Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for Governor of New York and Nassau County Executive, joins Erin Molan as the growing battle over Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned appearance at the 25th anniversary 9/11 memorial takes a deeply personal turn.
Blakeman is himself a 9/11 family member. His nephew Tommy — a volunteer firefighter, Army medic and New York State Court Officer — was killed while helping evacuate the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
With families calling on Mamdani not to attend the Ground Zero ceremony, Blakeman tells Erin what he believes they should do if the New York City mayor shows up anyway:
“Turn our back to him.”
But this conversation goes far beyond one extraordinary moment.
Blakeman lays out his case against Gov. Kathy Hochul, explains why he believes New York is ready to elect a Republican governor, discusses crime, taxes, soaring utility costs and antisemitism, and reveals why he believes the political rise of Zohran Mamdani could create the “perfect storm” that finally flips New York.
He also discusses his friendship with President Donald Trump, Trump’s endorsement of his campaign and what he says to New Yorkers who may dislike Trump but are considering voting Republican in 2026.
WATCH the full conversation with Bruce Blakeman.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Bruce Blakeman joins Erin Molan
00:16 What Blakeman would change as NY Governor
01:46 Kathy Hochul vs. Zohran Mamdani
02:59 What Mamdani means for the Democratic Party
04:28 Should Mamdani attend the 9/11 memorial?
05:01 Blakeman’s nephew was killed on 9/11
05:48 “Turn our backs to him”
06:38 Antisemitism and violence in New York
09:37 Why Donald Trump endorsed Bruce Blakeman
10:37 Can a Republican actually win New York?
10:46 Blakeman’s “perfect storm” prediction
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Episode Transcript
And the County executive of Nassau County. Okay, I'm telling you,
I said before Nassau County, it's not possible to get
a man of common sense, a man who's Republican and
conservative elected. He's won it in record fashion. Remember I
(00:30):
said that's not possible, Bruce Wan and then he won again.
Then he won again in record. Now that he's there,
it's record, and that county is doing unbelievable. He's running
for governor. He's your Republican nominee, he's your conservative domine
and he is an unbelievable man. And he will turn
(00:50):
this place around so fast that I promise one thing.
When he calls, the President of the United States will answer,
and we're going to help him. Come on up here,
Bruce Blakeman, everybody, Bruce Blakeman.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
The families of the victims of nine to eleven don't
want Zoran Mamdani there when they commemorate the greatest loss
of their lives. The New York City Mayor, though, has
hit back.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I will proudly honor the families, the survivors, the first
responders forever impacted by that horrific terror attack by standing alongside.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Them and said he'll be going to the memorial the anniversary.
Bruce Blakeman is running for governor against Kathy Hokel. He
is calling on the people there to turn their backs
on this mayor.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Who has not.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Only failed to condemn the kind of terrorism that killed
their loved one.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
In some ways, he's cheerleading for it.
Speaker 5 (02:06):
Go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Bruce Blakeman, thank you so so much for joining us
here on the Aaron Mullan Show.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
It's a real honor to have you.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Thank you, Eron. I appreciate it. It's my honor to
be with you.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
What will be different with you? Let's go.
Speaker 6 (02:23):
Everything will be different. They'll be safer communities because I'll
hire more cops. I'll support our law enforcement. We'll change
the pro criminal policies of Kathy Hokeel, which has made
her the most pro criminal governor in the United States
of America. She's approved over forty five utility rate hikes,
which now have put us in a position where we
(02:47):
are now paying seventy percent more for our electric bills
in New York than the national average, seventy percent more.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
I will end that.
Speaker 6 (02:56):
I will end the green energy scam. We will start
extracting natural gas from one of the largest reserves in
the world that's here in New York. Stop buying it
from Pennsylvania. I will lower electric bills in half. We
are the most overtaxed state in the United States of America.
I will cut taxes on joint filers, husband and wife.
Speaker 5 (03:17):
Your firste hundred thousand dollars, no.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
State tax, single filers, your first fifty thousand dollars, no tax.
I will create economic development, job prosperity. Right now we
are number fifty five zero out of fifty states, and
economic outlook, we are in a death spiral. I am
the pilot that can pull us out of it. And
(03:42):
I could go on and on about all the policies
that she's had that are failed policies. She gets a
straight aff in running this state. She is the worst
governor in America.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
She's been absolutely appalling.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
So has your new mayor Mum Danny is worse out
of the two.
Speaker 6 (04:03):
Well, that that's a race that they that they both
are lockstep in and they both are going to cross
the finish line first on being terrible for the residents
of New York City and New York State. Zorah Mandami
is someone who's a divider. He's someone who doesn't understand economics.
(04:24):
He is a socialist slash communist. He has made promises
that are empty promises to the people, like promising a
free bus ride. Instead of a free bus ride, they
got a bus fare increase.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
This guy's dangerous. He wants to open up.
Speaker 6 (04:40):
New York City own grocery stores competing with local businesses
and bodega's in New York City.
Speaker 5 (04:48):
So they are both terrible.
Speaker 6 (04:51):
And Kathy is very, very subservient to him because he's
running the Democratic Party now.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
And this is a guy who's a very anti Semite.
Speaker 6 (05:01):
He's anti American, he's anti Christian, and he's bad for
New York City and he's bad for New York State.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
That's a key point you make in that I don't
know if every day New York is littlone the rest
of America understand how much influence Mum Dannie has in
the Democratic Party.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
And if you, I mean the.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Old supporters would have to be looking at this current
crop and saying not on my watch, this doesn't represent
who I am.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
There's no choice.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
If you're an old school Democratic supporter and you believe
in America, you cannot vote for any of them.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
No, they don't.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
They don't have the American values that our parents and
our grandparents taught us.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
They are people who are If you're in Kathy Holkle's position,
she's in a position.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
As governor to stab Zoa and Mundani from doing the
things that he's doing. They are against property rights. They
want to tax everything. They want to tax your inheritance.
They want to take money away from you if you're successful.
And basically, people who are successful are the ones that
create jobs. And the more jobs, the better paying jobs,
(06:13):
and the better benefits, the better you will live, because
that's how you make.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
It more affordable by putting more money in your pocket.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Hokeel and Mundami don't understand that they have been wedded
to a failed economic system that Winston Churchill said very
apply socialism is nothing more than shared misery.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
They want to make people miserable. I want to make
them happy.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
They're doing a mighty fine job of it on Mom Dani. Finally,
and then I want to move on nine to eleven
coming up. Families do not want him there. This petition
that they're signing is growing in numbers rapidly. His team
have come back out over the last say twelve hours
and said he will be their standing side by side
(06:58):
with them. Sorry, but if they don't want you there,
given the hell they have endured, he should not be
going within a country mile of it.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Well, you know you're talking to a family member of
someone who was killed on nine to eleven. My nephew,
Tommy was a volunteer firefighter. He was an Army medic
and he was currently serving on nine to eleven as
a state court officer. He volunteered to help with the
evacuation or tower too. He was giving first daid to
(07:30):
a woman who was severely burned in the lobby when
the building collapsed on him. It was my sister Linda's
oldest child, her oldest boy, and he was killed that day.
He was murdered that day by Islamic terrorists. And this
is a mayor who won't even speak out a ben
(07:51):
against the term global intefada. So I understand where the
families don't want him to be there. I don't want
him to be there because he's not standing with us.
But I think that the best thing that we can
do at that nine to eleven ceremony if he shows
up is turn our back to him and basically say
(08:13):
you don't represent our values, you don't represent American values,
and we will make a change. It starts on day
one with getting rid of Kathy Hockel, the worst governor
in America, who is completely subservient to him, and I
will be a governor of the state of New York
that will keep him in check and make sure that
(08:33):
he behaves himself. So this election is incredibly important, and
certainly I have personal feelings about him, as does my family.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Did you ever think you would live in a New
York where Jews were hunted down in the streets and
stabbed whilst someone yelled a la akba No.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
I'll tell you though, that's the same same phrase that
was used by the pilots that crashed into the World
Trade Center. Think about this, Think about how sick you
have to be that you're actually giddy that you're going
to commit suicide and murder three thousand people and you
(09:20):
yell alu wakbar, God is great. I'm a very very
religious person. That's not the God that I worship. That's
not a God that loves all people. That is a
very very dark take on God and the people who
did that in the name of religion. They are murderers.
(09:45):
These are people who murdered those people on that day.
And I'm not surprised that, considering that Zorn Mandami has
been so hostile to the State of Israel that now
he's not fueling that ant Semitism that led to the
stabbing of that Jewish person on the Upper West Side.
(10:06):
But again, first it was the Jews, Now it's the
Asian Americans. An Asian American was stabbed as well, So
now he's making Asian Americans, he's making Christians the scapegoat
for everybody who feels that they're not getting a fair
shaken life. Well, you know what, it's what you make
(10:26):
of yourself in New York and America, it's not what
you get handed out. The immigrants that came to this country,
you know, for decades, they loved America. They wanted to
work and earn everything they got. The new wave of
immigrants that came in under the open border policies of
(10:48):
Biden Harris, they hate America.
Speaker 5 (10:51):
They want to hand out.
Speaker 6 (10:52):
They want us to work hard and give them stuff
for free. And that's what Kathy Hochel is doing. And
that's what Zora Mundatni supports, and that will end. We
will not be a sanctuary state when I become governor.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
You make a really good point there, and we've seen
it everywhere in the world. They may target the Jews initially,
but they will kill anyone and everyone. We saw it
in Bondi, Australia, when an Isis inspired government is standing
on a bridge and shooting. He's not checking specifically whether
you're wearing a cross or a star.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
They want to kill everyone.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
So even if you're not Jewish in New York City,
if Jews are being hunted, you are not safe. Your
kids are not safe. It's such a strong point. I
want to ask you about President Trump, who has endorsed you.
Why does President Trump like you so much?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Well, first of all, President Trump knows that I have
America's best interest and New York's best interests in my heart.
And Donald Trump loves New York. He's a New Yorker,
he grew up in Queens, his fortune initially in New York.
So he knows that I'll be good for New York.
(12:06):
He trusts me, and we're friends. We're very good friends,
and I am very grateful that he endorsed my campaign.
But at the same time, I would say to people
who don't like President Trump, look, don't focus on President Trump.
He didn't make your taxes the highest in America. Kathy
Hockel did. He didn't make your utility built seventy percent
(12:28):
higher than the national average.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Kathy Hockel did. He didn't make our communities unsafe. Kathy
Hockel did.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
So whether you like Donald Trump or not, you've got
to realize that Kathy Hockel is the problem in New
York State, not Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
How do you turn around history that is not on
your side when it comes to winning in New York?
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Aaron, have you ever seen the movie The Perfect Storm?
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Do you know what?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
I'm the worst with movies, But it will be the
first thing I do when this ends, because I suspect
you're going to link something to it.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Right now.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
So The Perfect Storm was a storm that occurred in
New England years ago, and it was in a movie
about two stormfronts that came together.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
And because these two storm fronts.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Collided and it's a very very rare circumstances that happens,
they called it the Perfect Storm because everything that could
go wrong went wrong, and for the Democrat Party here
in New York, everything that could go wrong is going wrong.
High utility builds, high taxes, anti Semitism, anti Christian activity,
(13:44):
anti Asian activity, dissing are immigrants in the past, like
the Italians from Little Italy, dissing Puerto Ricans who were
invited every year by the mayor to the Puerto Rican
Day Breakfast, but it was canceled by Zoe around Mandami.
The fact is that between Kathy Hoakland's around Mandami, this
(14:05):
is the perfect storm where I will be elected because
every day Democrats are coming up to me and saying
the following, I'm a lifelong Democrat. I've never voted Republican
before in my life. We trust you, we like you,
We're going to vote Republican this year. And that's why
I won reelection in a county with one hundred and
(14:29):
ten thousand more Democrats, and I won in a landslide
by twelve points, by thirty six thousand votes, because people
know that they can trust me, that I share their
values and we may not agree on everything, but on
the core values of lowering taxes, lowing utility rates, and
making for safer communities. People know that I have done
(14:52):
that in my county and that I will do that
for them in the state. So this is the Democrats
perfect storm and that's why I will win.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Brilliant Bruce Blakeman, thank you so very much for your time,
best of luck. Everything I have on my body is
crossed that you win. I love New York City, I
love New York and I can't wait to go back
under your leadership.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
Well, God bless you when I look forward to doing
future podcasts.
Speaker 5 (15:15):
This was fun. Thank you.
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