July 1, 2025 • 6 mins
Rich Lowry speaks with Mendte in the Morning about Zohran Mamdani’s Mayoral run and wonders if Donald Trump is actually a moderate.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now let's get the Rich Lowry, editor in chief
of the National Review, was looking forward to talking to you, Rich,
and good morning. And I was looking forward to talking
to you because I wanted to hear your thoughts on
zorin Mom Donnie oh Man.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You know, some of the last polling showed it was
consistent with an upset, and sure enough it happened. You know,
this is the way it often goes. You have the
young guy who catches people's imagination, is very energetic, and
you have a more established candidate saying we can't risk
this young guy, and very often, especially in primaries, voters
(00:35):
tend to go with the young guy. And he is
so callo. He's so far left that this stuff is
so extreme. He's going to be a disaster for the city.
It breaks my heart.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Callo is a perfect word to describe him. And he's
selling a bill of goods. I like when Eric Adams
called him a snake oil salesman because none of the
things he's saying he's going to do does he have
the power to do.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So the media hasn't done a great job of holding
his feet to the fire on that.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
No, but look, Eric Adams, he looks better than much
better than mom, Donnie. But he has a lot to
answer for here. If he weren't so ineffectual and corrupt,
he'd be winning a second term, you know, the second term,
the way Democrats always do. And who are mayors of
New York City instead said we keep staring down the
barrel of this guy. Yeah, but hocals not go and
(01:28):
go along with a lot of this stuff. It's it's
it's already it's ideas that already failed. There's nothing fresh
about them whatsoever. I mean, government run grocery stores is
something you know, tried in the Soviet Union. It's seventy
years ago, and it didn't work. It doesn't work, so
it's it's insane. But unfortunately the broad theme of affordability
(01:49):
that does resonate with people you're just talking about, you know,
the contention over rent increases. I think rents went up
sixteen percent across the city last year. That's just a crusher.
And you need more houses, you need market solutions to it.
But he wants more socialism obviously.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
No, And we didn't even get a chance to talk
about some of the other problems with him, including the
anti semitism and him saying on one of his websites
that they're how bad it is and how the fact
that they have to now get equality because of the
rich white neighborhoods have to share.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah. Yeah, Now, he says, it's just the important part
of that is the first part, the rich, not the white.
But why did it include the white If the white
wasn't important. It's shameful, it's disgusting. If anyone did it
in reverse, they'd be laughed out of a drummed out
of public life. And that's what he deserves too. But
New York City is a left wing city, especially you know,
Democratic voters in a primary. So this is what we're
(02:45):
looking at right.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
In the primary and the general election. I'm not sure
he can win. I really don't think he can win
because older voters come out in mass and moderates come
out in Mass and so I don't think he attracts
any votes from them. So I do want to talk
about something you wrote which was kind of shocking to me.
You see Donald Trump as a Republican moderate.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah. I think within the Republican Party as he's redefined it,
he's smack in the middle. We saw it in the
debate over whether he should strike Iran, and he did.
I'm very grateful that he did. I think that was fantastic.
But you had the more isolation of saying this would
be a disaster, he shouldn't do it, and they had
more new neocon types to use that over Warren Frase
(03:27):
saying well, maybe should go for regime chains, and he
goes right down the middle. Right. We see it on
immigration enforcement, the folks on the right wanted to court everyone,
no matter where what they're doing or who they are,
you know, working on farms or whatnot. I tend to
agree with them, by the way, and Trump's like, no,
let's do a lot of deportations, but also let's listen
to the business interest. So again and again, this big
(03:49):
beautiful bill that's on the floor of the Senate. Now
everything he's kind of right smack dab in the middle
of the party.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Well, that's fascinating. That's a great point. But I haven't
ever thought of it that way. I didn't think the
attack on Iran was certainly a moderate position, but I
understand now the argument you're making that the America First
people were saying you shouldn't be going in there at all.
I don't think he made many Democrats happy either when
he did that.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
No Republican moderates in the middle of the Republican Party. And
it's easy to you know, to not realize this because
he speaks immoderately, right, so you know the all caps
try social points, posts and whatnot or not, you know,
those that sort of thing. Susan Collins is doing who
is often described as a moderate, but she's not a
(04:35):
Republican motor. She's on the left of the Republican Party.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Let me tell you this too. I agree with you
completely to get rid of some of these federal buildings.
They have outlived their usage. They're not necessary anymore. That
was a great column.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thank you well. This is called brutalism, this architectural style
that was in vogue in the sixties and seventies. Not
a lot of good things came out of those decades.
These buildings are just horrific, just exposed concrete. They haven't
They've always been ugly, they always been hated by the public.
They haven't aged well, they're talking. They're falling apart, cost
massive amount of money just to maintain them. We're seeing
(05:13):
the FBI move out of their building, which by some
estimates is the ugliest building in America. We're seeing HUDs
is going to move out of its building. There are
several more of these, but we should just get get
It's not you know, I'm not a huge fan of bureaucracy,
but if federal workers are going to work in buildings,
they should be decent looking buildings. They shouldn't be an
eye sore to everyone walking by or driving by. So
(05:34):
the sooner we can blow these things up, the better.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I agree with you. Well, you don't need to
build something that big. Half the people aren't showing up anyway.
Everybody's working from home these days, so it's just like
some of the buildings in the major cities, they're not
needed anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, but again, you're gonna need some building, and let's
just make it look pretty. Donald Trump had executive order
to that effect the first term. People are outraged by
Biden repealed it, and he's and he's he instituted it now.
But if we're gonna build new new buildings, let's just
make them make them look nice. That doesn't seem controversial.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Agreed, And I'm sure Donald Trump agrees with you. I'm
sure he can't wait to build some new buildings in Washington.
Maybe he'll wait till he leaves office so he can
profit from it. Thanks so much, Rich Lowry, Good to
talk
Speaker 2 (06:18):
To you again.
And now let's get the Rich Lowry, editor in chief
of the National Review, was looking forward to talking to you, Rich,
and good morning. And I was looking forward to talking
to you because I wanted to hear your thoughts on
zorin Mom Donnie oh Man.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You know, some of the last polling showed it was
consistent with an upset, and sure enough it happened. You know,
this is the way it often goes. You have the
young guy who catches people's imagination, is very energetic, and
you have a more established candidate saying we can't risk
this young guy, and very often, especially in primaries, voters
(00:35):
tend to go with the young guy. And he is
so callo. He's so far left that this stuff is
so extreme. He's going to be a disaster for the city.
It breaks my heart.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Callo is a perfect word to describe him. And he's
selling a bill of goods. I like when Eric Adams
called him a snake oil salesman because none of the
things he's saying he's going to do does he have
the power to do.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
So the media hasn't done a great job of holding
his feet to the fire on that.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
No, but look, Eric Adams, he looks better than much
better than mom, Donnie. But he has a lot to
answer for here. If he weren't so ineffectual and corrupt,
he'd be winning a second term, you know, the second term,
the way Democrats always do. And who are mayors of
New York City instead said we keep staring down the
barrel of this guy. Yeah, but hocals not go and
(01:28):
go along with a lot of this stuff. It's it's
it's already it's ideas that already failed. There's nothing fresh
about them whatsoever. I mean, government run grocery stores is
something you know, tried in the Soviet Union. It's seventy
years ago, and it didn't work. It doesn't work, so
it's it's insane. But unfortunately the broad theme of affordability
(01:49):
that does resonate with people you're just talking about, you know,
the contention over rent increases. I think rents went up
sixteen percent across the city last year. That's just a crusher.
And you need more houses, you need market solutions to it.
But he wants more socialism obviously.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
No, And we didn't even get a chance to talk
about some of the other problems with him, including the
anti semitism and him saying on one of his websites
that they're how bad it is and how the fact
that they have to now get equality because of the
rich white neighborhoods have to share.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah. Yeah, Now, he says, it's just the important part
of that is the first part, the rich, not the white.
But why did it include the white If the white
wasn't important. It's shameful, it's disgusting. If anyone did it
in reverse, they'd be laughed out of a drummed out
of public life. And that's what he deserves too. But
New York City is a left wing city, especially you know,
Democratic voters in a primary. So this is what we're
(02:45):
looking at right.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
In the primary and the general election. I'm not sure
he can win. I really don't think he can win
because older voters come out in mass and moderates come
out in Mass and so I don't think he attracts
any votes from them. So I do want to talk
about something you wrote which was kind of shocking to me.
You see Donald Trump as a Republican moderate.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah. I think within the Republican Party as he's redefined it,
he's smack in the middle. We saw it in the
debate over whether he should strike Iran, and he did.
I'm very grateful that he did. I think that was fantastic.
But you had the more isolation of saying this would
be a disaster, he shouldn't do it, and they had
more new neocon types to use that over Warren Frase
(03:27):
saying well, maybe should go for regime chains, and he
goes right down the middle. Right. We see it on
immigration enforcement, the folks on the right wanted to court everyone,
no matter where what they're doing or who they are,
you know, working on farms or whatnot. I tend to
agree with them, by the way, and Trump's like, no,
let's do a lot of deportations, but also let's listen
to the business interest. So again and again, this big
(03:49):
beautiful bill that's on the floor of the Senate. Now
everything he's kind of right smack dab in the middle
of the party.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Well, that's fascinating. That's a great point. But I haven't
ever thought of it that way. I didn't think the
attack on Iran was certainly a moderate position, but I
understand now the argument you're making that the America First
people were saying you shouldn't be going in there at all.
I don't think he made many Democrats happy either when
he did that.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
No Republican moderates in the middle of the Republican Party. And
it's easy to you know, to not realize this because
he speaks immoderately, right, so you know the all caps
try social points, posts and whatnot or not, you know,
those that sort of thing. Susan Collins is doing who
is often described as a moderate, but she's not a
(04:35):
Republican motor. She's on the left of the Republican Party.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Let me tell you this too. I agree with you
completely to get rid of some of these federal buildings.
They have outlived their usage. They're not necessary anymore. That
was a great column.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Thank you well. This is called brutalism, this architectural style
that was in vogue in the sixties and seventies. Not
a lot of good things came out of those decades.
These buildings are just horrific, just exposed concrete. They haven't
They've always been ugly, they always been hated by the public.
They haven't aged well, they're talking. They're falling apart, cost
massive amount of money just to maintain them. We're seeing
(05:13):
the FBI move out of their building, which by some
estimates is the ugliest building in America. We're seeing HUDs
is going to move out of its building. There are
several more of these, but we should just get get
It's not you know, I'm not a huge fan of bureaucracy,
but if federal workers are going to work in buildings,
they should be decent looking buildings. They shouldn't be an
eye sore to everyone walking by or driving by. So
(05:34):
the sooner we can blow these things up, the better.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I agree with you. Well, you don't need to
build something that big. Half the people aren't showing up anyway.
Everybody's working from home these days, so it's just like
some of the buildings in the major cities, they're not
needed anymore.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, but again, you're gonna need some building, and let's
just make it look pretty. Donald Trump had executive order
to that effect the first term. People are outraged by
Biden repealed it, and he's and he's he instituted it now.
But if we're gonna build new new buildings, let's just
make them make them look nice. That doesn't seem controversial.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Agreed, And I'm sure Donald Trump agrees with you. I'm
sure he can't wait to build some new buildings in Washington.
Maybe he'll wait till he leaves office so he can
profit from it. Thanks so much, Rich Lowry, Good to
talk
Speaker 2 (06:18):
To you again.
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