for Trump went for Andrew Cuomo because they
understood that that was the only way to beat Mam Donnie,
that we actually couldn't vote for the Republican candidate. But
I think that a lot of the fears about Mom
Donnie are actually going to turn out to be frivolous,
(06:40):
because I think that with all of his rhetoric and
with all of his actions, there are that do reasonably
cause a lot of fear in our communities. I do
think that he's not going to be able to accomplish
the majority of the things that he promised when he
was campaigning, and we kind of see that, you know,
(07:01):
as he became the mayor and as things are progressing,
we see that everything he wants to push. I always say,
like the adults in the room are not going to
be and I don't think he's going to be able
to do a lot of the stuff. Some of it
is because he's just it's just impractical and impossible, and
some of it is because they're going to be moderate
(07:22):
Democrats and others who are going to push back and say, no, sorry,
we can't make free busses, we can't raise property to
nine point five percent. And so I think that's going
to be that's going to be his legacy. And I
think he's imploding now and I actually don't think that
he's going to be mayor again, just because he can't
accomplish things that he promised.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
The left and uh more, things are coming out as
we go.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
And I think that that, you know, the pendulum will
swing as it always does. And I just think that
we do have we should have hope, and there is
a and the tunnel.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
I love your optimism. I hope that's right. I root
for New York.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Listen, I live in Florida, but I you know, I
still have family and friends in New York.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I want things to work out.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And I especially root for South Brooklyn because I think
that the South Brooklyn tries to vote itself to sanity.
They do, you know, they're the ones voting red, They're
the ones voting for the Republicans. They want a better
world for themselves and for their kids, and they're met
with this like far left, you know, insanity in New York.
So I hope you're right, and I hope that things
(08:32):
get better from here.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Do you think it would take Do you think that
New York does go back to like a Giuliani or something?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Could you be that Juliani.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
I don't see you are going back to a Giuliani
anytime soon, but I do see you are going back
to a moderate Democrat, maybe like a Bloomberg, you know,
have you know, there's rumors that maybe Jessica Tish.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Will work mayor you know, maybe speaking in in. I mean,
there are others.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I look, Cuomo got close to a million votes, and
we're talking.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
About he's not even that great.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
Not only that, I mean, with all his baggage, right,
not a well run campaign at all, you know, towards
to the end, I got a little bit involved and
got to see you a little bit of the campaign.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Not a well run campaign.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
And then also he didn't run on the Democrat line,
which is the only line that ever wins.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Really it's almost.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Impossible lost the primary, Yeah, he lost.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
It's almost impossible to win on an independent line, and
he ran on an independent line, and his position on
the ballot was really.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Not a good position.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
If you saw the ballot, it was somewhere to the
bottom right, which actually really matters because voters just you know,
they they go in a few minutes to vote, and
if they don't see you on the ballot, they just
vote for someone else to just leave. So, with all
that said, he still got close to a million votes,
(10:06):
which says a lot about you know, the voters in
New York City and where we could go had we
had a really good moderate Democrat incident who wasn't the
Democratic line, I mean, yeah, order.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
A Republican who was like maybe a little bit more serious,
I like courtesy.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Well, but that was never going to happen.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Well, that's the other thing.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
If he wasn't, If Courtesia wasn't on the race, I
do believe that I would have been mayor today.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
What would you have done, as like a plan be
had this not worked out, had you not become a
New York City council woman?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Would you just stay a lawyer?
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I mean I you know what kind of law? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
No. A lot of people I feel like, go into
politics when they kind of don't know they don't really
have another plan or another option, and this is kind
of like what they want to do, kind of like
their life.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
For me, my law practice was my life.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It was, like I said, my dream and I had
to leave it. And it was a very sec for
me to have to leave a law practice that I
built with my own hands.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You know, I worked.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
I stayed up till two o'clock in the morning the
first year and a half of my practice, you know, just.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
To make it work, bringing clients, you know. So it
was tough.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
And yeah, I absolutely would have made an attorney a
practicing Authorney.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes, we're going to take a quick break and be
right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I think people don't get what a sacrifice it is
to go into public service in so many ways. You know,
you leave the private life behind, and you leave the
business that you built and a life that you had
to make changes that you want to see.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I think a lot of people see, you.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Know, politics or political jobs and elected officials as like, oh,
they have this glamorous and stepped up life.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But actually it's a lot harder for a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, And I actually think that's why people like Trump
and Mom Donnie were able to get elected because, like,
you know, someone like Trump, he has all the money
supposedly in the world and the life that he wants,
but he gives that up to make a difference, to
make a change. They're kind of like the populist candidates
(12:28):
that people appreciate, you know. They go against the establishment,
they go against what we're used to, and they try
to fight for the people. I mean, you know, with
Mom Donnie, I think that's what a lot of voters
saw in him. I don't think that's that's true, but
they're still both populist candidates, and yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
It is.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
It is not an easy life necessarily, and you get
so much pushback, and you get threats, threats to your.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Safety and you know, your life.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Sometimes you get involved in issues where there's protesters right
outside your office, your staff is scared, you know, you
have to sit home or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
You do give up a lot.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
You know, I gave up something I love doing to
do this, to make a difference.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What would you say are you most proud of in
your life?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Well, I think now that my life is a lot
about what I'm doing, which a lot of it is
politics and representing constituents I think I'm very proud of
the fact that I have this immense opportunity and privilege
to speak up for so many Russian speaking Jews came
from the Soviet Union, and you know, I get so
(13:39):
many they reach out so many times, so much. I
hear from them a lot about how proud they are
to have someone who you know, comes from where they
come from and understands them and is able to speak
up for them because they just feel so unheard, especially
at a time like this. We have a socialist communist
(14:02):
in my opinion, and when there's so much anti semitism.
The two things that Soviet Jewry escaped, those are literally
the two things they escaped. And you know that better
than anyone, right, anti Semitism and socialism communism, and that's
where we're living today, and you know, anti Semitism and socialism,
and so to have this opportunity to represent them and
(14:25):
speak up for them and speak up against all of
that is I'm very proud of that.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's huge. Yeah, And you know, look, you know it's funny.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You know we talk about how the ex Soviet Jewish
community really supports you, but they don't just support you
because you are like them an exso view Jew, it's
because you are also ideologically on their side. I think
we had so many elected officials who were Exsoviet Jews
and who were quite leftists, and it was like perplexing,
like how did these people I'm not going to name names,
(14:54):
but I have a few that are really I have
on my very very negative.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
List because I felt like they did not represent our
community and they did not.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Represent the values at all. They were on their own tangent,
going to the left. So I think that that's what
makes you so special to the community in that Yeah,
of course we're of the same culture, we're from the
same place, but you also have the same ideals and
that that's big.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Yeah, And I think that's a big problem that we
have today, kind of a little bit on both sides
of the al but obviously a lot more with Democrats,
which is that they're afraid to go against the grain.
They're afraid to speak up for issues that really matter
because they want to fit in with a Democrat establishment.
You know, for example, in the city council, a lot
(15:40):
of the Democrats, we have a lot of moderate Democrats
in the city council. Actually, people don't know this, but
we do have a lot of moderate Democrats. However, a
lot of them are afraid to actually publicly align with us,
which they do privately, but they're publicly afraid because they're
fate of pushback from a speaker, especially from the previous speaker,
(16:03):
because they get threatened with with uh, will take away
your funding for your district, or will you'll lose your
committees if you don't vote or support this bill. We'll
do all of that, right, there's consequences, and they don't
want to go against the grain. They don't want to
lose funding, they don't want to lose their status in
the democratic establishment. They don't want to lose, you know, committees,
(16:25):
they don't want to lose their power. So they just
well along and they don't go against the left. They
actually support the left publicly, even though privately, I can tell.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
You fact so privately, a lot of.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Them they come to us and they say, I totally
agree with you, I totally agree with you in these
issues right, especially about like policing and YPD and semicism stuff.
But they won't they won't do it. They won't do
it publicly, and so that's actually more of a problem
I have more of a problem with those moderate Democrats
(16:59):
than I do the left, I.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Know what you mean, at least the left there. They
have some ideology, they have some beliefs. These people are
just opportunists. It's unfortunate, you know. But during the pandemic,
where I was writing about opening schools all the time,
I had CNN, you know, newscasters in my DMS being like,
I agree with you, I just obviously can't say anything.
Oh my god, you're the weakest person ever agree with me,
(17:24):
but you.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Can't say anything. Yeah, you coward right.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Give us a five year out prediction and it could
be about anything at all.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Yeah, sure, Well, I think I kind of mentioned it before.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I do think things are going to change a lot,
you know how sometimes people say, you know, things have
to kind of burn down for them to better, And
I think that rock bottom, and I think we're going
to hit it here in New York City.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
I mean, how much lower can we go?
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Right with all the chaos and the antipe police and
the crime and the affordability crisis and all of that.
And I think people are struggling. You know, affordability is
number one issue in New York State right now. It's
not actually not crime. I think crime is second. But
people are really struggling, and I think they're going to
(18:16):
realize that all the promises to make everything free are
just not real.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
That was like a pipe dream.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
And I think that, you know, back to the mayor,
I have to just mention it. I think that that
he's basically a TikTok influencer who ran on the promise
of affordability because affordability was so attractive to New Yorkers.
And obviously he got all these votes because he promised
all these free things. But actually think his main focus,
(18:43):
based on everything we're seeing, really is to free Palestine.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I think, you know, every chance he gets.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
I mean we saw yesterday it was Saint Patrick's Day,
and he used his platform to basically talk about the
you know, Gaza and Palestine. He basically hijacked Patrick's Day
after snubbing two point five million Catholics in New York
when he didn't show up for the installation of the
new archbishop. And I think everyone, I think a lot
(19:14):
of these ethnic communities are realizing that he's really there
for a platform for Palestine and Gaza, which.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Is really Look, I don't care he could.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Have his he could talk about free Palestine, you know,
even though.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Mayor of New York City, and his whole argument was like, oh,
the Mayor of New York City should be about New York,
shouldn't be about Israel. But he's literally over there, like
his mind is over there.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Absolutely, he's hyper focused on Israel and Palestine. And you
know what he's missing is that to free Palestine needs
to free Gaza from Hamas. But that's a whole sepperate conversation.
Whene is he should be focused on, you know, snow,
cleaning out the snow, which was a complete failure, these
two bl lizards.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
That we had.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
I'm sure you've seen and heard about it, you know,
cleaning the streets, the Department of transportation at our schools,
which are miserably failing our students.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
He's completely not focusing on that.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
He's deflecting all its problems that are very real, uh
and talking about palist And I think he's going to implode.
And I think that the pendulum will swing and we
will see a different New York in five years from now.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
So I said no surprises on this podcast, but I
have one question I want to throw in here. That
I didn't talk about. What's favorite restaurant in South Brooklyn?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Ow? I have so many?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
But you I just what should I check out when
I'm back?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Do you eat kosher or not? Okay? No, so you
should definitely wap out Michael's.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
Been okay, But yeah I do. I do like a
lot of meetings like breakfast. My breakfast my favorite meal
of the day.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
So I do a lot of breakfast meetings and opera.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
But yeah, I haven't been there in a long time.
I'll have to check it out.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, check it out.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know, I've loved this conversation.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I've really been such an appreciative fan of your work.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I think you're an amazing counselwoman. And again, I wish
you had been around when I lived there.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Maybe we can have you back at some point, Yeah,
well to visit.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Maybe we'll go to Michael's.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
But leave us here.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
With your best tip for my listeners on how they
can improve their lives.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
My best tip would probably be do what you love
that is professionally. It's kind of like a mantre I
always followed. Even if you're afraid to do it or
it's difficult or it's challenging. I say, like, we only
have one life, and I think that you'll never regret
(21:54):
doing what you love. And you don't want to be
miserable doing a job just because you're making money. You
want to do it because you enjoy it and you
get a satisfaction out of it and you feel like
you're accomplishing something and making a difference. For me, that's
always been the more important, more important than making money,
and so that's why you know, I folowed my dream
(22:15):
to become an attorney, and now I really do love
what I do, speaking up, standing up and helping people
every day.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
She is counselwoman inna Ernikov. Thank you so much for
coming on, counselwoman
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
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