Rob Astorino, Radio TV Star Former Westchester County Executive Interview

Rob Astorino joins the WOR Morning Show to talk about the Pete Hegseth drama. Rob discusses the likelihood Trump sticks with Hegseth, and the likelihood that he gets confirmed.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Former Westchester County executive Rob asked Reino, good morning Rob.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
To one runner up another, how are you, madam County
executive at.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Larry We are great.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
So my question to you, Rob is, so do you
think that Pete Hagsath's strategy of blaming the media and
a charm offensive to the senators has turned the tide
on what yesterday looked like it was gonna go belly
up this nomination.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I think I do think that he will be confirmed
in the end if look, Trump is one who you know,
basically sticks with you. I mean, he may or may
not have known some of this stuff, which is, you know,
a little problematic when you don't have full background checks.
If he didn't, and he may have already had that

(00:50):
and just said to him, because one of the first
questions that you know, these nominees are asked when they're
being interviewed, either by the transition team or eventually Donald Trump,
is is there anything in your background that would be
embarrassing or you know, a job killer? And hopefully they're
upfront about that, because if they're not, this is what happens.

(01:12):
And I'm not saying that Pete didn't say it, but
Donald Trump is one just go back to Brett Kavanaugh,
who will stick with you if he believes in it.
And Donald Trump is one who says the media is
a bunch of jackals, you know. So, I mean he's
been through it, and I think he's got patience when
it comes to somebody like a Pete hegsith again all

(01:35):
this stuff. I mean, there were no charges. The police
reports were very questionable on the woman who you know,
made these allegations, and a lot of it is anonymous,
you know. So you know, we've all been Laura, you
and I have been through stuff that was not true
in the media. I'm not saying to this level, but

(01:56):
you know, there's always that that game that's played, and
so I think I think Trump sticks it out.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, I think Hank Seth gets confirmed. Are you cleaning
up your past now for your nomination?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Boy? My Google search would be need to be cleaned up?
Huh No, No, No. I I love what I'm doing
right now. I'm doing obviously the w R Show tomorrow
at four, and you see, I've learned that's a good
plug then my teeth that I'm doing business stuff now.
I mean I think where I am in life.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Is good Wait a second, Hold on for one second.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Everybody denies it until they get the nomination, right, So
are you interested?

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Have they talked to you at all?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Wait, it's it's that and it's always Yeah, I left
because I want to spend more time with my family. Yeah,
both of those.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
No.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I know my name has been floated for different things,
but I've never I haven't. It's not to a point
I think where any thing is imminent or anything like that. No,
And really it would also depend on Wait.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
What point is it at right now?

Speaker 3 (03:05):
If it's not the point where it's not imminent, is
it at a point at all?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have no idea. I do know my name was
submitted for different things, but I have no idea what.
And I think that's natural anyway. You know, there's a
lot of people that have either submitted themselves or have
been submitted, but there's only so many presidential appointments to
go around. It's not And this is the frustration that

(03:31):
you know I felt when I walked in as county executive.
I'm sure you, Lauri, you did too. I mean you
got stuck working with people that you did not want
on your team, let alone your floor. Maybe because civil
we had.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Maybe seventy five hundred employees. Maybe two to three hundred
were people I could pick. The rest were just the permanent,
the deep state, the permanent government, exactly right.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I mean we literally on the county executives in the
county Executive's office, the office of on our floor, we
had people who were not on our team.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Wow, I didn't know you had.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
That's rough.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well, you have to move them out, and eventually we did.
But you know, with civil service, and that's the same
thing with the federal government, and so there's only so
many jobs and then everyone else's sort of these career people.
So it's not like, you know, there's tens of thousands
of jobs to fill that there's not. And by the way,
federal government, just like most government, really doesn't pay that well.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
That's right, it doesn't. I mean great benefits, pension and
that sort of thing. That's the thing I just want
to get back to hec seth for a second. So
forget about the character stuff, the woman, the women, the booze,
et cetera. Uh, I got to imagine that senators have
serious concerns about his his qualifications for the job, and
that he, like I said, earlier. It will sort of
be a lamb to the slaughter in the Pentagon, which

(04:46):
is such, you know, like the epitome of deep state,
and people who have been there forever, who have made
their careers there, who are very skilled and talented people.
But you know, will they is there a concern that
they will eat his lunch if he is appointed their boss.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think there's a concern that the bureaucrats will eat
any anyone's lunch with regard to a cabinet secretary because
when you walk in there, and I'm sure it was
like this for you too, and it took months for
me to understand. You know a lot of how government
worked in the county worked, and that's just the county level.
When you go into this bureaucracy of gazillions of dollars

(05:24):
and contracts and everything else and career people, yeah, it's tough.
So if he's going in there, he better has some
really good allies that can help him, but also some
people on a higher level that know the lay of
the land. But still, you're right, there's going to be
such resistance in every agency, whether it's Kennedy going into AHHS,

(05:46):
which is a massive agency that deals with all this
illegal immigration stuff. HHS is what's feeding all of these
programs in the US, the handouts and everything else. So
all these agencies are going to resist because so many
of them look at DC and who lives there. It's
voted for the Democrat. So already the Trump team is

(06:09):
walking into the buildings where everybody hates them.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Yeah, all the military is a little different. It's not.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
It's a little red.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
If you haven't figured out yet, Laura has a deep
hatred for Pete hegsas.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
I don't have a deep hatred for hardly.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Anybody, and does not want him in there because.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
No, you know what, actually, I'm going to say, you're
wrong in a way. I mean, the America wanted Donald Trump,
and they wanted Donald Trump's people. So part of like
a sick part of me, is like, Okay, go for it.
Let's see how it all works out.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, Trump apparently told him on the phone, I want
a war fighter. I want somebody that's actually been in
combat and broken down doors. And that's why I want
you in there, because I think you'll be strong enough
to take them on.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
So Rob, but the audience of one right now is
Donald Trump, and of course some senators, Okay, they're like
the second tier. Do you think that his strategy is
keeping Trump on side, keeping what do you mean, keeping
Trump wanting to support him, not looking around for a
DeSantis or Urged or somebody else.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Well, I think, first of all, the transition team already
has a list in every agency for all top jobs
that they present the President, not necessarily recommendations, but high
qualified or people. I'm guessing heg Seth was not on
that list, like I'm guessing Matt Gates was not on
the Attorney general list. And Trump is going to make

(07:34):
his own picks, but there's certainly a list of qualified
people that he knows and would be comfortable with for deputies,
for you know, all the other level jobs that he
could choose from if this doesn't work out.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Hey, on another topic really quick.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
I don't know how I feel about Mayor Adams and
his his now accepting that the borders are is going
to come in. He wants to talk to him. He's
saying nice things about Donald Trump. That's all fine, But
don't you want him to take the next step to
actually take some action, to take on the city council,
maybe go to all but he do something more than

(08:09):
just getting in front of a microphone every once in
a while and saying what he believes is the right thing.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, you know, look my interview last week, I pushed
back a little bit on some of the things, like
but he I think he's trying. I think he has tried.
The city council they're a bunch of lunatics, and they
and the other thing that Lauren, I can tell you
it's always our own team that gives us the most Odjeda,
So true. Yeah, And so they're they're the ones pushing

(08:37):
back the most. Look at la going Sanctuary City, now
at Boston. I mean, the resistance has started again. But
I think I think he's trying. And I think his
meeting with Holman is important. His conversations with Trump are
important for a lot of reasons.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
We gotta go. I'm sorry, I shouldn't I put you
in a situation.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
We gotta go.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
They have a Rob Astorno, former westchestercutive pro He's also
on news Max and he's right here on WR. They
had a major earthquake just off the coast of California,
and everybody just went about their business on a beautiful
California day.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
We'll explain next