December 29, 2025 • 14 mins
Curtis continues as guest host for Mark Simone, turning his attention to Republican leadership in New York City. He argues that the current GOP leadership appears to be moving away from supporting a true two-party system, undermining efforts to make New York more politically competitive. The conversation shifts to Elon Musk’s recent comments on the city’s next mayor and his opinion on the new Fire Commissioner pick, adding another layer to the ongoing debate about New York’s political future.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Red Beret has returned to radio. Curtis Leewall
guest host The Mark Simone Show on sevent tenor I
had my Christmas present last week substuoting for Mark Simon.
(00:21):
He's the best in the business. And then I get
my pre birthday gift substuting for Mark this week up
until the second and that birthday March twenty six. I'll
be seventy two, and I know more about New York
City and politics and anybody alive. There's no doubt about it.
(00:42):
I challenge anybody because I know where all the bones
are buried in who buried them, And I don't mince
my language. We are going to get into subject matter
that is of incredible importance to all of you if
you happen to live within New York State, and the
same philosophy could be coming to a state where you
(01:05):
live or near you. Because I've spent incredible amount of
time since losing the election to Zoran Mondomi, and yes
he is the may he won fair and square. He
is going to have his celebration after he has sworn
in by Bernie the Out the Coca Sanders, originally from
(01:25):
Brooklyn who went to Madison High School, which is also
where Chuck Schumer went. By the way, update on Chuck Schumer.
Oh yeah, a lot of you are not gonna like it.
But the masters of the universe, the billionaires, they just
can't stop themselves from getting involved in things they know
(01:48):
absolutely nothing about. Big story, we're gonna get into it
in this hour. It's how Elon Musk decides to weigh
in on the new fire commissioner, who he claims, as
a result of Zarn Mondami's appointment, that people will die
(02:10):
as a result. Now he knows nothing at all about
New York City. He happens to see somebody else who
posted this, who themselves know nothing at all about the
history of the fire department and fire commissioners in New
York City, and he reposts it, and obviously he's in
charge of X and he's getting millions of hits like
he somehow knows all about this about the only thing
(02:32):
he doesn't know is how to put out those fires
from his Tesla batteries in his electric cars, because when
they go on fire, Oh, it takes hours to put
him out. He hasn't even yet figured that out. But
we'll talk about that momentarily because he couldn't be more
hopelessly wrong. And once again, I'll explain it from a
(02:57):
historical performance. Most of the fire commissioners of late most
I'm not just talking about those appointed by Eric Adams
swaggerman with no plan and I can't.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Wait for him to get get out of here, get
out of our lives.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
But prior yeah, let's see Bloombert Giuliani think it's nobody's
even mentioning all the fire commissioners who served for those
mayors who had never put out a waste paper basket fire.
But do you think that a guy like Elon Musk,
(03:33):
who's omnipotent, thinks he knows everything, like all those billionaires
and millionaires because they've succeeded in business, they're very wealthy.
You think he'll apologize, of course not.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They never do.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like Trump yesterday, I had to turn it off in
the wee hours of the morning. He's he's standing there
with Zelensky and he's saying, yeah, Russia really wants to
see the Ukraine succeed.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Man, they's no way.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, if Russia takes over the Ukraine again, By the way,
the Ukraine gave up it's nuclear Arsenal.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
They had more nuclear weapons.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Than anyone else other than the United States, and the
old Soviet Union isn't. Back in nineteen ninety one, Bill
Clinton was president, he convinced him give up your nuclear payload. Yeah,
how did that work out? But when all of a
sudden Trump is saying, oh, yeah, Russia. I just spoke
to Putin earlier today on the phone, Yeah, Russia really
(04:31):
wants to see the Ukraine succeed. And I'm like, Zelenski
say something.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Of course, he.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Ain'sn't gonna say anything, because nobody can ever challenge Donald Trump.
I believe you challenge authority no matter who's in charge,
and when somebody makes absolutely ridiculous comments, you must challenge it.
Like when Trump said that it was the Ukraine that
started the war.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
How many republic challenge him.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
We're getting into Republican leadership, and how so many Republicans
are just afraid to challenge authority at any level, local, regional, state, national,
it's not you know it, don't make a big deal
about it. I always make big deals about it because
I believe you have to question authority, especially when it
(05:22):
doesn't make sense, like that ridiculous statement yesterday. Of mar
A Lago, where the President says, yeah, Zonski, Russia really
wants you to be successful in the Ukraine, and Zelenski,
you bite your tongue, don't say anything, or Trump and
the administration will go on a rampage against you. All right,
(05:44):
put that aside, as you know, I've spent a lot
of time bisecting and dissecting the fact that Republican leadership
here in the state of New York has decided they
want a Uni party, they don't want a two party system.
They have can convince themselves, and they have convinced a
lot of the Republican registered voters that Republicans cannot win
(06:06):
a city wide election or a state wide election. Now,
for some of you, you may say, well that that
sounds pretty personal. It is because I went through that
from the highest levels of the White House to Elon
Musk himself soon to be a trillionaire, the world's richest guy,
to a guy named Akman.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Who the hell is this guy? Ackman?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Every day he was tweeting Curtis, you can't win, drop out.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Drop out, drop out travel and you know how that went.
And then in the.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Waning days of the campaign, Republican leaders. Republicans decided a
vote for Sly is a vote for Mondami vo fa cuomo,
U Discratsiata in every which way. I mean, we could
spend the rest of this program just talking about what
a disgrace that guy was, because in their minds, there
(06:58):
are two parties in New York State. Now there are
moderate Democrats and there are socialist Democrats, and Republicans don't
have a chance to beat them citywide or in statewide elections.
Now put my election aside. Still with at least the
Phonic we talked about her last week. Suddenly she drops
(07:18):
out and says, not only is she dropping out of
a Republican primary against Bruce Plaateman, but she's not going
to run for reelection in the House. We lose a
superstar because Republican leadership was working behind the scenes to
throw her under the bus. You see, as much as
(07:40):
Donald Trump, the President, threw her under the bus. The
worst part was is that Alista Phonic had put together
a campaign team mostly from upstate New York, people that
she knew, people that she trusted, and the Park Avenue
crowd down here, most of whom are not Republicans, but
(08:01):
they act like they can tell Republicans what to do.
And it's not Park Avenue in Brooklyn and Park Avenue
in the Bronx, which they've never traveled to. It's Park
Avenue in Manhattan. Decided there's nobody from downstate involved in
at least the Phonics campaign. We're gonna go all on
board with Bruce Blakeman because Bruce Blakeman is a winner.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
This is what they said.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And he won very convincingly the Nassau County executive position
re election against his Democratic opponent. And then I hear
them tell the yeah, and he's a winner. He's a winner.
If you've been around long enough in politics, you've probably
lost more than you won. Remember, Donald Trump was an
exception to the rule. Twenty sixteen. He's on the stage
(08:47):
they announcements the president. He shocked Hillary Rodham. Clinton was
in a fetal position at the Jacob Chavits Convention Center,
spent maybe a month in a fetal position.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I couldn't accept the fact that she had lost. Very unusual.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So I'm saying, look, I know Bruce Blakeman. I like
the guy, but let's face it, who would you want
to be running against Kathy Hockel. I mean, I remember
Bruce Blakeman. He ran for state Controller as a Republican
ninety eight against Carl McCole loss. He ran for the
Nassau County Legislature ninety nine loss, ran for the US
(09:23):
Senate special election twenty ten, remember when Hillary decided she
would become Secretary of State and he lost the primary
to Joe the Aguardi. And in twenty fourteen he ran
for the House and lost to Kathleen Rice. So that
doesn't disqualify him because you know, people say, well, well
you got all no, no, no, no. If he can run,
(09:46):
he should run. But why did all of a sudden
you notice people of great influence surround Kathy Hockel, and
we're meeting with her, and they have come to the conclusion.
And I know because people have shared the conversations with
me that rather than put all of their fiscal resource
(10:11):
and support behind Bruce Blakeman, that they're actually gonna work
for Kathy Hulkl to get reelected because she'll keep Zora
Mandami and the Democratic Socialist in check.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah. Right, but they figure.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
They'll have more control with her because they don't think
a Republican can win this is coming off the mayoral election.
And by the way, President Donald Trump did Elie Stefaniki disservice,
throwing her under the bus on a number of occasions
that led to her unexpected dropping out. Although I kind
of felt it, I kind of felt it was coming.
(10:45):
And now we have what you're really not going to like,
and that's why we got to stop this. I was
at a major gathering of Republicans yesterday.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
In Midtown.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And I broke the news to all of them who
had gathered for their holiday party, is that there are
Republican leaders now, and there are Republican business people Park
Avenue people who are meeting with Chuck Schumer Despise loath
right the lowest of ratings of any major political figure
(11:18):
in the country. It's down to about twenty eight percent.
And they have come to the conclusion that if he
decides to run for reelection, and let's face it, all
these guys and gals, that's why you need term limits.
It's until death do they part. They'll run forever. Get
the defibriator next to them. They could be in the ICU.
They want to run. But if Chuck Schumer decides to run,
(11:44):
already Republican leaders and people, you know, the acmens of
the world, who know nothing about politics. You know, they
know a lot about Wall Street, a lot about hedge funds.
They've done very well in business, but they know nothing
about not when it comes to politics because they made
all the wrong choices. Are now meeting privately with Chuck
(12:05):
Schumer and saying, you know, you probably can't win a
Democratic primary if you run like Cuomo, but they'll probably
either be AOC running against you in a Democratic primary,
or if she decides to run for the presidency the
Democratic primary, there'll be somebody else from the socialist wing
of the Democratic Party and you'll lose. But then in
(12:27):
the general election, we'll do like we did for Cromo.
We'll get Republicans to support you, independence Conservatives, and moderate
Democrats to stop a socialist from becoming a US Senate.
He's entertaining that why would they be doing that, because
they have already cast their lot into a UNI party.
(12:50):
They don't think that Republicans can win in statewide elections
or citywide elections. So they are the masters of the universe.
They think they know everything, and they know nothing about nothing,
as you will learn when we discuss the how can
we be kind to him? The very eccentric Elon Musk,
(13:13):
who decided to tweet his way into New York politics
a second time, because remember he had tweeted to his
massive following on x A vo for Slee is avomandami
vo for Cuomo. Why wouldn't he He got a billion
dollars from the Buffalo billion and did nothing up there,
a billion dollars to do nothing, and seven Cuomo cronies
(13:34):
went to jail for that cause he likes Cuomo. But
now he's tweeted into something that he knows nothing about
the Fire Department in New York City. And you will
not have heard this analogy from anybody. That's why I
know where all the bones are buried and who buried them?
(13:55):
Right now on my station at the station that I
listened to along with Nancy seven ten WR and it
should be yours too. Our numbers one eight hundred three
two one zero seven ten one eight hundred three two
one zero seven ten
Now the Red Beret has returned to radio. Curtis Leewall
guest host The Mark Simone Show on sevent tenor I
had my Christmas present last week substuoting for Mark Simon.
(00:21):
He's the best in the business. And then I get
my pre birthday gift substuting for Mark this week up
until the second and that birthday March twenty six. I'll
be seventy two, and I know more about New York
City and politics and anybody alive. There's no doubt about it.
(00:42):
I challenge anybody because I know where all the bones
are buried in who buried them, And I don't mince
my language. We are going to get into subject matter
that is of incredible importance to all of you if
you happen to live within New York State, and the
same philosophy could be coming to a state where you
(01:05):
live or near you. Because I've spent incredible amount of
time since losing the election to Zoran Mondomi, and yes
he is the may he won fair and square. He
is going to have his celebration after he has sworn
in by Bernie the Out the Coca Sanders, originally from
(01:25):
Brooklyn who went to Madison High School, which is also
where Chuck Schumer went. By the way, update on Chuck Schumer.
Oh yeah, a lot of you are not gonna like it.
But the masters of the universe, the billionaires, they just
can't stop themselves from getting involved in things they know
(01:48):
absolutely nothing about. Big story, we're gonna get into it
in this hour. It's how Elon Musk decides to weigh
in on the new fire commissioner, who he claims, as
a result of Zarn Mondami's appointment, that people will die
(02:10):
as a result. Now he knows nothing at all about
New York City. He happens to see somebody else who
posted this, who themselves know nothing at all about the
history of the fire department and fire commissioners in New
York City, and he reposts it, and obviously he's in
charge of X and he's getting millions of hits like
he somehow knows all about this about the only thing
(02:32):
he doesn't know is how to put out those fires
from his Tesla batteries in his electric cars, because when
they go on fire, Oh, it takes hours to put
him out. He hasn't even yet figured that out. But
we'll talk about that momentarily because he couldn't be more
hopelessly wrong. And once again, I'll explain it from a
(02:57):
historical performance. Most of the fire commissioners of late most
I'm not just talking about those appointed by Eric Adams
swaggerman with no plan and I can't.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Wait for him to get get out of here, get
out of our lives.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
But prior yeah, let's see Bloombert Giuliani think it's nobody's
even mentioning all the fire commissioners who served for those
mayors who had never put out a waste paper basket fire.
But do you think that a guy like Elon Musk,
(03:33):
who's omnipotent, thinks he knows everything, like all those billionaires
and millionaires because they've succeeded in business, they're very wealthy.
You think he'll apologize, of course not.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They never do.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Like Trump yesterday, I had to turn it off in
the wee hours of the morning. He's he's standing there
with Zelensky and he's saying, yeah, Russia really wants to
see the Ukraine succeed.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Man, they's no way.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, if Russia takes over the Ukraine again, By the way,
the Ukraine gave up it's nuclear Arsenal.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
They had more nuclear weapons.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Than anyone else other than the United States, and the
old Soviet Union isn't. Back in nineteen ninety one, Bill
Clinton was president, he convinced him give up your nuclear payload. Yeah,
how did that work out? But when all of a
sudden Trump is saying, oh, yeah, Russia. I just spoke
to Putin earlier today on the phone, Yeah, Russia really
(04:31):
wants to see the Ukraine succeed. And I'm like, Zelenski
say something.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Of course, he.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Ain'sn't gonna say anything, because nobody can ever challenge Donald Trump.
I believe you challenge authority no matter who's in charge,
and when somebody makes absolutely ridiculous comments, you must challenge it.
Like when Trump said that it was the Ukraine that
started the war.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
How many republic challenge him.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
We're getting into Republican leadership, and how so many Republicans
are just afraid to challenge authority at any level, local, regional, state, national,
it's not you know it, don't make a big deal
about it. I always make big deals about it because
I believe you have to question authority, especially when it
(05:22):
doesn't make sense, like that ridiculous statement yesterday. Of mar
A Lago, where the President says, yeah, Zonski, Russia really
wants you to be successful in the Ukraine, and Zelenski,
you bite your tongue, don't say anything, or Trump and
the administration will go on a rampage against you. All right,
(05:44):
put that aside, as you know, I've spent a lot
of time bisecting and dissecting the fact that Republican leadership
here in the state of New York has decided they
want a Uni party, they don't want a two party system.
They have can convince themselves, and they have convinced a
lot of the Republican registered voters that Republicans cannot win
(06:06):
a city wide election or a state wide election. Now,
for some of you, you may say, well that that
sounds pretty personal. It is because I went through that
from the highest levels of the White House to Elon
Musk himself soon to be a trillionaire, the world's richest guy,
to a guy named Akman.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Who the hell is this guy? Ackman?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Every day he was tweeting Curtis, you can't win, drop out.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Drop out, drop out travel and you know how that went.
And then in the.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Waning days of the campaign, Republican leaders. Republicans decided a
vote for Sly is a vote for Mondami vo fa cuomo,
U Discratsiata in every which way. I mean, we could
spend the rest of this program just talking about what
a disgrace that guy was, because in their minds, there
(06:58):
are two parties in New York State. Now there are
moderate Democrats and there are socialist Democrats, and Republicans don't
have a chance to beat them citywide or in statewide elections.
Now put my election aside. Still with at least the
Phonic we talked about her last week. Suddenly she drops
(07:18):
out and says, not only is she dropping out of
a Republican primary against Bruce Plaateman, but she's not going
to run for reelection in the House. We lose a
superstar because Republican leadership was working behind the scenes to
throw her under the bus. You see, as much as
(07:40):
Donald Trump, the President, threw her under the bus. The
worst part was is that Alista Phonic had put together
a campaign team mostly from upstate New York, people that
she knew, people that she trusted, and the Park Avenue
crowd down here, most of whom are not Republicans, but
(08:01):
they act like they can tell Republicans what to do.
And it's not Park Avenue in Brooklyn and Park Avenue
in the Bronx, which they've never traveled to. It's Park
Avenue in Manhattan. Decided there's nobody from downstate involved in
at least the Phonics campaign. We're gonna go all on
board with Bruce Blakeman because Bruce Blakeman is a winner.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
This is what they said.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
And he won very convincingly the Nassau County executive position
re election against his Democratic opponent. And then I hear
them tell the yeah, and he's a winner. He's a winner.
If you've been around long enough in politics, you've probably
lost more than you won. Remember, Donald Trump was an
exception to the rule. Twenty sixteen. He's on the stage
(08:47):
they announcements the president. He shocked Hillary Rodham. Clinton was
in a fetal position at the Jacob Chavits Convention Center,
spent maybe a month in a fetal position.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I couldn't accept the fact that she had lost. Very unusual.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
So I'm saying, look, I know Bruce Blakeman. I like
the guy, but let's face it, who would you want
to be running against Kathy Hockel. I mean, I remember
Bruce Blakeman. He ran for state Controller as a Republican
ninety eight against Carl McCole loss. He ran for the
Nassau County Legislature ninety nine loss, ran for the US
(09:23):
Senate special election twenty ten, remember when Hillary decided she
would become Secretary of State and he lost the primary
to Joe the Aguardi. And in twenty fourteen he ran
for the House and lost to Kathleen Rice. So that
doesn't disqualify him because you know, people say, well, well
you got all no, no, no, no. If he can run,
(09:46):
he should run. But why did all of a sudden
you notice people of great influence surround Kathy Hockel, and
we're meeting with her, and they have come to the conclusion.
And I know because people have shared the conversations with
me that rather than put all of their fiscal resource
(10:11):
and support behind Bruce Blakeman, that they're actually gonna work
for Kathy Hulkl to get reelected because she'll keep Zora
Mandami and the Democratic Socialist in check.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah. Right, but they figure.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
They'll have more control with her because they don't think
a Republican can win this is coming off the mayoral election.
And by the way, President Donald Trump did Elie Stefaniki disservice,
throwing her under the bus on a number of occasions
that led to her unexpected dropping out. Although I kind
of felt it, I kind of felt it was coming.
(10:45):
And now we have what you're really not going to like,
and that's why we got to stop this. I was
at a major gathering of Republicans yesterday.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
In Midtown.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And I broke the news to all of them who
had gathered for their holiday party, is that there are
Republican leaders now, and there are Republican business people Park
Avenue people who are meeting with Chuck Schumer Despise loath
right the lowest of ratings of any major political figure
(11:18):
in the country. It's down to about twenty eight percent.
And they have come to the conclusion that if he
decides to run for reelection, and let's face it, all
these guys and gals, that's why you need term limits.
It's until death do they part. They'll run forever. Get
the defibriator next to them. They could be in the ICU.
They want to run. But if Chuck Schumer decides to run,
(11:44):
already Republican leaders and people, you know, the acmens of
the world, who know nothing about politics. You know, they
know a lot about Wall Street, a lot about hedge funds.
They've done very well in business, but they know nothing
about not when it comes to politics because they made
all the wrong choices. Are now meeting privately with Chuck
(12:05):
Schumer and saying, you know, you probably can't win a
Democratic primary if you run like Cuomo, but they'll probably
either be AOC running against you in a Democratic primary,
or if she decides to run for the presidency the
Democratic primary, there'll be somebody else from the socialist wing
of the Democratic Party and you'll lose. But then in
(12:27):
the general election, we'll do like we did for Cromo.
We'll get Republicans to support you, independence Conservatives, and moderate
Democrats to stop a socialist from becoming a US Senate.
He's entertaining that why would they be doing that, because
they have already cast their lot into a UNI party.
(12:50):
They don't think that Republicans can win in statewide elections
or citywide elections. So they are the masters of the universe.
They think they know everything, and they know nothing about nothing,
as you will learn when we discuss the how can
we be kind to him? The very eccentric Elon Musk,
(13:13):
who decided to tweet his way into New York politics
a second time, because remember he had tweeted to his
massive following on x A vo for Slee is avomandami
vo for Cuomo. Why wouldn't he He got a billion
dollars from the Buffalo billion and did nothing up there,
a billion dollars to do nothing, and seven Cuomo cronies
(13:34):
went to jail for that cause he likes Cuomo. But
now he's tweeted into something that he knows nothing about
the Fire Department in New York City. And you will
not have heard this analogy from anybody. That's why I
know where all the bones are buried and who buried them?
(13:55):
Right now on my station at the station that I
listened to along with Nancy seven ten WR and it
should be yours too. Our numbers one eight hundred three
two one zero seven ten one eight hundred three two
one zero seven ten
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