INTERVIEW: Curtis Sliwa On NYC Loyalty & Not Backing Down In The Mayoral Race

Today on The Breakfast Club, Curtis Sliwa On NYC Loyalty & Not Backing Down In The Mayoral Race. Listen For More!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day a week. Click your ass up the Breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Morning.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Everybody is the j Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy.
We are the breakfast Club Lawnla Rosa is here as well,
and we got a special guest in the building running
for New York City mayl Ladies and gentlemen, Curtis Sliwa.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome, good morning. How are you feeling this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Where's my beadfast?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
No bedfast?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's a beaffast club without bedfast.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
You're not the first person to ask for it, and
I received it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I got to tell you, I'm the only candidate ever
was locked up on Rikers Island. That's one of the
good things. I had good befits. Oh yeah, pancakes because
the inmates make the breakfast. So if they like you,
you get a good breakfast. If they don't like you,
I would suggest you starve. Oh first thirteen years of

(00:49):
the Guardian Angels, I was getting locked up all the
time by the police. The mayor at that time, Ed
Koch was not a supporter and they were trying to
drive us out of exist. So they figure keep locking
them up and you will eventually eliminate them. But all
they did was strengthen or resolved to go out there
and patrol and protect people, which is what we've been
doing for forty six years here in thirteen countries. Now

(01:12):
in one hundred and thirty cities.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Well, let's let's break it down, because you know where
national a lot of people might not know what the
Guardian Andjews were and what they did and why I
was created. So break down why I was created and
what you guys do for New York City.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And you said around the world.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
All the hundreds of thousands of people listening, Now you
got to go to that cult movie classic, The Warriors,
it came out in nineteen seventy nine to understand what
I and the Guardian Angels were dealing with. Gangs everywhere,
especially the Bronx. There were four gang members for every
one police officer, and there were no cops at night
on the subways because of major cutbacks. I was a

(01:48):
knight manager of Mickey B's Mickey D's in the Bronx,
and I convinced and brainwashed my closing crew We're going
to patrol the train at night, the Number four train,
which was nicknamed the Muggers Express. Eventually, after we got
everything started. A lot of people started walking in off
the street, coming into the McDonald's, not for macfrye and
strawberry shakes, but to actually join the Guardian Angels. And

(02:10):
they were coming in from Brooklyn and Queens, and they
were coming in from parts of Manhattan. So we grew,
especially throughout the subway system.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
You didn't have guns or knives or so how are
you patrolling?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, no weapons, no special powers of privileges. But if
we had to get down and dirty, that's what we
had to do. We had no choice. These gang bangers
would come at you with force. A lot of people say,
why do you still wear that red beret? You know
you're seventy one years old. Well, I'm always in the
subway every day. I'm the only candidate to actually campaign
in the subway. But it's in honor of the six

(02:42):
Guardian Angels who died in a line of duty. Thirty
two were seriously injured, to pay tribute to their sacrifice.
Because we've never asked for a nickel diamond penny from
government or even from the public.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
We're a nonprofit though.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Right, yes, nonprofit. Obviously you got to raise money to
pay for the basics but yeah, not talking about multi
millions of dollars. And it's all based on organic principles.
You have a problem in your neighborhood, we come in,
we we train you to patrol your own neighborhood. It's
not like we come in like mercenaries or Hessians. We
believe in self help. We think more communities have got

(03:18):
to be reliant on themselves because government, they are dollars
short in the day late I don't care if it's
a Democrat or Republican. They come in, they promise everything.
Like you see this election cycle and you know at
the end of it, depending on who gets elected mayor,
you're not gonna get anywhere near what all the promises
are right before the final voters cast on November before.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Why doesn't that apply to you though, because some people
will say the same thing like, oh, you know you
might be out here blaunch smog of everybody asked, well.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Okay, but I've been consistent, Curtis, Curtis deceive for Curtis's
consistent all forty six years that I've led the Guardian Angels.
When I ran against Eric Adams in twenty twenty one,
did I not tell you there would be k. I
s in corruption with Eric Adams, who I knew over
forty years, and look one in done. Imagine a sitting

(04:06):
mayor and incumbent mayor who isn't able to run for
re election. And that's why you have zon On mondami
a year ago, not even his neighbors knew who Zoron
Mondamie was.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
In February was pulling at one percent.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
That's it. And then remember two months out he was
forty percent down to Angel Cuomo, who would make a
perfect zombie. You know with Halloween coming up. Nobody likes
this guy. This guy fled Albany because he feared impeachment
to go out to the Hamptons with his billionaire friends.
But I will tell you this, if Eric had done
a halfway decent job, it would have been round two

(04:40):
Eric Adams incumbent Democrat versus Republican Curtis Sliwa, and then
the voters would have determined who the next mayor is.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Now, what do you think we're wrong?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Say?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
You said you've seen it coming, So what did you
see right.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Out the box? I'm the swaggerman. I called him with
no plan. He was out of nightclubs at the break
of Dawn Consol up in the Bronx at four o'clock
in the morning. I knew some of some of the
staff people, some of the women who have to get
home to get their kids up, to send him to
school because their single parents running the household. Mister Mayor,

(05:13):
you know, we got to close up. It's four o'clock
because you know how a club is, it's like a casino.
They don't want you to look out out the window.
And he was he was always very respectful. But this
guy would go from nightclub to nightclub. And he loved
that tag Swagerman. That's why I call him swagger Man
with no plan? And now what plan does he have?

(05:33):
And notice he was embraced by Trump and then he
sat on that couch and Fox and Friends and Tom
Holman said, and when I come back down, it's like
right out of cool Hand, Luke, you know, with Paul
Newe in that chair. When I come back down, Eric,
I see the NYPD is not working with Ice. I'm

(05:55):
gonna put a boot up your button. And he just froze.
He didn't say a damn thing. You know how many
many African Americans showed me that video. I have a
headquarters in Brownsville on Osmorne and Hegeman, where I grew
up from seventy four to seventy six. And they showed
me that the other day at our grand opening and
they were like, that was it for me. The moment

(06:16):
he froze and he didn't say anything to Tom Holman
defending himself. What outrageous thing to say. It was over,
Ferry Adam.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
I want to go back to the Guardian Angel thing.
Did they ever look at y'all that as vigilantes?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Oh? First, yeah, because they didn't know who we were
and what we would do, mostly black, Hispanic, White and Asians.
They just assumed we were another gang. In fact, when
we first began to patrol the trains, you know a
lot of the folks out there would be screaming from
one end of the car to the other hand. Warriors
come out and play, assuming that we were like cast

(06:52):
characters from the Warriors move and we had to just
take subway line by subway line back by having a
constant presence was time. We were the only ones out
there at night. They were no transit police because of
the cutbacks. And then finally people began to recognize us.
First with David Dinkins and then with Rudy Giuliani, and
we haven't had any problem since we all.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Have influenced by the Black Panther Party.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
I was influenced by the Black Panther Party, by the
Young Lords, by the Brown Berets. As you can see,
I'm wearing the beret. I studied radical politics coming out
of high school. In fact, that's how I ended up
marrying my first wife. I was parting Canarcia High School
before they finally said goodbye. No, everyone thinks Lisa was

(07:37):
my first wife. My first wife was Corn Drayton from Brownsville,
that's where I was living. She was from Saint Croix,
the Virgin Islands. Her and her brother Alfred were in
this club at Canarsia High School called Angela Davis, George
Jackson and the Solidad Brothers. So I was like immersed
in that politics because remember we're talking early seven and

(08:01):
so I was able to sample it all. And I
like the paramilitary look, and I like some of the
programs involved, especially the breakfast programs and other things that
they were doing in the community. And I saw that
for myself because I was in all these neighborhoods I
was up in Crown Heights, I was in Brownsville, I
was in Bedsty, I was in East New York. I
lived on Cleveland and New Lots and then eventually Canarsi.

(08:22):
So I basically had fulfilled the trifecta, the trinity DETROITKA, Brownsville,
East New York, Kanarsi. Boy, and you get a total
feel of what the outer boroughs are like neglected, never
paid attention to the Politicians talk about the outer boroughs,
but they don't really do anything for the outer boroughs.
And that's why I'm the mayor.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah, I think those are the you know, when I
think about the Guardian Angels, the Black Panther Party, you know,
I think that, you know, the community work is the
thing that doesn't get discussed enough from from both groups.
Like you said, you know y'all taught self defense classes.
You know, I think I used to do things with
the homeless too, right.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Yeah, Well, we have junior Guardian Angels also in Washington Heights.
There's a lot of young boys and young girls could
he easily form into harm's way with all the influences
at gangbangers, and we not only have them go out
and take care of the homeless and the emotionally disturbed,
and the subways, the streets and the parks. But our
senior guardian angels too. Nobody's cared about these folks. Hey, look,

(09:20):
Eric Adams gave seven billion dollars to migrants people we
didn't even know, put them up in three star hotels,
the old Milford plact remember the commercials they do the
Milford Plast four hundred dollars a night. Then we give
them a bagel and a shmer in the morning and
they say, no, we want culturally appropriate food. What do
you want Canada sabichuelo with a chew letta on top,
No problem, grub hubbit. What are we doing for homeless

(09:41):
people and emotionally disturb many of them veterans, most of
them African Americans. Nobody wants to talk about that. But
I'm down in the streets and the subways and the
parks every day. I know a lot of these men
and women on a first name basis. These shelters are dangerous.
It's Darwinian, it's survival of the fittest. They have mica
shelters that I've been in for the mentally ill and

(10:02):
the chemically addicted, and I got to tell you, nobody
is safe in those shelters. So if I were homeless
and I were destitute, I wouldn't stay in a shelter.
There are no rules in regulations. And there used to
be a homeless outreach unit with the NYPD. It is
what men and women dedicated to helping the homeless and
emotionally disturb. They knew the directors of the homeless shelters,

(10:22):
they knew the security, they knew people in the neighborhood.
Then build a Bosio took a billion dollars out of
the budget and eliminated that homeless outreach area January first,
twenty twenty six. I'd put that unit into place because
they had medical nurses with them. You know, we talk
about we got to have healthcare workers with the police
when they show up for a domestic situation or dealing
with an emotionally disturbed person. I agree, but we already

(10:44):
had it. We disbanded it. De Blosio never did it.
Adams never did it, Homo. I mean he when he
came in to office as governor, there were forty thousand
beds for the mentally ill in state hospitals. He cut
the budget to the point. By the time he fled
in fear of impeachment to the Hamptons to be with
his billionaire friends, there only four thousand beds left. So

(11:05):
if you want to blame anybody Andrew Comol, who's trying
to reinvent himself, all these homeless emotionally distort our people,
our Americans, our veterans, and we do nothing for them
but pay lip service to them. That becomes a priority
with me because I know so many of them, so
many of them have incredible stories. Remember that woman Debrina

(11:25):
Kwam who was set on fire like a human torch
December twenty second on that subway platform of Coney Island,
Stillwell Avenue in the f train by that migrant who
then fanned the flames and then sat there like the
pyromaniac he was, and watched her burn. The cops running
up and down looking for a fire extinguisher and build
a sea. Junior high school, we were taught in CANARSI.

(11:48):
Somebody is on fire, drop them to the ground, roll
them around, try to put the flames out. Nobody did anything.
Grown men with high levels of testoster and pull their
cell phones out iPhones they're taking video instead of helping her,
she died. But her story is similar to the story
of a lot of emotionally disturbed and homeless who live
in the subways. You see that number on the outside

(12:10):
of a car, that's their home. If anybody would take
the time to actually talk with them and understand as
they wallow in their feces and they're urine, and my god,
what humanity is? Says And the other thing that differentiates
me from the other candidates is and the president made

(12:30):
fun of me and my wife. We rescue animals, animals
who would be euthanized in the shelter, dogs and cats,
other animals. I believe in no kill shelters. I believe
you put animal abuses in jail because if they abuse animals,
there's a very good chance they're going to abuse human beings.
Study after study proofs had and I actually have an
independent line called Protect Animals First Ever. So I know

(12:53):
there are a lot of people out there. The only
Republican they've ever seen in any of the neighborhoods is
Abraham Lincoln on a five dollar bill. They say, I'll
never vote for a Republican. I know Curtis. Everybody loves Curtis, like,
everybody loves Raymond, but now they can cross over and
vote on that independent line. If you love animals, and
let's face it, everybody loves animals, everybody in fact, on

(13:14):
an iPhone or a smartphone. How many pictures did you
find that people have of their animals who they consider
to be family members. Then their kids, their grandchildren, their nieces,
their nephews, their husbands, their wives, their grandparents. People are
always giving you a hard time. Animals just give you love.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
What's the relationship with Donald Trump? Do you have them?

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, it's been a love hate relationship going back over
thirty years. They at times I've agreed, there are times
I've disagreed. But you notice he ain't dropping dime to mes,
not talking to me. First she was talking to Eric Adams.
He saved him from going to jail with gold bars,
Bobby Menendez in federal prison, and then all of a
sudden he decided he couldn't win. Then he began his

(13:55):
communication with Andrew cmo. Cramo said, no, yes, no yet,
the guy gives me vertical. Do you like Trump? Because
you're talking to Trump and then you come into New
York City and your bad mouth Trump. You can't. It
can't be halfway. It's like he's a half stepper. And
I think most.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
People realize you had a lot of the same donors
as Trump too.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Of course, the billionaires, let me tell you straight up,
the billionaires are not gonna determine who the next mayor
of New York City is. Let the people decide. I
trust people. I don't trust billionaires. I don't trust the
professional political class. They are not gonna choose the mayor.
Let the people decide if they choose Orhanmandami. I'm not

(14:35):
running away like Andrew Cormo said, Oh if he becomes mayor,
I'm gonna run to Florida. I stay, I improve, I
don't move. I was born in New York. They tried
to kill me in New York. The god he's in
Gambino shot me five times to the hollow point bullets
in June of nineteen ninety two, and even when I survived,
I never had armed security after that. Today I walk

(14:58):
into your studios here, I have armed security with me
former NYPD cops. Why Because I wouldn't take the payout
from the billionaires to drop out.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
How much did they offer you?

Speaker 4 (15:09):
I saw you on the news a few weeks ago,
say that you was like, if one more billionaire calls
me and offers me money to drop out of and
record the call and put it out.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, they'll be talking to Alvin Bragg the DA. But
ten million dollars with Jeeves Stretch Limo show for no
show job I ever got the same offer?

Speaker 1 (15:27):
What you pulling that? E?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Shoot me?

Speaker 1 (15:29):
What are you pulling that?

Speaker 2 (15:31):
About? Fifteen seventeen percent?

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I took that ten million.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, but let me tell you he was wrong. Man.
They ain't no price taking to put it back in
the commuter She got it. You know. He was playing
Eric drop out because he was playing the Price is Right,
you know Bob Barker's old show, The Price is Right.
Finally he got his price and he was one and done.
Let's face it. He was auditioning all that time, like
Monty Hall, let's make a deal, doing number one, doing
number two, doing number three. He never never thought that

(15:57):
he would continue being mayor, so he was trying to
segue himself out.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Me no way, me you think you got He came
on this show on Thursday said he was not dropping out,
and then he dropped out that Sunday Man.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
How many times got Charlemagne? How many times did he
lie to you before he told you? Oh? You my
number one favorite morning program. I listened to him on
other morning programs he repeated that same montra typical politician,
and every host and hostess gets stroked. Oh yeah, Harry
Adams May has said where his favorite morning shoke? You

(16:30):
know that guy wasn't even listening to your show. It's
too busy recovering from the break of dawn on the morning.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Think he got there? How much you think he got?

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Oh? I know that they got up to about ten mils,
so he probably spiced it up. He probably spiced it up.
Oh he's taking care of trust me, he's not in
jail where he belongs to. He's a crook, and secondarily
he's gonna have a good career afterwards. You see how
he went psycho the other day at that press conference,
screaming at the media. You you responsible? You was about Hey,

(17:03):
if you were innocent, why didn't you go to court?
Why didn't you prove your innocent? All you need was
one hung Jura and you would have been freed. Same
thing with Andrew cmo. Oh I was innocent? I was innocent.
They set me up. Fifteen thousand elderly people that died
as a result of your executive order. And by the way,
if you were twenty two and worked for Andrew Como, boy,

(17:26):
he loved you too. At twenty two thirteen sexual harassment charges.
We're paying sixty million dollars now in settlements. And it
was all a setup, all a setup. Well, why didn't
you stand there? Your own democrats were prepared to impeach you.
Why didn't you stand there and face the chargers and
argue your point in steady fled. So Eric Adams and

(17:48):
Andrew Cormo have a lot of the same. And then
Zora Mandami, Man, this guy is so hopelessly naive. He
wants open, helped these supermarkets, you know, city owned. I'm
gonna tell him in the debate coming up on Thursday night,
zorn to do about shoplifting. You think those shoplifter is
going to say, oh, this is a zore on Mondami supermarket.
I'm not going to go in there and clean it out.
And then Busfair, he wants bus fair free. Half the

(18:10):
people don't even pay the bus fair to begin with.
Now we're like halfway there, so they keep arguing these things,
and then they argue about international issues that a mayor
has nothing at a.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
Way Donnie doesn't. Though that's one thing. There's two things
that I did, like Mamuandani. He didn't, you know, bite
on the Israel thing. He was like, I'm going to
be the mayor of New York City. And the fact
that he just talks about affordability like you can't you
can't disagree with that New York is way too expensive.
That methog thing is going to always resonate with people
when you just simply say this city is not affordable.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
There's no doubt. I remember a guy named Jimmy McMillan
African American, had a handleball on me mustache. He coined
the phrase the rent is too high to pay. And
that was twenty ten and with fifteen years later, I
have a millennial wife, Nancy. I mean, she's the best
thing that ever happened to me, and she tells me
with her friends, you know what you have to deal with.
The beginning of the month, we were told, get your

(19:03):
four years of college education, get your two year graduate degree,
get a career, and you will live the American dream.
You'll be able to get your own condo or co op.
You'll be able to get your own house, your own car,
She goes. If I wasn't married to you, I'd be
living in an apartment, probably with three other roommates sharing
the rent that I had just left college years back

(19:24):
in the dormitory and the crushing student loans which my party,
the Republicans, they had no empathy, no sympathy for people
who believe that this was the pathway to success. We
told this generation of millennials and Gen zs, that's the
pathway to success. That's why they're so angry. But Zoron
I call them, it's like the Wizard of Zoran. Everything

(19:45):
is going to be free. Well, I'm the bad news
bear here. Everybody's a good news there in the election,
and people say, don't be a bad news there. Trump's
cutting money, the state has to cut money to the city,
and this budget is just overbloated. Play is gonna hit
no matter who is the mayor, whether it's curtisly what
Angreew Cuomo or Zoron Montdommie. We're not gonna have the

(20:06):
money that they think the tax payers can pony up
just's not gonna happen. We got we gotta get real.
I lived through that in the seventies when there were
major cuts. That's why I formed the Guardian Angels. We're
gonna have to tighten the belt. We're gonna have to
get rid of the waist. Look at the Department of
Education forty one billion dollars, that's one third of the budget.

(20:26):
You look at fourth grade, it's two thirds of them
cannot read, write, or do math at grade level fourth grade?
How can we not focus on vocational training? I remember
Bill to Sea Junior High School. The guidance council would
come to you in eighth grade if your mark's weren't
too good. Curtis, did you ever think of metal shop,
wood shop, culinary art? Because right now you're not cracking

(20:49):
the books. You know, Westinghouse got a great program downtown
East New York High School. You know there's transit to
We do not focus on vocational training. There's such a
demand for cars up into his electricians, plumbers, home health
care aids now. I know you folks, you're not at
the level that I am. But we have a growing
population and aging population. I don't want them having to

(21:11):
go to long term home care units, especially if Andrew
Cuomo has anything to do with those elderly people, they'll
be dead on arrival. God. And most importantly, people want
to stay in their homes, but they need professional home
health care aids. My mother had one, Francesca, and she
would begin to hallucinate. You know, you developed dimension Alzheimer's.

(21:31):
Nobody noticed, Nobody wants to talk about those subjects. It's
a growing problem, and we have so many young men
and women who maybe academically can't cut it. But if
we had more vocational training, they're people listening to you
all over the country who have a trade, who have
a career. I had supreme Cujien cousins who would have
had a trade making license plates Upstate New York would

(21:54):
have been doing a few years because they were on
the wrong side of the tracks, and they went to
vocation high school straightened him out and they were able
to provide for themselves.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
At that time, we talked about Lincoln TCH location, h VAC, automotive, nursing, whatever.

Speaker 4 (22:08):
Maybe the future millionaires and high earners in the future
are going to be those like they have a They're
already saying there's gonna be a shortage of skilled laborers
in the future.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
It already is. And by the way, you know these
raids at the home depot, yards by ice or the
back of restaurants or hospitality. I have three sons. One
of them you may know. A year ago, my oldest son, Anthony,
was viciously beaten in a gang attack. His stepfather is
former governor David Patterson, who as you know, is blind,

(22:39):
who jumped in snatched him out. He could easily have
been impaired, easily have been killed. That's the kind of wild,
crazy crime we have. They call it, you know, crime
that all of a sudden happens out of nowhere. No, no, no, no,
there's always a plan of crime. Somebody is always targeting somebody.
But my son, my oldest son, and my two other sons,
they're not going to work these jobs. These have become

(23:01):
essential workers as long as they're non drug dealers and
gang bangers and narco terrorists and sex traffickers bringing women
in here to sell their bodies. Those are the people
that you'll go to jail and they should be tried
here due time here and then you deport them back
to their country of origin. Everyone is entitled to do process.
But the people who are working, trying to raise their

(23:21):
families and living the American dream, we need to leave
them alone. Because who is going to do the jobs
that Americans will no longer do in the fields, picking
the crops, packing the crops, in the slaughter houses. Everybody
thinks that it's back in the thirties and forties. No, no, no, no,
times have changed significantly because the new generation, most of them,

(23:42):
are not going to do those jobs.

Speaker 5 (23:43):
So question for you, with all of these things that
you just said that are sound great, why do you
think it's not hitting the people where it's like effective,
where they want you to be their married, Like, why
are you not polling well?

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Well? Polling right? Polling looked two months before the Democratic
primary when Zora Mandami, who nobody knew, beat Andrew Como
by thirteen points, he was down by forty. Everybody knows
Governor Pataki he beat the better Cromo. There's no doubt
in my mind, Mariocomo was ten times better than Arew Cromo.
I knew Mariocomo. Andrew is no Mariocomo. November two, two

(24:18):
days before November fourth, there was no early voting that
the polls said that George Pataki was behind by fourteen
points fourteen points two days before, only one day of voting,
he won by three percentage points. You cannot depend on
these poles. Look at Harris Trump. They said it was
neck and neck. Trump ends up winning the popular vote
in the seven battleground state. You cannot trust these poles.

(24:40):
I know my pathway to victory. I have Republicans Independence
two and a half times the number of voters of Republicans,
because that's the growing number of registered voters. I win
the Independence, I'll get some moderate Democrats, and I'll get
the animal lovers, and that'll be my pathway to victory.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
You know a lot of New Yorkers think you're more
entertained than leader. So how do you know let them
know and know you really want to be a leader.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Well, Charlemagne the God, you're in radio DJ. You're in
radio right. You're an entertainer. That's what you get paid
to do. If all of a sudden you decided you
wanted to transition and run for political office, you would
have to take a much more serious bent on dealing
with issues. But you see, I've done both simultaneously. I've
been in the communities. I've been helping communities. It's not

(25:28):
like I was just in talk radio for thirty five years.
In fact, I'm probably the oldest one in all of
talk radio in New York City who has survived in
which is a very very difficult business there. You have
to entertain, you have to inform, but when you're running
for office, you have to be knowledgeable. I don't think
even my opponents, Johann Mandami and Andrew Cuomo would quibble

(25:49):
with the fact the courteously would know. It's more about
New York City. All three hundred and fifteen neighborhoods, they
only go to the neighborhoods they received in all four
hundred and seventy two subway stations platforms. They haven't been
in there. They don't even campaign there. The public housing projects,
which are falling apart as we speak. I believe in
trying to provide home ownership for the people who live

(26:11):
in the projects. This was an idea that resonated many
years ago by somebody named Jack Kemp, who was part
of the Reagan administration.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Republican great football quarterback, great.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Congressman, and he wanted people to be able to own
their own apartment like you own a co operal condo.
You know who shot him down, my fellow Republicans, and
he was a Republican. That's something worth fighting for. Everybody
has a right to a piece of the American dream.
And I've been in one third of the projects throughout
the city of New York eighteen alone in Brownsville, where

(26:42):
I lived for a brief time. People have no idea
the struggles that go on in public housing, how they're
falling apart before us. And Trump has already said I'm
cutting the night your budget. They've already given us a precursor,
a warning. And you've got to have somebody who knows
the city and it is going to be able to
go in and cushion people and prepare for the reality
of what's coming. Nobody knows that better than Curtis Lager.

(27:04):
And for all the millennials and gen Zas out there
who have decided to go to school here, go to
college here, university here, we give them an income tax holiday,
no income tax for five years, because they're going to
need the money to be able to afford the high
cost of living here. Because they're being recruited away. They're
being recruited to other states. Our cops are being recruited away.

(27:25):
Other civil servants are being recruited away. And remember this
about the cops. They no longer have insurance. That means
they're very tepid in terms of getting involved. Why should
the police be the only civil servants of three hundred
and twenty thousand who had the insurance stripped from them.
That means they can be personally sued. You're never going
to be able to recruit enough cops if you're not protected,

(27:47):
like as sanitation men is, like a firefighter is like
a judge, a DA the mayor. In fact, if necessary,
when I get elected mayor, I will say guess what,
or they call it qualified immunity. All of our insurance
gets stripped selected officials. If the cops don't have the
people's insurance, we shouldn't have the people insurance either. Because
a mayor can make so many mistakes, a lot of

(28:09):
people can get hurt by his mistakes or her mistakes,
a lot of people might end up dying because his
or her mistakes. And yet, as in the case of
Governor Cuomo, sixty million dollars in handouts to the sexual
harassment victims in his administration want to stay trooper. He
was protected by the people's insurance qualified immunity. He can't

(28:30):
have this double standard.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
What things get hurt by you making some of the
things that you just talked about happened. Because I know
when you talk about the tax cuts, there was the
ten billion dollars from the education or the schools that
was going to be taken away in order to make
the tax cuts happen. How does that money affect the
schools in a negative way to achieve what you're trying
to get to on a positive side?

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Or does it Right right behind City Hall you have
Tweak Courthouse. This is where the bureaucrats actually occupy offices,
any of them those show jobs. It's the old home
of Tammany Hall, the most corrupt political operation that ever existed.
Perfect for the Department of Education. They have thirteen deputy chancellors,
fifty department heads. When you talk to the principals and

(29:13):
the elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools who
have to hire this staff, they don't even know who
these people are. They make two hundred and sixty eight
thousand plus with benefits. You cut all that bureaucracy. The
other thing you have to do is you have to
promote charter schools. You have to promote other alternative schools.
You can't say to parents or guardians or people who

(29:35):
are trying to give their children the best quality education,
it's one way your local school. What happens if your
local public school is a failing school, what are you
to do to keep sending your child there where they're
exposed to gangs, they're exposed to people cursing, not respecting teachers.
They have what they call restorative justice in class now,

(29:57):
So that means if Charlemagne won, might teacher and I
clip you right, I hit you with a baseball bat,
you would think, Okay, I get expelled, they get suspended,
maybe I get arrested. No no, no, no, no no, Charlemagne,
they set you and me down with a moderator restorative justice.
I know the routine. Oh Charlemagne had a bad day,

(30:17):
cross my heart and hope to die. I promise, I promise, teacher,
I'll never do it again. The moment they walk out
the door, snitches get stitches and end up in ditches
your mind, And now you've got to go back into
the same class. It's like the correctional department. Mostly now
the correctional offices of women are colored right, more than
fifty percent black and Hispanic. You go on a riker's Island,

(30:39):
which is on Man Damie and Andrew Coma. You know,
they just wanted to close close clothes and they never
been there. These weren't are getting perved on, sexually harassed,
sexually assaulted the inmates. There are no consequences in you
know what happens once they've been put aside for a
few hours, they get put back into the same tier.
And these women correctional offices, many of them single parents

(31:00):
raising families, have to deal with these guys. There are
no protection. Toughest job in the city is being a
correctional office at twelve hours. It's like a constant nine
one one call. And EMTs who have to deal with
the psychologically disturbed, who have to go to domestic abusers,
who have to help people having heart attacks strokes. You know,
they make less than people on bicycles delivering groove hub

(31:23):
who are trying to run you down in the streets
and don't pay attention to any of the laws of
the road. I mean sometimes it's like the Indianapolis five hundred.
They grow up pub delivery guys with the app make
more money than an EMT that accurate. Absolutely, they put
their life on the line.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
I'll ask you about the student, so you know, yeah,
I definitely think there should be consequences of actions, especially
if a students.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
They hit a teacher with a baseball bang.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
But they are still children at the end of the day, Like,
what is the path to redemption for a child?

Speaker 2 (31:50):
Look, a lot of reasons why a child may be
acting up. There are alternative schools to the children. You
have specially skilled teachers and many of them that can
deal with their needs. It can't function in a normal
academic atmosphere because when they're acting up and they're causing
problems to other children or the teachers, it disrupts the
whole classroom. The teacher is afraid. I can't tell you

(32:12):
how many times I've walked into a classroom there's like
twelve kids sitting there. You know, half of them are asleep,
others are just doing other things. You know, they're not
paying attention to the teacher. The teacher just figures, let
me get through this. Forty five minute period and clock
out for the day. I remember teachers who couldn't wait
to get into a classroom to fill you full of knowledge,

(32:33):
to share with you everything that they learned in their lifetime.
We got to get back to the basics. We have
to treat our children as the greatest natural resource we do.
I go into a lot of poor neighborhoods where I
spend a lot of time. I've had a lot of
Guardian Angels who came from dysfunction dysfunctional families where they

(32:53):
start crying and you know what broke their back on
teachers parent Night, which every public school has every schoolass
Nobody showed up for them. Not a mother, not a father,
not a grandparent, not an older brother, not an older sister.
Nobody showed up for them. And in talking to them,

(33:14):
they said, man, I felt like I was worthless. I
felt like nobody loved me. I felt like, hey, I
might as well go and hang with a gang and
hang with my alternative family. That's why I created the
Guardian Angels. It became their alternative family to keep them
out of harm's way, and thousands of them have gone
on to have great careers as police officers. Social workers,

(33:35):
correctional officers. That's how I can keep my fingers on
the pulse of this city, by all the alumni of
the Guardian Angels who keep me updated to what's really happening,
not what the politician say, because basically they do the
ropidope the politicians, but really what goes on with working
class people. So if people need to know who I am,
I am a Republican, I'm a populist. I am the

(33:56):
candidate of working class people. There is no other candidate,
well there's any working class we know.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
I wonder does it even benefits you to call yourself
a Republican because at this current time, at least on
a federal level, not even that it's on a federal level,
this is a period Republicans are not the party of
the working class.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Well I disagree. How I disagree because if you go
throughout the country, you've seen a tremendous turnaround the Republican Party.

Speaker 4 (34:21):
If you're cutting all of the programs that benefit the
least of us in this country, right and you know
you're responsible for more jobs being lost this year on
a federal level than any than the Democrats.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
That's just the fact.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
Between dogs and what's happening now with the government shut down.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
They're clearly not the party.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
Of Would you admit that both parties keep spending money
they don't have printing money thirty seven trillion in debt.
We are facing a catastrophe. When you're a populist Republican,
you're saying, hey, we got to live within our means. Now.
I don't agree with all the cuts coming from the
Trump administration. Medicaid cuts have been devastating to us in

(34:57):
the city. The food stamps, everybody gets hurt. Farmers get hurt,
the packers get hurt, the bodega owner, the supermarket owners
get hurt, the people who need food. And, by the way,
the horrible food in some of the inner city neighborhoods.
I call it the ICU belt. I call it the
three k's. Forget the KKK. It's Kentucky Fried Chicken, it's

(35:17):
Kansas chicken, it's Kennedy chicken. That's a guaranteed trip to
an er and ICU belt. And then you try to
look for good food sources. They don't exist. Now, Adams
talked a lot about that because he benefited from that.
I do know personally he was in dire circumstances medically,
but it never translated to helping people in those neighborhoods
have the kind of food choice. Call it trader, Jose,

(35:40):
I don't care, but you got traded, Joels. You got
whole foods. Where people have some money, they have choices
go to. In the inner city where I spend most
of my time, the choices are meager, if almost nonexistent,
and these people are ending up going into the hospital
at younger and younger ages, and that costs us a
lot of money that's unnecessary and plus the suffering unnecessary.

(36:01):
So we talk about these programs, but if you don't
have boots on the ground, if you don't really know
these people who are affected, you're never going to be
able to come up with the plans to try to
stop that. And that's where savings can be if people
are healthier, less trips to the er, less trips to
the ICU, and less aggravation for the EMTs who don't
are not treated with value by this city. Should have

(36:23):
paid parody with fire and the police, and they're in
constant nine to one one calls, you know, with the
sirens and the whistles going. Imagine the depression you would
be in if you were an EMT worker.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
And you know your rhetoric is I agree with a
lot of your rhetoric. It just doesn't reflect with a
current Republican party. That's why I say it.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Didn't even benefit you to say I'm Republican.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
Charge you'll get nervous when they hear a budget cut
to any anything education from a Republican candidate, and that's
why I asked you the question earlier.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Well, you won't hear about any budget cuts from the Democrats,
and that is a reality. So you got to cut
the fat, you got to cut the bureaccuracy, you got
to cut the corruption. And there's a lot of corruption there.
And it's not just Democrats.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
In the Department of Education though, especially if you said that,
you know a lot of these kids aren't getting the
education that they deserve.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
We should put more investment into education.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
But where's the money going to come from. It's already
one hundred and eighteen billion dollar budget. The state has
said they got to cut thirty six billion. They're over budgeted,
and the federal government keeps cutting. We got to tighten
our belts. I want the money to go in the classroom.
Do you realize with a forty one billion dollar budget,
teachers are still reaching into their pocket and buying supplies.
Where's all that money going to?

Speaker 1 (37:31):
I agree, I think that's disgusting.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Where's that money going?

Speaker 1 (37:34):
So you don't want to cut the budget department?

Speaker 2 (37:36):
There, well, just the bureaucracy, just the people who get
paid incredible amounts of money, and nobody in the schools
knows who they are and what they do. It's called patronage.
You get a job like this because you took good
care of candidates who ended up getting elected to position.
That patronage has end. Now are all the Republicans good,

(37:57):
of course not? Or all the Democrats good? Of course not.
But if you notice, I'm a different kind of Republican
than the other Republicans. A lot of Republicans don't have
nice things to say about me because I call myself
the mayor of the people. I got the boots on
the ground, I'm in the subways, I'm on the busses,
I'm on the express busses. These other candidates, they have
no idea what's going on out there.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
I do have to asker, I have to go to
These guys don't I do have one question before I
do congestion totally right. New Yorker said they hated it,
They said it costs too much money. They said it's
already hard. We just talked about all the money that
people can't afford. But now if they come to the
city for anything, if they're coming for work, and if
they're driving in the city, they're getting charge and tax
a whole lot more.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
What is your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Try they clip your nine dollars and you know nine
times two is eighteen, and suddenly it'll be thirty six
and it never goes down. Working class people are crippled by
congestion pricing. It's nothing more than another tax. And it
was supposed to offset the billion dollars that we lose
in fair evasion. And look at all the storefronts that.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Are closed now.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Go south of sixtieth Street across some city hall. There
are nine small storefronts, and you talk to the merchants,
some men and women who've been there for years. Curtis,
I had to give it up my lease. I couldn't
pay my rent anymore. I don't have enough foot traffic
coming in and out to be able to sustain ourselves.
So you know, if you love bicycles, you love going
around on bicycles, you don't want to see people in cars.

(39:15):
Maybe this is your vendetta against folks, but working class people,
especially if you're a tradesman or tradeswoman, or you have
a skill level, or you got to get to a hospital,
or you're serving our community as a police officer or
a firefighter in uniform services. Why should you be taxed?
All that is is another tax In New York City.
You get taxed from the cradle to the grave. And

(39:36):
then they got these speed cameras, speed cameras all over
the place. Boom, one hundred and fifty dollars, Boom, one
hundred and fifty dollars. Put speed bumps that'll slow you down.
And if you decide that you're going to be like
Mario Andretti and the Indianapolis five hundred, you're going to
end up an offender, bended shop, your undercarriage, your ball bearings,
your alignment will be shot. Speed Bumps will slow you down.

(39:59):
Speed camera don't slow you down. All they do is
pick your pockets. That's what the city is about, picking
your pockets, taxing you from the cradle to the grave.
And we have to stop because working class people are
fleeing the billionaires. Look, they always have an out, They
always have a place somewhere else, they move their businesses.
They'll be fine. The working class people. Everything they got

(40:20):
is in their co op, their condo, their house. First
generation immigrants, the family pulls all of its money to
get a house, the American dream. Where I was in Brownsville,
all these West Indian Caribbeans pull their money to get
a house. And then they also now have the city
of yes, which will allow a developer to come in
where the bulldozer in a wrecking ball, there goes your house.
We're going to put up a forty story apartment building.

(40:43):
You have no say in that, no zoning, no community boards.
You don't have to go to the city council person,
because the mayors will then be windying the pocket lined
by the billionaires. That's why I say this election cycle
will not be determined by the billionaires, because what do
they want? What motives a billionaire? You think they give
you money because they really believe in what you're doing.

(41:04):
It's how to make more money. And I was born
in this world with nothing. I'll leave from this world
with nothing, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. They are
self serving servants, many of these elected officials, Republicans and Democrats.
I was raised by my father and mother and my
grandparents to be a selfless servant. That's what you have

(41:24):
to do to help the people. I just got a
couple more questions if you got to go.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
I don't know why he's walking out on this question
because it's about his community. But why didn't you attend
the Latino Business Form?

Speaker 2 (41:33):
First off, the Latino Business Form, I knew the guy
who was hosting it. He didn't invite any of us.
He did invite Andrew Clomo, he did invite jorham On Domi,
he didn't invite me. I've been to many Latino and
Latina I think what the guy was trying to do
is get attention. He knows I've been there too, thick
and thin. And I'm not gonna dis Jorhan and Andrew

(41:54):
Clomo because I happen to think today two were not
invited or they would have showed up. There's no reason
dissal Latino and Latini community, especially to me, leader of
the Guardian Angels. So many of the Guardian Angels over
the years have been Latino and Latinas, I mean Dominicans
and Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. I mean that's without them,
I wouldn't have been able to start the Guardian Angels.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Now, a couple of things.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
In nineteen ninety two, they said that you confess that
you and the Guardian Angels faked several heroic acts for
media attention in the early days.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
That was like it was forty five years ago.

Speaker 4 (42:27):
Said you find a false report that you were kidnapped
by off duty transit police officers and you staged rescues
and thwarted muggings on the subway.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
That, yep, all of that true. You know, you fess
up when you mess up. I mean, I'm more than
happy to apologize for my faults. Anybody who's married out there,
or you have a relationship, I apologize to my wife's
three times today in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
But why did you have to do that? Because there
was actual crime going on?

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Oh yeah, there was lots of Yeah, you could call
it youthful indiscretion, you know they use that term. I
just made bad choices. Luckily, I determine I'm never going
to do that again. And I haven't done anything like
that since. But that's forty five years ago. If I
had to tell you to judge somebody by what they

(43:13):
were doing forty five years ago, oh man, you talk
about all the drama, it probably took place. I have
a track record. The situation in the city is everybody
says nice things about Curtis Levers, like everybody loves Raymond.
My job is to get them to come out and vote,
and I trust the people. I trust that you let
the people vote, they will make the determination of who

(43:35):
the next mayor is. I'm not dropping out. They tried
to bribe me to drop out. Now they threaten to
kill me and my wife. I have armed security for
the first time in my life. Guess what we got
twenty one days ago. Boy, this is a novel idea.
Let's trust the people to make the proper decision, and
I will be more than happy to live with it

(43:55):
because I'm not fleeing like Andrew Colman said. Oh, I'm
fleeing with my billionaire friends to Florida. I stay. I
fight for what I know is right. I improve, I
don't move, and there are a lot of other people
who will do exactly that.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
But there's a couple of things.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
In twenty twenty four, they said you and some other
Guardian angels accosted a man that you're wrongly accused of
being a migrant and a shoplifted, But the man was
actually from the Bronx and police found no evidence of shoplifts.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
No, there was no arrest. That was dealt with. Obviously
we moved on. This is what happens when you're very
active each and every day, situations are going to arise
and you learn from it.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
In profiling, did you profile a man?

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Now, it wasn't profiling, it was just at the moment.
But again, nobody ended up being arrested. Everything was fine.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
And what about this political event?

Speaker 4 (44:41):
They said that you stated that anti Semitism was innate
to gentile saying it's in our DNA.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Yeah. Well, when I said that that was at a
rally in Staten Island to a group of Israeli reporters
who were there. My wife confronted me because she had
seen that going. Li said, well, that's a pretty stupid
thing you said. I said, yeah, I didn't say it
the way I should have said it because I'm not Jewish.
I have my two younger sons are Jewish. Their mother

(45:08):
is Melinda Katz, who is the Democratic District Attorney in Queens.
But they didn't handle it well and theyn apologize. But
when you, for instance, all of you were involved in
radio every day, Yes, sir, if you had to apologize
for everything you said in radio, you'd have to go
on an apology to it. I've certainly had to do
that for thirty five years and talk radio. I would

(45:30):
listen back to what I had said. I say what
I was pretty stupid, and you got to apologize, especially
if you give wrong information. And so that's what I've
learned over my seventy one years. When you mess up,
you fess up, and you move on and hopefully nobody
was injured by what you said or any deeds that

(45:51):
are attributed to you.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
I'm looking forward to seeing the debate on Earth.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Oh yeah, oh you know me.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
And if you do drop out before the race, the
safe assume you took the ten million.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
Dollars or the job because they said you had a
job offer from Trump too.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
There's no job offer from Trump. Even if he were
to called me up and say, Curtis, I'd like her
to come to Washington I'm not going to Washington. I'm
saying right here in New York City twenty one days
to run for mayor. Charlemagne, you can put money on
the fact that I'm not gonna drop off. Once you
set up a little waging board. You know everybody loves
to bet nowadays. Maybe they can do fan duel Curtis
Leewit is not dropping out. They've tried to bribe me.

(46:27):
They threatened to kill me and my wife. Why do
you think all of a sudden I drop out now?

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Ten million dollars?

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Ten million dollars, No, fifteen, they have to anty a
little bit if they anted it up right that like that?
Remember that Academy Award winning movie Anyone Wanted to be
a Millionaire?

Speaker 1 (46:46):
No?

Speaker 2 (46:46):
I was never motivated by money. People know me. No,
that's not my motivation. And so they tried.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
A million for every point you're polling at.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Nope, just ain't gonna happen. Charlemagne. Okay, you know, could
we could be playing five cardsu O poka here. You
know I ain't folding. I ain't folding.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Do you like your chances?

Speaker 2 (47:06):
I love my chances because I treat the people like
a march pit I dive into a group, whether your
friends or foes, people always asking questions. Johan used to
do that. Now he's very guarded in terms of just
going into places where he knows he's gonna get a
lot of grief. And Andrew Cuomo, he does not like people.
He has like a phobia. But I kind of understand.

(47:28):
People look at him and they see the grimorypo They said, man,
I don't want that guy. Yes, Maya, there's a cold
hearted dude. Come on, we need a man who's not tough.
I look, Zorn, I'm gonna be tough with Trump. And Andrew,
I'm gonna be tough with Trump. Look, I'm the toughest
guy of war. What we need is a male's compassionate,
caring and considerate. We have people with serious problems in

(47:50):
our city. Stop trying to be the tough guy. Real
tough guys don't have to tell you they're a tough guy.
Take it from me, a real New Yorker, a real
tough guy who's earned it the hard way.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Tell him what to donate to your campaign.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Go to Sliwa for nyced dot com. That Sleiwa for
NYC dot com and you can see all of the programs.
What I would do for the first hundred days when
I'm sworn into office January first, twenty twenty six, and
I know everybody here in this Breakfast Club studio is
gonna be saying, damn. He told us he who was

(48:27):
gonna win? An he won? Wow, you should have believed him.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
It was Curtis Lee. What is the Breakfast Club? Thank
you for joining us, brother.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
My pleasure.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Every day a week ago. Click your ass up the
Breakfast Club.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Finish for y'all.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Done,