June 25, 2025 • 7 mins
Curtis Sliwa speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the primary results in the NYC Mayoral race and his chances on winning the general election in November.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wow, we're very proud to have Curtis Lee now officially
the Republican nominee, the Republican candidate for mayor of the
City of New York. Curtis, you're going to have a
busy day today. I heard you were just on TV.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh yeah, And I will continue to get into the
campaign mode. We've got four months starting on July fourth.
And you know, the one thing we saw from Jorhan
Mondomini that we did not see from Andrew Como was energy.
Nobody has more energy. They mean, nobody is in more
neighborhoods than me, all three hundred and fifty. And by
(00:35):
the way, I don't walk the entire borough. I take subways.
If you notice, none of the candidates we're down in
the subways, which is where the working class people go
down each and every day to work their nine to
five job, to have most of their money taken away
in taxes and they're given such a lousy quality of
life in return.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, I'm pulling for you, Curtis, and I think a
lot of people that are listening right now are. But oh,
Jeffrey Licktman pretty well, don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Oh sure?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
He represented John Gotti Juja in the first trial where
Gotti Junior was being tried for the attempt to kidnap
and killing of Curtis Hliwa on June nineteenth and nineteen
ninety two.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I know him well, yeah, and so we have him
on every week. And when the election came up and
we started, he before I even mentioned your name, he
started he said he had said nice things about you,
but said, I want you to hear this. You had
no chance, Curtis Lee.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know, look, he's a nice guy, and he certainly
cares about the city. There's no question. He certainly is
a decent man. There's not even a question. I mean,
I know the guy. I sat next to him for years.
But there's there's just no chance. He's a Republican and
the city is so far left right now, there is
absolutely no chance.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
He went on and on and on that, and he
was saying over and over. As a matter of fact,
I said, he said, I'll bet you, he said to me,
And I said, would you give me odds? And he goes, yes,
you put up a million, I'll put up ten million.
And so how do you respond to Jeffrey Litman.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Look, if you're gonna use that old line a Republican
can't win, and know that a socialist has just beaten
the old dinosaur Andrew Como. Although remember he hasn't left
the race. Everyone's acting as if he's left the race.
(02:24):
He still has an independent line. You may have four
maybe more in this general election. So everybody's like, oh,
they're getting all excited. Remember this doesn't have to be
determined until every rank choice vote is counting. He's not
gonna win, Andrew Cmo, but my prediction is he will
stay in it because he has some solid support. Eric
(02:47):
Adams has no party. I have a party, but I've
been able to attract a lot of moderate Democrats and
independents and that is the route to victory. I start,
as you know, Larry, with thirty percent of the vote.
If you have four more candidates, all I have to
do is get thirty two thirty three percent of the vote,
and I'm the mayor. So this concept a Republican can't win, well,
(03:08):
Rudy won, he served eight years, Bloomberg won, he served
twelve years. They said the same thing about George Bataki,
who just turned eighty. Remember George BATACKI beat Andrew CMO's
father Mario Cuomo, and we had twelve years of a
Republican governor in Albany with no chaos, no corruption. Ever
since we had the Blasio Cuomo Adams. What if we
(03:31):
had chaos and corruption? And I said that would take
place in twenty twenty one when I ran against Sarah Adams.
So now all of a sudden, I'm a Republican. I
have no chance. Well, I have the protecting animals independent line,
and that means no kill shelters and animal abuses go
to jail and Larry, there are a lot of people
(03:51):
out there who love animals more than people, and they
will cross that magin no line and vote for me
and not any of the other candidates.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
And I'll tell you what, because voter turnout in past
elections has been so minimal, almost embarrassingly small. If I
think Zorin Mamdani running is going to inspire people to
vote against him because they are so upset, and who
will be the most inspired to vote in this election Republicans?
(04:19):
And so I agree with you. I think there are
independents and Republicans out there that will do anything to
keep this guy out of office. And what is their option?
I think it's you, Larry.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Survey after survey of people who voted for Zorhanmandani, they
were asked, well, why did you vote for this guy?
Because they didn't want to go with the old traditional politicians.
They didn't want to go back to the past with Cuomo. Well,
guess what, I'm not the politician. It's time that people
look to Curtis Sleebwell because I'm not corrupted like Eric Adams.
(04:52):
I'm not beholden to anybody like Cuomo, to the millionaires
and billionaires. I'm with the working class people who make
up all the the boroughs, who pay their taxes, will
have to pay all these fees and fines on getting
driven out of the city each and every day. My
whole campaign has been improved. Don't move. And so when
people see you're ready to align behind their issues. No
(05:15):
more shelters, no more mind in shelters, no lifting ion
battery warehouses and residential areas, no city of Yes which
will destroy residential areas by putting up high rise apartments.
Then people say, wow, he's supporting my values. None of
these other candidates. They're in the back pockets of the
developers and the realtors. And look at what that did
(05:38):
for Andrew Clomo. What was that Bloomberg thirty million dollars?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And he never came out of his castle. He never
wanted to deal with the peasants. He thought he should
have a coronation King Cuomo the second Well, guess what
he realized now that it's a new day, a new way,
and people don't want to go back, they want to
go forward.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I'll tell you what. I remember when Deblasio won, and
I remember people saying, well, I never would have voted
for him if I knew he was going to be
that progressive. I didn't know. I didn't know he was
going to be a socialist. Well, this guy's coming out
right of the way and saying I'm going to be
a socialist. So if you didn't like Deblasio, you're gonna
hate Zorin mam Donni. It all sounds good until you
(06:21):
try to put it in practice. So, and I'm sure
you agree with this. I actually think he's dangerous. He's
just not another candidate. This guy is dangerous. You agree,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Oh, Larry, Not only did Comrade Bill Deblasio destroy us
over eight years, Eric Adams did not improve anything in fact,
in many ways he made it worse. So Jorhan Mandanni
when he was asking that debate, who's the best mayor
that you've ever seen in action? He said, Bill Deblasio, Wow,
So that tells you, That tells you the direction we're
(06:55):
heading it. I mean, that tells you every thing you
need to know. Larry, you know me. You can't buy me,
you can't you can't lease me, you can't rent me.
I am there for the people, and I will make
sure that we continue to fly that American flag over
City Hall and we remain the epicenter of capitalism, the
(07:17):
marketing strength of the world, and not go the route
of AOC all. Our crazy Alexandrio Cassio Cortez leader of
the Socialists of America was Jorhan Mandani, the new kid
on the box.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I'll tell you what, Curtis, A lot of us are
pulling for you. Republican candidate for New York City Mayor,
Curtis Lee. Well we'll talk again. Thanks a lot, Curtis
Wow, we're very proud to have Curtis Lee now officially
the Republican nominee, the Republican candidate for mayor of the
City of New York. Curtis, you're going to have a
busy day today. I heard you were just on TV.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh yeah, And I will continue to get into the
campaign mode. We've got four months starting on July fourth.
And you know, the one thing we saw from Jorhan
Mondomini that we did not see from Andrew Como was energy.
Nobody has more energy. They mean, nobody is in more
neighborhoods than me, all three hundred and fifty. And by
(00:35):
the way, I don't walk the entire borough. I take subways.
If you notice, none of the candidates we're down in
the subways, which is where the working class people go
down each and every day to work their nine to
five job, to have most of their money taken away
in taxes and they're given such a lousy quality of
life in return.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, I'm pulling for you, Curtis, and I think a
lot of people that are listening right now are. But oh,
Jeffrey Licktman pretty well, don't you.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Oh sure?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
He represented John Gotti Juja in the first trial where
Gotti Junior was being tried for the attempt to kidnap
and killing of Curtis Hliwa on June nineteenth and nineteen
ninety two.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
I know him well, yeah, and so we have him
on every week. And when the election came up and
we started, he before I even mentioned your name, he
started he said he had said nice things about you,
but said, I want you to hear this. You had
no chance, Curtis Lee.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
You know, look, he's a nice guy, and he certainly
cares about the city. There's no question. He certainly is
a decent man. There's not even a question. I mean,
I know the guy. I sat next to him for years.
But there's there's just no chance. He's a Republican and
the city is so far left right now, there is
absolutely no chance.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
He went on and on and on that, and he
was saying over and over. As a matter of fact,
I said, he said, I'll bet you, he said to me,
And I said, would you give me odds? And he goes, yes,
you put up a million, I'll put up ten million.
And so how do you respond to Jeffrey Litman.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Look, if you're gonna use that old line a Republican
can't win, and know that a socialist has just beaten
the old dinosaur Andrew Como. Although remember he hasn't left
the race. Everyone's acting as if he's left the race.
(02:24):
He still has an independent line. You may have four
maybe more in this general election. So everybody's like, oh,
they're getting all excited. Remember this doesn't have to be
determined until every rank choice vote is counting. He's not
gonna win, Andrew Cmo, but my prediction is he will
stay in it because he has some solid support. Eric
(02:47):
Adams has no party. I have a party, but I've
been able to attract a lot of moderate Democrats and
independents and that is the route to victory. I start,
as you know, Larry, with thirty percent of the vote.
If you have four more candidates, all I have to
do is get thirty two thirty three percent of the vote,
and I'm the mayor. So this concept a Republican can't win, well,
(03:08):
Rudy won, he served eight years, Bloomberg won, he served
twelve years. They said the same thing about George Bataki,
who just turned eighty. Remember George BATACKI beat Andrew CMO's
father Mario Cuomo, and we had twelve years of a
Republican governor in Albany with no chaos, no corruption. Ever
since we had the Blasio Cuomo Adams. What if we
(03:31):
had chaos and corruption? And I said that would take
place in twenty twenty one when I ran against Sarah Adams.
So now all of a sudden, I'm a Republican. I
have no chance. Well, I have the protecting animals independent line,
and that means no kill shelters and animal abuses go
to jail and Larry, there are a lot of people
(03:51):
out there who love animals more than people, and they
will cross that magin no line and vote for me
and not any of the other candidates.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
And I'll tell you what, because voter turnout in past
elections has been so minimal, almost embarrassingly small. If I
think Zorin Mamdani running is going to inspire people to
vote against him because they are so upset, and who
will be the most inspired to vote in this election Republicans?
(04:19):
And so I agree with you. I think there are
independents and Republicans out there that will do anything to
keep this guy out of office. And what is their option?
I think it's you, Larry.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Survey after survey of people who voted for Zorhanmandani, they
were asked, well, why did you vote for this guy?
Because they didn't want to go with the old traditional politicians.
They didn't want to go back to the past with Cuomo. Well,
guess what, I'm not the politician. It's time that people
look to Curtis Sleebwell because I'm not corrupted like Eric Adams.
(04:52):
I'm not beholden to anybody like Cuomo, to the millionaires
and billionaires. I'm with the working class people who make
up all the the boroughs, who pay their taxes, will
have to pay all these fees and fines on getting
driven out of the city each and every day. My
whole campaign has been improved. Don't move. And so when
people see you're ready to align behind their issues. No
(05:15):
more shelters, no more mind in shelters, no lifting ion
battery warehouses and residential areas, no city of Yes which
will destroy residential areas by putting up high rise apartments.
Then people say, wow, he's supporting my values. None of
these other candidates. They're in the back pockets of the
developers and the realtors. And look at what that did
(05:38):
for Andrew Clomo. What was that Bloomberg thirty million dollars?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And he never came out of his castle. He never
wanted to deal with the peasants. He thought he should
have a coronation King Cuomo the second Well, guess what
he realized now that it's a new day, a new way,
and people don't want to go back, they want to
go forward.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I'll tell you what. I remember when Deblasio won, and
I remember people saying, well, I never would have voted
for him if I knew he was going to be
that progressive. I didn't know. I didn't know he was
going to be a socialist. Well, this guy's coming out
right of the way and saying I'm going to be
a socialist. So if you didn't like Deblasio, you're gonna
hate Zorin mam Donni. It all sounds good until you
(06:21):
try to put it in practice. So, and I'm sure
you agree with this. I actually think he's dangerous. He's
just not another candidate. This guy is dangerous. You agree,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Oh, Larry, Not only did Comrade Bill Deblasio destroy us
over eight years, Eric Adams did not improve anything in fact,
in many ways he made it worse. So Jorhan Mandanni
when he was asking that debate, who's the best mayor
that you've ever seen in action? He said, Bill Deblasio, Wow,
So that tells you, That tells you the direction we're
(06:55):
heading it. I mean, that tells you every thing you
need to know. Larry, you know me. You can't buy me,
you can't you can't lease me, you can't rent me.
I am there for the people, and I will make
sure that we continue to fly that American flag over
City Hall and we remain the epicenter of capitalism, the
(07:17):
marketing strength of the world, and not go the route
of AOC all. Our crazy Alexandrio Cassio Cortez leader of
the Socialists of America was Jorhan Mandani, the new kid
on the box.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I'll tell you what, Curtis, A lot of us are
pulling for you. Republican candidate for New York City Mayor,
Curtis Lee. Well we'll talk again. Thanks a lot, Curtis
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