Former Minority Leader Of The New York City Council Joe Borelli Interview

Joe explains to Larry how Newark Congresswomen Lamonica Mciver will be charged for pulling a political stunt when Newark Mayor Ras Baraka got arrested at the Ice Detention Center. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get to Joe Burrelli, Managing director of Chartwell Strategy
Group and former Minority leader of the New York City
Council and the new star of CNN. Joe, I've enjoyed
you sitting in for Scott Jennings.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, well, last night, I was lucky I was actually
on with him. But you know the problem is when
you're when you're on with him, I always feel like,
you know, the the nineteen ninety five Chicago Bulls, like
as though if Horace Grant was trying to steal the
ball away from Michael Jordan. Sometimes you just got to
sit back and let him go.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm a huge fan of his. Maybe you can get
that seat. I watched you when you were actually filling
in for him. Maybe you can get that seat when
he when he moves on, because he is like the
conservative Bruce Lee, with all these liberals coming at him
from every direction, and he seems to take them on flawlessly.
He's fun to watch. You were great, though, you were
really good.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
He's very fun to watch. And the key with him
is that people stop talking over each other when he
starts speaking, and that's that's a real skill that he has.
And he knows how to just you know, insert that
that that little jab or that little question or that
little supposition at the right moment to just sort of
make the lefties look a little silly on their own program.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, and it's amazing that he gets I don't want
to give make the whole thing about Scott Jennings, but
it's amazing that they keep trying to interrupt him. They can't.
He's like a machine. He just keeps going unless they
say something he wants to respond to, and then they're
in trouble.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Look, he knows. He's very prepared. So before you know,
every segment, every block of TV, he is scribbling notes,
he's you know, on his phone, googling, looking up information,
looking up facts. So he brings his a game every
single night. And I think that's why he makes the
big CNN bucks and why I just basically get my
taxi fair paper.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
You were really good. That's a tough seat to fail
and you were really good. So do you hope to
see on CNN more?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Let's well, it's funny. Last night I was on with
the guy we're going.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
To talk about with Ross Baraka.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yes, he was there last night. He was there last
night talking about Congresswoman mac Iver's impending arrest in his
own dismissal.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
So what did you think of what he said last night?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Look, I mean, in fairness, I didn't know what to expect.
I'd never met him before, and we had some time
to chat, and in fairness, I actually kind of liked
the guy a bit. But I did call it what
it was. It was a stunt, right, it's a stunt.
The mayor of Newark doesn't have the right to just
barge into an ICE facility and demand to see detainees. Now,
congress members have some lot of a right enshrined in law,

(02:43):
but you can't still go break down the defence and
wrestle with with ICE agents. And if you watch the video,
you can clearly see Congresswoman MacIver throwing some elbows, throwing
some you know, it looked like she was doing some
of the WWE moves with with a flying, flying elbow
coming down on one of the guys heads. You can't
do that. So I actually, you know, look, the evidence

(03:05):
didn't support any criminal charge against you know, Mayor Baraka.
I mean, it just didn't. Just you know, I have
no reason to doubt that Lena Habba didn't want to
criminally charge him, but the evidence there just wasn't there.
But unlike him, the congresswoman, that video is pretty damning
and I think actually Scott Jennings asked the right question

(03:26):
last night, as always, if a normal person did that
to a police officer, would they be charged, And we
all know the answer is yes. The answer is yes,
because you can't just assault the police officer, unless, of
course you're it's an NYPD and it's a protest in Manhattan,
then you're actually open open season.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
The bizarre part about this story is that Alena Habba
says she and her office reached out that the congresswoman
in her office and tried to discuss this and work
out something, and she Macguiver wouldn't take the phone call.
It sounds like and she wanted this.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's consistent. That's consistent with with what Mayor Baraka said.
He said, Look, they ended up giving us a tour.
We talked about it. I was able to inspect the facility,
and in fairness, he was not I wouldn't say magnanimous,
but he was respectful of the office of the US
Attorney of New Jersey, which again I didn't expect And

(04:24):
that's sort of what gott and I were trying to say,
like there was a compromise to be had. You know,
the Trump administration can't bar members of Congress going into
ice attegent facilities as long as they do it through
the proper channels. Nobody was trying to do that. But look,
I was in politics and elective office for over a decade.
I know a good political stunt when I see it.

(04:46):
I did them many times. That was a political stunt
to try to get arrested, try to get ruffed up.
And when you play stupid games, sometimes you win stupid prizes.
And in this case, Mayor I'm sorry Congress, Willimcivor is
going to be a little bit indicted by the way.
You would think somebody with the last name mcgiver would
be a little bit more created a facility. That was

(05:10):
my joke for people over the ages.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
You hit the right audience, Absolutely hit the right audience. Hey,
you know I said earlier. This really does play to
all their brands. Alena Haba wins in this. Mcguiver wins
in this. She gets to go up against Donald Trump
and the and the man, and Ross Baraka does well
in this because a lot of people in New Jersey
had no idea who he was. He's running for governor.
Now everybody knows who he was, who he is.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, and we talked about that a little bit. Offset that,
he talked about how you know, a lot of young
people suddenly found his campaign and the campaigns of Mickey
Cheryl are just you know, is the plane leaving the
hangar there? I don't know. I mean, maybe there is
room on the Democratic side for a governor of Baraka.
I mean, you'd be interesting to see. Like I said,
I won't say things privately to him that I wouldn't

(05:58):
say publicly, and I out be very pleasant and very
nice to deal with him, and I genuinely wished him
walking the primary. Now that said, with his political views,
I'm not sure it's the right move for New Jersey
to vote for him just because I thought he was
a nice guy for a few minutes. But you're absolutely right.
This played right into his hands, going into you whatever
it is, three weeks before the Democratic primary in New Jersey,

(06:20):
This was a great opportunity to put some momentum behind
his kipping.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
No, absolutely, I wouldn't be surprised if he wins the
primary now because it's so close. But let's get to
your favorite person. I think zorin Mam Donnie. He is
now asking supporters to donate to someone else, to speaker Adams.
What is that all about? What's the strategy there?

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, he's smart. I mean, you can't say that Zora
Mamdani's got smart. And all he did was read the
rule book of how to run in a ranked choice race.
And he's figuring out that the more money his opponents,
who hate Andrew Pomo moret than they hate him, the
more money they have to spend in matching funds, the
better of a job they'll do bashing Andrew Cuomo. That's
just the reality of how rank choice voting plays out.

(07:06):
And that's why, you know, many people think it's kind
of a stupid plan to begin with. But he's under
the correct assumption that Adrian Adams would probably you know,
maybe at this point she's realizing is not really a path.
Maybe she has a backroom deal with him, maybe the
sort of open deal that they've all been saying is
like rank anyone but Andrew Pomo. Maybe this is a
function of that where she basically said, look, I'm not

(07:29):
getting any momentum. If you get me some matching funds,
I'll use it towards bashing Andrew Clomo. That's what I
think is happening. And frankly, Mom, Donnie's kind of smart
to play that angle.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Joe Burrelli, star of CNN, managing director at chart Well
Strategy Group, and former minority leader of the New York
City Council. Thanks a lot, Joe. Hey, when you become
a bigger star, don't steff us.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Okay, oh, I won't thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I appreciate that