September 29, 2025 • 30 mins
Join Jim and Greg for the Monday edition of the 3 Martini Lunch as they break down the mass shooting and arson at an LDS church in Michigan, the looming federal government shutdown, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams abruptly ending his re-election campaign.
First, they react to the shocking violence at an LDS church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, where four people and the shooter are dead following a mass shooting and arson attack on Sunday. Jim and Greg explain what information is confirmed at this point and which questions remain unanswered. They also discuss the debate over red flag laws.
Next, they hear the ticking of the clock as a partial federal government shutdown looms at the end of Tuesday unless a spending deal is in place. Republicans have far more leverage and the far more coherent argument. The GOP is calling for a mostly clean extension of existing funding while Democrats want to spend an additional $1.5 trillion. And a lot of that extra money would be spent on health care for illegal aliens.
Finally, they get a good laugh as New York City Mayor Eric Adams end his bid for a second term. He was consistently polling in fourth place. The decision is especially bizarre since Adams called a press conference a few weeks ago to insist he would not drop out of the race. Will this decision have much of an impact on the campaign?
Please visit our great sponsors:
Get 20% off your first purchase of classic menswear. Visit https://MizzenAndMain.com with promo code 3ML20—shop online or visit a Mizzen and Main store in select states.
Build your fall sanctuary of comfort with Boll and Branch. Save 20% plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at https://BollAndBranch.com/THREEMARTINI —offer ends soon, exclusions apply.
First, they react to the shocking violence at an LDS church in Grand Blanc, Michigan, where four people and the shooter are dead following a mass shooting and arson attack on Sunday. Jim and Greg explain what information is confirmed at this point and which questions remain unanswered. They also discuss the debate over red flag laws.
Next, they hear the ticking of the clock as a partial federal government shutdown looms at the end of Tuesday unless a spending deal is in place. Republicans have far more leverage and the far more coherent argument. The GOP is calling for a mostly clean extension of existing funding while Democrats want to spend an additional $1.5 trillion. And a lot of that extra money would be spent on health care for illegal aliens.
Finally, they get a good laugh as New York City Mayor Eric Adams end his bid for a second term. He was consistently polling in fourth place. The decision is especially bizarre since Adams called a press conference a few weeks ago to insist he would not drop out of the race. Will this decision have much of an impact on the campaign?
Please visit our great sponsors:
Get 20% off your first purchase of classic menswear. Visit https://MizzenAndMain.com with promo code 3ML20—shop online or visit a Mizzen and Main store in select states.
Build your fall sanctuary of comfort with Boll and Branch. Save 20% plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at https://BollAndBranch.com/THREEMARTINI —offer ends soon, exclusions apply.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
Really glad you're with us for the Monday edition of
the Three Martini Lunch. We wish we had a good
martini for you. We really don't. We have lamented over
the past few weeks that we can't get through a
week without another heinous mass shooting, and that is already
the case this week as a result of what happened
yesterday in Grand Blank, Michigan. Today we'll also be talking
(00:34):
about the looming government shutdown and Eric Adams reversing course
and dropping out of the New York City mayor's race.
But Jim, we start in Grand Blank, Michigan. I think
most people know by now that even though it looks
like blanc to pronounce blank, there community just outside of Flint,
about an hour northwest of Detroit, and this was a
(00:54):
Latter Day Saints Mormon church attacked yesterday, hundreds of people
inside during the services. And this person was attacking the
church first with the truck, literally driving the truck into
the church, and then when people came out to try
and see what in the world was that loud crash.
He opens fire on people, several people hit, at least
(01:15):
ten I think was the number, and then he was
prepared to and executed the arson of the church, believed
to use an accelerant massive blaze. I assume that's a
total loss based on what we saw yesterday. So now
the question is who is this guy and why did
he do it? And his name is Thomas Sandford, forty
years old. USA Today reports and the authority said this yesterday.
(01:38):
He's a former Marine served in Iraq as a mechanic
I believe, not in direct combat, but still served in Iraq.
Left the Marine Corps in two thousand and eight. A
local city council candidate who knows this guy says he
had been ranting about Mormons as recently as a week earlier.
And we still don't know though, exactly why he hated Mormons.
(02:01):
And so here is Caroline Levitt, White House Press secretary
today on Fox News channel, trying to make us wait
for the answers because we don't know him yet.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
From what I understand, based on my conversations with the
FBI director, all they know right now is this was
an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith, and
they are trying to understand more about this, how premeditated
it was, how much planning went into it, whether he
left a note, all of those questions have yet to
be answered, but certainly will be answered by the FBI.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Well, certainly seems pretty darn premeditated here. Jim so far
for dead, plus the shooter too or shot to death,
two others found in the fire, and authorities still think
there's some people on accounted for and at this point
their fate is not likely.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
To be good.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
So so many awful details here. What stands out most.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, it's happening on a Sunday. You know that church
is going to be full of people, and you see
the footage of the you knowing smoke of the building,
and you're like, this is going to have a really.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Bad outcome for a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
In light of the church shooting up in Minnesota a
few weeks ago, I can understand why a lot of
people think, oh, is this somebody who's another you know,
angry lefty or identifying as transsexual or something like that.
From what we know of this guy, which is not
a lot at this point doesn't fit that one that
you know, category of attack. The military experience had a
lot of people thinking about PTSD and you know, trauma
(03:28):
from the war, as you noted like this.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
He dis charged in two.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Thousand and eight, so this is not like a guy
who has just come back and has some sort of
issues that he's dealing with, which is you know, there's
it's just said, there's reports of him having a real
beef with the.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Church of Latter day Saints.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But I've heard from a few people this morning they
prefer not to be called Mormons, and so I guess
I'll try to avoid that, but I'll also point out
that almost everybody else calls the Mormons, so you're just
gonna have to live with that. And you know, but
let's also take a moment to point out that there
were a couple idiots on Twitter and other social media
platforms who felt that yesterday was the right time to
lay out their beefs with the theological interpretations of the.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, let me tell you, they're not always my cup
of tea, but they always just seem like the nicest
people you'd ever want to run into and let me
just say, after they've just been assaulted, is not the
time for this debate. It can wait till much. It
could wait a week, it could wait a month. Nobody
needs to hear that. Nobody needs to hear your gripes
about the Mormon Church, A pardon my Church of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Latter day Saints. It just is awful.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And you know, I saw some people apparently this guy
had a picture of himself on his social media feeds
in twenty nineteen with a Trump twenty twenty shirt. So
I saw people say, oh, this is one of yours,
right wingers, Well, hey, one of mine. Hell no, you know,
the whole bunch of people would say, not one of ours. Now,
I think it's pretty obvious that this, like what we're
seeing here, is this phenomenon in which people have problems
(04:55):
in their lives and they decide the reason their lives
stink are them. Times them are the Catholic Church, Sometimes
them is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Latter Day Saints.
Sometimes it's Ice, sometimes it's Charlie Kirk. They just find
somebody out there. Jews, you know, they're always a popular
escapegoat and people walk around with the idea, well, if
(05:16):
I just took care of them, well, then obviously my
life will get better. And that's not what It never
works out that way. It always turns out with All
you've done is made a lot more people miserable. All
you've done is killed a whole bunch of innocent life.
I get really sick of this, and it's just extraordinarily frustrating.
In today's Morning Jolt, I note that Michigan has red
flag laws, California has red flag laws. Didn't do anything
(05:37):
for that guy who shot into the TV station. The
red flag laws really only work if there's somebody who
cares about the person and notices that they're spiraling downward
into greater fits of paranoia and rage and stuff like that,
and goes to authorities and says, I'm really worried that
this person is going to do something either harms themselves
or harm other people, and you know, so like yeah,
(05:59):
this this, this, you know, type of law could and
should work in circumstances like this, but that requires somebody
to come forward. And my fear is is there are
people in America who are probably mentally ill, may have
addiction problems, may have all kinds of other problems in
their lives, and they have access to a firearm and
there's no one around them who cares enough to say
(06:20):
that guy should not have access to a gun. So
just just an extraordinarily frustrating way. But after noting the
political violence in the last few weeks, I feel like
we just had to talk about this on this podcast
today and to say that, you know, yeah, you know,
there's been a lot of left wing you know, political
violence lately, but that is not the only place we
can come from. And you know, if it comes from
(06:40):
religious animus or whatever other twisted thoughts were going through
these you know, this guy's head, the people are just
as dead. It's just as unacceptable, it's just as horrifying,
and just as almost more than we can bear.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Greg.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, evil and unhinged is evil and unhinged. There's a
lot of speculation going around on social media, but the motivation,
some believe it was personal towards specific people at the church.
I'm going to let the authority sort that out and
come to the conclusions. I'm not going to speculate on that,
But I don't know. There was a larger, a larger
issue that was driving him. It may have been specific people,
but either way, it's completely wrong. It's completely horrible, and
(07:17):
it needs to be condemned and it needs to stop.
Quick follow up on the red flag laws, some of
the Second Amendment advocates who aren't big fans of red
flag laws believe that Second Amendment rights are restricted if
you take the guns away while the case is being adjudicated. Obviously,
the accounter argument would be they might be more unstable
if they know people are trying to take their guns
away and they still have access to them. What do
(07:38):
you make of that argument that they're being deprived of
rights until the court would decide that they are unfit
to possess them.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
One of the rare areas I've had a disagreement with
my good friend Cam Edwards is that Cam thinks that
red flag laws are really not all that effective, and
points out accurately, you take away a guy's guns, but
he still has the desire to hurt people of people
down with a car, He could attack somebody with a knife,
baseball bat. The world is full of things that you
can use to hurt lots of people. And he says
(08:07):
that he points out that in states with these red
flag laws. The attitude of the local estate government is
often well, we've taken away his guns, our work is
done here, and we could leave this guy. And there's
no sense of like, well, this person needs to go
to some sort of required mental health counseling something to determine.
Assuming they've determined, yes, this person who's in a state
where they could harm themselves or harm somebody else, how
(08:28):
do we get them out of that state? How do
we get them to a point where they're not a
threat to anybody else with a gun or without a gun,
or with some other weapon. So I think that's an
entirely fair objection. I also think it's entirely fair like
when they announced these things, the fear was that everybody
was going to use them against their neighbor, that this
was going to be you know, we're going to have
a lot of nonsensical claims and false claims and stuff
(08:49):
like that. My sense is that we haven't seen that,
which is good. It doesn't mean that the potential for
abuse of these laws is not out there. That would
require good police work, good judgments by judges. We would
need everybody to act like responsible actor when it comes
to you know determining whether someone should have one of
their constitutional rights abrogated. But hey, Greg, if you does
anything Americans have demonstrated lately, the we're all responsible actors
(09:12):
when it matters the most.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
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Today is September twenty ninth, which I know this is
going to be a stretch. Tomorrow is September thirtieth, and
that means that's the end of the fiscal year. And
as of right now, there's not a funding mechanism in
(11:10):
place to keep the government open, which means that there's
not a deal by midnight tomorrow, there will be a
partial government shutdown. And so, as we've talked about a
little bit certainly talked about last week, the Republicans are
basically pushing forward a clean extension. They do want a
little extra money for security measures for different things, but
for the most part, it is a clean extension which
is still under Biden level of funding levels, which is
(11:33):
actually kind of frustrating to me. They claim that they
want to push it to November twenty first, give lawmakers
time to go through regular order. I'm skeptical they'll actually
be able to accomplish that, but hey, I like the
optimism there. Democrats want to add on about a trillion
and a half dollars in extra spending, which Republicans are
not going to go forward. All part of it is
to renew Obamacare subsidies, which Democrats approved as part of
(11:56):
the appropriations process not that long ago. And now they're
trying to claim that Republicans are the ones zeroing those out.
And they also want to reinstate federal dollars for healthcare
for illegal aliens. And so here's jd Vance speaking about,
no way are Republicans going to entertain any of this.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
We have to realize the Democrats.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Their whole argument is we are going to shut down
the government unless you give a trillion dollars for medical
benefits for illegal aliens. The major healthcare reform that we've
done in this administration is we've made it harder to
give your harder tax dollars to medical benefits for illegal aliens.
The Democrats want undo that, and they're saying that unless
you give that money to those legal aliens, unless you
(12:37):
give those benefits to those illegal aliens, we are going
to shut down the people's government. It's such a stark
contrast between two parties priorities. We want to put the
government to work for the American people first. The Democrats
want to shut down the government because we won't give
free benefits to illegal aliens. It's such a good, again
contrast for what the Democrats stand.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
For and what Republicans stand for.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
We're not going to be Look, we're not going to
be taken hostage by the Democrats desperate desire to give
your tax money to a llegal aliens. We're just not
going to do it.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, the Democrats are in no position to foist a
trillion and a half dollars in spending. Republicans, of course,
can't get to sixty votes in the Senate, So Jim,
I think the Republicans certainly have the easier argument here.
I'm not expecting the media to play fair. I already
think they're not. But what's your sense of where the
debate stands and how long this could go?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Look, I've made mistakes before and foreseen, you know, made
projections about how a political debate is going to go,
and it's gone in.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
A different direction.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But I really have a hard time seeing how Democrats
come out of this one smelling like a rose and
feeling like they've gotten what they've wanted. And you know,
they're base enthusiastic and sure they're not going to get
the one point five trillion, you know, like that's that's
you know, unthinkable. Three thoughts on as we're in these
final hours. First of all, since I won't be on
(13:54):
the podcast tomorrow foreshadowing our ending, you know, happy fiscal
new Year's Eve to all those who celebrate, you're getting
together down at the accounting department of your company and
watching the fiscal ball drop or something. Of course, if
you're doing it at a federal office building, I guess
at midnight you go home because you know the government
will be shutting down in all likelihood, barring some dramatic change,
for the next day or so. Anytime you see a
(14:15):
news article about the potential government shutdown and it says
Hakeem Jeffries said, you could ignore that part because the
Democrats that might the Republicans have the votes to pass
the House part. What House Democrats do doesn't really matter.
What does matter is what Senate Democrats do, because they
can filibuster the spending bill. Now I point out that like,
you know, you Republicans will only need three Senate Democrats
(14:39):
to say this, or you know, like I'm sorry, seven partner,
they have fifty three, they need seven more. Seven Senate
Democrats can start saying, wow, this, this shutdown is making
us look bad. Federal workers are waiting to get paid.
This is you know, little miss off more and misocmonics
classes cannot visit the Smithsonian. You know, I can't take
the pressure. I'm going to vote to to passically spending bill,
(15:01):
so like they have that. The The thing is, I
think the Democrats are really counting on the media to
do a lot of heavy lifting for them and to
try to make an argument, Oh, look at those unreasonable
Republicans who want not entirely a clean spending bill, but
a little bit more spending on security, and all the
Democrats want is merely one point five trillion dollars in
healthcare spending. Like that's really because like there was maybe
(15:23):
a time in the nineties or the Obama era where
like that might have been enough to convince the public
that Republicans are being obstinate and Democrats were being reasonable.
I don't think the mainstream media has the power that
it used to anymore. They can't dominate the narrative. Trump
will be out there screaming bloody murder and saying this
is all the Democrats' fault. You know, every Republican will
(15:44):
probably be singing from the same songbook. I don't think
this will be an easy one. And at the heart
of this, you know, why are Democrats threatening to shut
down the government? Greg Well, you know, they had the
opportunity to do this earlier in the year. Chuck Schumer
chose not to do that because he knew that they're
was not that they didn't have the votes that they
filibustering would put them on the you know, probably the
(16:05):
one popular side of the issue. And also there was
no sense of what Democrats wanted as a concession.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Well, now they've got the concession one point five perion, Well,
they're not going to get that right in the end.
Why are Democrats furious with Chuck Schumer and the party leadership. Well,
they feel like they're not fighting now. As we've discussed
in this podcast many times, the reason they're not fighting
is because there are forty seven of them in the Senate.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
They don't have like and they're a minority in the House.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes, they just got the new replacement for Jerry Connolly
and about the other one out in the Southwest. But
really they don't have the votes, so they don't get
much influence in what happens.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
They can fill up.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
They put a bunch of blue slips on some nominees.
Senate rules changed a bit to adjust that. Like you're
in the minority, welcome to that. You know, Republicans in
the past have gotten frustrated by it, and you know,
maybe some of the criticism of McConnell and stuff in
the past and Bayner, you know, there's a our guys
aren't fighting enough.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
But when you don't have the votes, there's not what
you can do.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So I think in the end, the core of why
is the government shutting down because the Democratic base does
not understand the reality of politics and believes that if
the Democrats it's the it's the tickerbell strategy where if
you just applod hard enough, the Republicans will Democrats will
find a way to have leverage over Donald Trump and
they don't have that.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
They don't have to they'll have leverage over the spending process. No,
they don't. So you know, it's it's green lantern.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
If you just have enough will power, you'll be able to,
you know, get control over the budget process.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
No, that's not the way it works.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
So in the end, kind of an ignorance of how
the congressional spending process works is really at the heart
of all this. But you know, the good news is
I suspect this means that Chuck Schumer does not want
this to go on forever. At some point he'll have
a climb down. He'll look for any old bone that
the Republicans are willing to throw, and he'll try to
convince his base that that was a big win. And
my suspicion is they will not. His base will not
(17:51):
be persuaded at all.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Chuck Schummer feels like he's been taking hostage at this
point because we saw what his general instincts were earlier
in the year. But he's paid such a heavy political
price for that. On the left, I think he still
thinks he has a chance to still be the Democratic
leader in the next Congress. I think that's gone no
matter what happens here or or the rest of this
current Congress. But he's gonna pretend that he's on that side.
(18:12):
And Republicans are having a final time on social media
playing clips of Schumer, of Elizabeth Warren, of Bernie Sanders
from previous shutdown showdowns, talking about how irresponsible and reckless
it is to shut down the government. So good good
social media messaging there.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
And let's point out Schumer has been the leader of
the Senate Democrats for like more than a decade.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Now that's a goodever.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Harry Reid left, Yeah, right, you know, like, and I
think if he asked Democrats how has it been the
last decade or so, they'd probably say lousy. You know,
they're really again Trump's victory. It's not necessarily Chuck Schumer's fault,
but they probably don't feel like Chuck Schumer has been
this machiavellian mastermind who has been blocking Trump at every way.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So like, you know, Chuck, maybe.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
It's time to say, you know, it's been a good run,
thank you for your time. I'm not you know, I'll
pull a Pelosi. I'm not gonna leave the chamber entirely,
but it's time for somebody else to be in charge
of the chamber and let all of this becomes somebody
else's headache.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
But the charisma that just the sheer charisma of Chuck Schumer,
I mean, how do you say me not of that
fors It's just amazing. Plus he's al Servis, Yeah, whorland raplocharisma.
Just to tell you how far the left the Democrats
have gone here in the last thirty years. Here's Hillary
Clinton talking about medical care and federal dollars for illegals
(19:25):
back in the nineties.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
As to illegal aliens, we agree with you that we
do not think the comprehensive health care benefits should be
extended to those who are undocumented workers and illegal aliens.
We do not want to do anything to encourage more
illegal immigration into this country. We know now that too
many people come in for medical care as it is,
(19:46):
we certainly don't want them having the same benefits that
American citizens are entitled to have.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Hillary Cara is still a train wreck, and I'm glad
it failed. But Jim, that would get you pretty much
banished from the Democratic Party these days.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I can't believe she would commit that. Heye crime, Breg,
It's incredible, incredible.
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exclusions do apply all right, Jim on to our crazy
Martini Now and as we were trying to track the
latest details out of Grand Blank, Michigan, yesterday we then
got news from New York City Mayor Eric Adams that
he is not going to continue his campaign for mayor.
(21:54):
So he makes this decision at the end of September,
when just a few weeks ago he called this major
press conference to make him major announcement to say I'm
not leaving the race. Nothing's changed. Cuomo's a racist, basically
was the main point of the threat. He's trying to
force me, as a black mayor, out of the race
so he has a better chance to win. But yesterday
Eric Adams goes on social media. Why he's sitting on
(22:15):
his stairs while he makes the announcement, I'll never know.
Maybe it's just kind of the family feel there. But
he's decided that the system is not being fair to
him and he he's just not going to win.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
And yet, despite all we've achieved, I cannot continue my
re election campaign. The constant media speculation about my future
and the campaign finance Boy's decision to withhole millions of
dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed
(22:48):
for a serious campaign. I hope that over time New
Yorkers will see this city thrive under our leadership. The
policy we put in place should be continued and expanded.
A hope you will see that despite the headlines and
(23:08):
in you window, always put you before me, always.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Thrived seems a little strong. I know, if the city
has thriveds probably better than Deblasio. But I mean that's
the lowest possible bar you could ever add. So the
next person, of course, that people think needs to leave
the race is our friend Curtis Sliwa. That's not happening.
He puts out a statement yesterday actually from his spokesperson
that says Curtis Lee was the only candidate who can
(23:33):
defeat Mamdani. Our team, our resources, and our funding are unmatched.
Most importantly, we have the best solutions to help working
people afford to stay in New York City and feel safe. So, Jim,
the numbers still aren't going to be great because Adams
was you know, single digits.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, and there aren't that that he Adams voters to
reallocate to all these other candidates that you.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
So what do you make of his flip flop on
on being in the race and whether this actually is
going to make much difference in the final fallacy.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
So a couple of weeks ago, Greg, when word broke
that you know, Adams is announcing a as as a
press previously unscheduled press conference late on a Friday afternoon,
if I remember correctly, You're on Twitter and like, well,
it's not going to hold a press conference to announce
he's not quitting, right, And that was exactly what he did.
They kind of like, my news is that I have
no news, nothing has changed, and he The thing that
(24:22):
got me is like, we've been you know, you and
I have covered politics for a long time. It is
particularly in presidential primaries, but in all kinds of races.
It's not that shocking for a candidate that's trailing badly
and the campaign is going nowhere that some unlucky campaign
spokesman gets shoved in front of the cameras to say
this campaign is going on, there's no truth to the rumors,
(24:44):
we are in it to win it, blah blah blah,
And this campaign spokesman knows that at that moment, the
candidate is on the phone with other candidates trying to
get something in exchange for their endorsement, right, so we've
used to that.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
But it was just an Adams spokesman.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Who got shoved out there to offer the implausible spin.
Adams himself went out there and he insisted that, you know,
he of course he's not gonna quit this race, because
let me tell you, you know, New Yorkers never quit.
And I'm just like the fighting spirit and blah blah
blah blah blah, you know, and then three weeks like, never.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Mind, I'm out just this like no one. But like
it was, it was the indignation.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It was the sense of how dare you accuse me
of leaving this race early?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Oh? What's that?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I'm really unpopular? Never mind, I'm out of here. This
is you know, it was kind of infuriating, uh to this.
By the way, you're asked why he was sitting on
the stairs, Uh, little known factor rereg that these stairs
are actually Mayor Eric adams Second favorite place to sit.
First place, of course, is first class in Turkish airlines.
And this whole thing, when you kind of died it
on a corruption thing, stop telling me. I always put
(25:44):
you first, particularly if you were a Turkish club that
needed to get past the fire inspections. Let me tell
you that's when Eric Adams was always putting you first
over that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I also don't think Curtis Sliwa will uh will drop out.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
I'd be shocked, honestly.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
And I you know, he sounded really I am fatic
in our interview with him, and I don't think that's
I don't think that's bluster. I think that's just who Curtisely.
He's not interested in an administration job. He doesn't want
to be ambassador to someplace. He just wants to, you know,
live in New York City and take care of small
animals and let feral cats take care of the rat problem,
(26:18):
and like that would seem like something would appeal to
Eric Adams. The one two things though, crime has gone
down a little bit late, you know, since the beginning
of the year, and Eric Adams hates rats. So those
are two nice things we can say about this guy
as he prepares to depart this I have. You know, Look,
one of the reasons I'm glad we did that interview was, Look,
we've got Mom Damie, who's a disaster for the city.
(26:38):
Andrew Cuomo, who leaves a trail of slime everywhere he
goes and we put a lot of effort into getting
Andrew Cuomo out of public office, and the idea that, oh,
now it's time for conservatives to turn around and support
him strikes me as a really unpersuasive argument. Yeah, Curtisely
was an unjok, there's no getting around it. But I
kind of feel like, if you're right of center, well
(26:58):
you could shrug your should and some people are saying, well,
let's let New York sink into the Hudson River and
write it off, and I'm not willing to do that
for one of the.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Greatest cities in the world.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
All by the way, when things are bad in New
York City, then you tend to see bad economic effects
throughout the entire region and country. So it's not like
we can just say, oh, let the crazy socialists run
the city. Let's you know, it won't be that bad.
So I think on the right we probably should be
trying to help Curtis Leewa. It's gonna be tough, no
going about it. But the idea of like, if you're
a conservative, you need something better than Andrew Cuomo as
(27:28):
your consolation prize, and I just you know, yeah, if
you see it differently. Fine, it's a free country. I
don't live in New York City. I travel there every
now and then, grew up not too far from it.
But all in all, yes, we got some. You know,
we have two extraordinarily bad options and a long shot
third option who's considerably better. I'd be supporting the third option.
I don't see one of these guys, either Cuomo or
(27:50):
a mom Dammy as you know, as a as a
good vote.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Your mileage may vary.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But yeah, also it's kind of interesting, you know, Andrew
Eric Adams, who you know probably should never run for reelection,
finally recognizes it right before October.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Two straight years prominent Democrats ran for reelection when they
probably shouldn't have. Neither one of them turned out too well. Yeah,
neither one of them made it to election day. Amazing. Jim,
you will be gone the rest of this week and
most of next week starting tomorrow. I don't know how
much we're allowed to divulge now, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So for listeners who don't know, like so for a
lot of these days, sometimes I'll say I'm going to
a country that's being innovated by Russia.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You can do the math on that. You can figure
out you this one.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
I am going to a country that, let me just check, Okay,
as of this conversation, is not at war. That doesn't
mean it hasn't been in war, not that long ago.
This is not a particularly dangerous trip compared to some
of my other places I've gone to this year, Ukraine, Syria,
et cetera. Really excited and people wonder how do you
get on these trips. Well, you do reporting from one
(28:50):
foreign country. People seem to like it and say, hey,
would you like to join me on this trip to
this other country. So that's I'm going to one. I
will be back here on October tenth. I expect to
be telling you all about it. It's going to be,
you know, probably like my other shrips to places like Taiwan,
a lot of briefings, a lot of meeting with government officials,
getting how they see America, how they see the world.
And it should be great. But I will be on
(29:10):
a plane for extraordinarily long time. But apparently sitting in
the lap of luxury at least that's what they're telling
us is going to be the flight. So it should
be going to go anyway. Good luck to everyone while
I'm gone. This should be fine. I should be fine.
I've come boy from every previous trip. Can't wait to
be back.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Jim drop you a little clue there. I don't know
if you can figure it out from that, but anyway, Jim, seriously,
safe travels, have a good time, and we'll see again
late next week.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
See you in early to mid October.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Jim Garrety, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America.
Thanks so much for being with us today. Please subscribe
to the Three Martini Lunch Podcast if you don't already,
tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
your five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep
those coming. Get us on your home devices. All you
have to say is play Three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow
us both on X He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at
Greg Corumbus. Have a terrific Monday, and join us again
(29:57):
on Tuesday for the next Three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
and Jim Garrity of National Review.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Free Martini's coming up.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
Really glad you're with us for the Monday edition of
the Three Martini Lunch. We wish we had a good
martini for you. We really don't. We have lamented over
the past few weeks that we can't get through a
week without another heinous mass shooting, and that is already
the case this week as a result of what happened
yesterday in Grand Blank, Michigan. Today we'll also be talking
(00:34):
about the looming government shutdown and Eric Adams reversing course
and dropping out of the New York City mayor's race.
But Jim, we start in Grand Blank, Michigan. I think
most people know by now that even though it looks
like blanc to pronounce blank, there community just outside of Flint,
about an hour northwest of Detroit, and this was a
(00:54):
Latter Day Saints Mormon church attacked yesterday, hundreds of people
inside during the services. And this person was attacking the
church first with the truck, literally driving the truck into
the church, and then when people came out to try
and see what in the world was that loud crash.
He opens fire on people, several people hit, at least
(01:15):
ten I think was the number, and then he was
prepared to and executed the arson of the church, believed
to use an accelerant massive blaze. I assume that's a
total loss based on what we saw yesterday. So now
the question is who is this guy and why did
he do it? And his name is Thomas Sandford, forty
years old. USA Today reports and the authority said this yesterday.
(01:38):
He's a former Marine served in Iraq as a mechanic
I believe, not in direct combat, but still served in Iraq.
Left the Marine Corps in two thousand and eight. A
local city council candidate who knows this guy says he
had been ranting about Mormons as recently as a week earlier.
And we still don't know though, exactly why he hated Mormons.
(02:01):
And so here is Caroline Levitt, White House Press secretary
today on Fox News channel, trying to make us wait
for the answers because we don't know him yet.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
From what I understand, based on my conversations with the
FBI director, all they know right now is this was
an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith, and
they are trying to understand more about this, how premeditated
it was, how much planning went into it, whether he
left a note, all of those questions have yet to
be answered, but certainly will be answered by the FBI.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Well, certainly seems pretty darn premeditated here. Jim so far
for dead, plus the shooter too or shot to death,
two others found in the fire, and authorities still think
there's some people on accounted for and at this point
their fate is not likely.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
To be good.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
So so many awful details here. What stands out most.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Well, it's happening on a Sunday. You know that church
is going to be full of people, and you see
the footage of the you knowing smoke of the building,
and you're like, this is going to have a really.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Bad outcome for a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
In light of the church shooting up in Minnesota a
few weeks ago, I can understand why a lot of
people think, oh, is this somebody who's another you know,
angry lefty or identifying as transsexual or something like that.
From what we know of this guy, which is not
a lot at this point doesn't fit that one that
you know, category of attack. The military experience had a
lot of people thinking about PTSD and you know, trauma
(03:28):
from the war, as you noted like this.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
He dis charged in two.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Thousand and eight, so this is not like a guy
who has just come back and has some sort of
issues that he's dealing with, which is you know, there's
it's just said, there's reports of him having a real
beef with the.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Church of Latter day Saints.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
But I've heard from a few people this morning they
prefer not to be called Mormons, and so I guess
I'll try to avoid that, but I'll also point out
that almost everybody else calls the Mormons, so you're just
gonna have to live with that. And you know, but
let's also take a moment to point out that there
were a couple idiots on Twitter and other social media
platforms who felt that yesterday was the right time to
lay out their beefs with the theological interpretations of the.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Now, let me tell you, they're not always my cup
of tea, but they always just seem like the nicest
people you'd ever want to run into and let me
just say, after they've just been assaulted, is not the
time for this debate. It can wait till much. It
could wait a week, it could wait a month. Nobody
needs to hear that. Nobody needs to hear your gripes
about the Mormon Church, A pardon my Church of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Latter day Saints. It just is awful.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And you know, I saw some people apparently this guy
had a picture of himself on his social media feeds
in twenty nineteen with a Trump twenty twenty shirt. So
I saw people say, oh, this is one of yours,
right wingers, Well, hey, one of mine. Hell no, you know,
the whole bunch of people would say, not one of ours. Now,
I think it's pretty obvious that this, like what we're
seeing here, is this phenomenon in which people have problems
(04:55):
in their lives and they decide the reason their lives
stink are them. Times them are the Catholic Church, Sometimes
them is the Church of Jesus Christ, the Latter Day Saints.
Sometimes it's Ice, sometimes it's Charlie Kirk. They just find
somebody out there. Jews, you know, they're always a popular
escapegoat and people walk around with the idea, well, if
(05:16):
I just took care of them, well, then obviously my
life will get better. And that's not what It never
works out that way. It always turns out with All
you've done is made a lot more people miserable. All
you've done is killed a whole bunch of innocent life.
I get really sick of this, and it's just extraordinarily frustrating.
In today's Morning Jolt, I note that Michigan has red
flag laws, California has red flag laws. Didn't do anything
(05:37):
for that guy who shot into the TV station. The
red flag laws really only work if there's somebody who
cares about the person and notices that they're spiraling downward
into greater fits of paranoia and rage and stuff like that,
and goes to authorities and says, I'm really worried that
this person is going to do something either harms themselves
or harm other people, and you know, so like yeah,
(05:59):
this this, this, you know, type of law could and
should work in circumstances like this, but that requires somebody
to come forward. And my fear is is there are
people in America who are probably mentally ill, may have
addiction problems, may have all kinds of other problems in
their lives, and they have access to a firearm and
there's no one around them who cares enough to say
(06:20):
that guy should not have access to a gun. So
just just an extraordinarily frustrating way. But after noting the
political violence in the last few weeks, I feel like
we just had to talk about this on this podcast
today and to say that, you know, yeah, you know,
there's been a lot of left wing you know, political
violence lately, but that is not the only place we
can come from. And you know, if it comes from
(06:40):
religious animus or whatever other twisted thoughts were going through
these you know, this guy's head, the people are just
as dead. It's just as unacceptable, it's just as horrifying,
and just as almost more than we can bear.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Greg.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Yeah, evil and unhinged is evil and unhinged. There's a
lot of speculation going around on social media, but the motivation,
some believe it was personal towards specific people at the church.
I'm going to let the authority sort that out and
come to the conclusions. I'm not going to speculate on that,
But I don't know. There was a larger, a larger
issue that was driving him. It may have been specific people,
but either way, it's completely wrong. It's completely horrible, and
(07:17):
it needs to be condemned and it needs to stop.
Quick follow up on the red flag laws, some of
the Second Amendment advocates who aren't big fans of red
flag laws believe that Second Amendment rights are restricted if
you take the guns away while the case is being adjudicated. Obviously,
the accounter argument would be they might be more unstable
if they know people are trying to take their guns
away and they still have access to them. What do
(07:38):
you make of that argument that they're being deprived of
rights until the court would decide that they are unfit
to possess them.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
One of the rare areas I've had a disagreement with
my good friend Cam Edwards is that Cam thinks that
red flag laws are really not all that effective, and
points out accurately, you take away a guy's guns, but
he still has the desire to hurt people of people
down with a car, He could attack somebody with a knife,
baseball bat. The world is full of things that you
can use to hurt lots of people. And he says
(08:07):
that he points out that in states with these red
flag laws. The attitude of the local estate government is
often well, we've taken away his guns, our work is
done here, and we could leave this guy. And there's
no sense of like, well, this person needs to go
to some sort of required mental health counseling something to determine.
Assuming they've determined, yes, this person who's in a state
where they could harm themselves or harm somebody else, how
(08:28):
do we get them out of that state? How do
we get them to a point where they're not a
threat to anybody else with a gun or without a gun,
or with some other weapon. So I think that's an
entirely fair objection. I also think it's entirely fair like
when they announced these things, the fear was that everybody
was going to use them against their neighbor, that this
was going to be you know, we're going to have
a lot of nonsensical claims and false claims and stuff
(08:49):
like that. My sense is that we haven't seen that,
which is good. It doesn't mean that the potential for
abuse of these laws is not out there. That would
require good police work, good judgments by judges. We would
need everybody to act like responsible actor when it comes
to you know determining whether someone should have one of
their constitutional rights abrogated. But hey, Greg, if you does
anything Americans have demonstrated lately, the we're all responsible actors
(09:12):
when it matters the most.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
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Today is September twenty ninth, which I know this is
going to be a stretch. Tomorrow is September thirtieth, and
that means that's the end of the fiscal year. And
as of right now, there's not a funding mechanism in
(11:10):
place to keep the government open, which means that there's
not a deal by midnight tomorrow, there will be a
partial government shutdown. And so, as we've talked about a
little bit certainly talked about last week, the Republicans are
basically pushing forward a clean extension. They do want a
little extra money for security measures for different things, but
for the most part, it is a clean extension which
is still under Biden level of funding levels, which is
(11:33):
actually kind of frustrating to me. They claim that they
want to push it to November twenty first, give lawmakers
time to go through regular order. I'm skeptical they'll actually
be able to accomplish that, but hey, I like the
optimism there. Democrats want to add on about a trillion
and a half dollars in extra spending, which Republicans are
not going to go forward. All part of it is
to renew Obamacare subsidies, which Democrats approved as part of
(11:56):
the appropriations process not that long ago. And now they're
trying to claim that Republicans are the ones zeroing those out.
And they also want to reinstate federal dollars for healthcare
for illegal aliens. And so here's jd Vance speaking about,
no way are Republicans going to entertain any of this.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
We have to realize the Democrats.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Their whole argument is we are going to shut down
the government unless you give a trillion dollars for medical
benefits for illegal aliens. The major healthcare reform that we've
done in this administration is we've made it harder to
give your harder tax dollars to medical benefits for illegal aliens.
The Democrats want undo that, and they're saying that unless
you give that money to those legal aliens, unless you
(12:37):
give those benefits to those illegal aliens, we are going
to shut down the people's government. It's such a stark
contrast between two parties priorities. We want to put the
government to work for the American people first. The Democrats
want to shut down the government because we won't give
free benefits to illegal aliens. It's such a good, again
contrast for what the Democrats stand.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
For and what Republicans stand for.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
We're not going to be Look, we're not going to
be taken hostage by the Democrats desperate desire to give
your tax money to a llegal aliens. We're just not
going to do it.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, the Democrats are in no position to foist a
trillion and a half dollars in spending. Republicans, of course,
can't get to sixty votes in the Senate, So Jim,
I think the Republicans certainly have the easier argument here.
I'm not expecting the media to play fair. I already
think they're not. But what's your sense of where the
debate stands and how long this could go?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Look, I've made mistakes before and foreseen, you know, made
projections about how a political debate is going to go,
and it's gone in.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
A different direction.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But I really have a hard time seeing how Democrats
come out of this one smelling like a rose and
feeling like they've gotten what they've wanted. And you know,
they're base enthusiastic and sure they're not going to get
the one point five trillion, you know, like that's that's
you know, unthinkable. Three thoughts on as we're in these
final hours. First of all, since I won't be on
(13:54):
the podcast tomorrow foreshadowing our ending, you know, happy fiscal
new Year's Eve to all those who celebrate, you're getting
together down at the accounting department of your company and
watching the fiscal ball drop or something. Of course, if
you're doing it at a federal office building, I guess
at midnight you go home because you know the government
will be shutting down in all likelihood, barring some dramatic change,
for the next day or so. Anytime you see a
(14:15):
news article about the potential government shutdown and it says
Hakeem Jeffries said, you could ignore that part because the
Democrats that might the Republicans have the votes to pass
the House part. What House Democrats do doesn't really matter.
What does matter is what Senate Democrats do, because they
can filibuster the spending bill. Now I point out that like,
you know, you Republicans will only need three Senate Democrats
(14:39):
to say this, or you know, like I'm sorry, seven partner,
they have fifty three, they need seven more. Seven Senate
Democrats can start saying, wow, this, this shutdown is making
us look bad. Federal workers are waiting to get paid.
This is you know, little miss off more and misocmonics
classes cannot visit the Smithsonian. You know, I can't take
the pressure. I'm going to vote to to passically spending bill,
(15:01):
so like they have that. The The thing is, I
think the Democrats are really counting on the media to
do a lot of heavy lifting for them and to
try to make an argument, Oh, look at those unreasonable
Republicans who want not entirely a clean spending bill, but
a little bit more spending on security, and all the
Democrats want is merely one point five trillion dollars in
healthcare spending. Like that's really because like there was maybe
(15:23):
a time in the nineties or the Obama era where
like that might have been enough to convince the public
that Republicans are being obstinate and Democrats were being reasonable.
I don't think the mainstream media has the power that
it used to anymore. They can't dominate the narrative. Trump
will be out there screaming bloody murder and saying this
is all the Democrats' fault. You know, every Republican will
(15:44):
probably be singing from the same songbook. I don't think
this will be an easy one. And at the heart
of this, you know, why are Democrats threatening to shut
down the government? Greg Well, you know, they had the
opportunity to do this earlier in the year. Chuck Schumer
chose not to do that because he knew that they're
was not that they didn't have the votes that they
filibustering would put them on the you know, probably the
(16:05):
one popular side of the issue. And also there was
no sense of what Democrats wanted as a concession.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Well, now they've got the concession one point five perion, Well,
they're not going to get that right in the end.
Why are Democrats furious with Chuck Schumer and the party leadership. Well,
they feel like they're not fighting now. As we've discussed
in this podcast many times, the reason they're not fighting
is because there are forty seven of them in the Senate.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
They don't have like and they're a minority in the House.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes, they just got the new replacement for Jerry Connolly
and about the other one out in the Southwest. But
really they don't have the votes, so they don't get
much influence in what happens.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
They can fill up.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
They put a bunch of blue slips on some nominees.
Senate rules changed a bit to adjust that. Like you're
in the minority, welcome to that. You know, Republicans in
the past have gotten frustrated by it, and you know,
maybe some of the criticism of McConnell and stuff in
the past and Bayner, you know, there's a our guys
aren't fighting enough.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
But when you don't have the votes, there's not what
you can do.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
So I think in the end, the core of why
is the government shutting down because the Democratic base does
not understand the reality of politics and believes that if
the Democrats it's the it's the tickerbell strategy where if
you just applod hard enough, the Republicans will Democrats will
find a way to have leverage over Donald Trump and
they don't have that.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
They don't have to they'll have leverage over the spending process. No,
they don't. So you know, it's it's green lantern.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
If you just have enough will power, you'll be able to,
you know, get control over the budget process.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
No, that's not the way it works.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
So in the end, kind of an ignorance of how
the congressional spending process works is really at the heart
of all this. But you know, the good news is
I suspect this means that Chuck Schumer does not want
this to go on forever. At some point he'll have
a climb down. He'll look for any old bone that
the Republicans are willing to throw, and he'll try to
convince his base that that was a big win. And
my suspicion is they will not. His base will not
(17:51):
be persuaded at all.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Chuck Schummer feels like he's been taking hostage at this
point because we saw what his general instincts were earlier
in the year. But he's paid such a heavy political
price for that. On the left, I think he still
thinks he has a chance to still be the Democratic
leader in the next Congress. I think that's gone no
matter what happens here or or the rest of this
current Congress. But he's gonna pretend that he's on that side.
(18:12):
And Republicans are having a final time on social media
playing clips of Schumer, of Elizabeth Warren, of Bernie Sanders
from previous shutdown showdowns, talking about how irresponsible and reckless
it is to shut down the government. So good good
social media messaging there.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
And let's point out Schumer has been the leader of
the Senate Democrats for like more than a decade.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Now that's a goodever.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Harry Reid left, Yeah, right, you know, like, and I
think if he asked Democrats how has it been the
last decade or so, they'd probably say lousy. You know,
they're really again Trump's victory. It's not necessarily Chuck Schumer's fault,
but they probably don't feel like Chuck Schumer has been
this machiavellian mastermind who has been blocking Trump at every way.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
So like, you know, Chuck, maybe.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
It's time to say, you know, it's been a good run,
thank you for your time. I'm not you know, I'll
pull a Pelosi. I'm not gonna leave the chamber entirely,
but it's time for somebody else to be in charge
of the chamber and let all of this becomes somebody
else's headache.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
But the charisma that just the sheer charisma of Chuck Schumer,
I mean, how do you say me not of that
fors It's just amazing. Plus he's al Servis, Yeah, whorland raplocharisma.
Just to tell you how far the left the Democrats
have gone here in the last thirty years. Here's Hillary
Clinton talking about medical care and federal dollars for illegals
(19:25):
back in the nineties.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
As to illegal aliens, we agree with you that we
do not think the comprehensive health care benefits should be
extended to those who are undocumented workers and illegal aliens.
We do not want to do anything to encourage more
illegal immigration into this country. We know now that too
many people come in for medical care as it is,
(19:46):
we certainly don't want them having the same benefits that
American citizens are entitled to have.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
Hillary Cara is still a train wreck, and I'm glad
it failed. But Jim, that would get you pretty much
banished from the Democratic Party these days.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
I can't believe she would commit that. Heye crime, Breg,
It's incredible, incredible.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
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(21:33):
exclusions do apply all right, Jim on to our crazy
Martini Now and as we were trying to track the
latest details out of Grand Blank, Michigan, yesterday we then
got news from New York City Mayor Eric Adams that
he is not going to continue his campaign for mayor.
(21:54):
So he makes this decision at the end of September,
when just a few weeks ago he called this major
press conference to make him major announcement to say I'm
not leaving the race. Nothing's changed. Cuomo's a racist, basically
was the main point of the threat. He's trying to
force me, as a black mayor, out of the race
so he has a better chance to win. But yesterday
Eric Adams goes on social media. Why he's sitting on
(22:15):
his stairs while he makes the announcement, I'll never know.
Maybe it's just kind of the family feel there. But
he's decided that the system is not being fair to
him and he he's just not going to win.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
And yet, despite all we've achieved, I cannot continue my
re election campaign. The constant media speculation about my future
and the campaign finance Boy's decision to withhole millions of
dollars have undermined my ability to raise the funds needed
(22:48):
for a serious campaign. I hope that over time New
Yorkers will see this city thrive under our leadership. The
policy we put in place should be continued and expanded.
A hope you will see that despite the headlines and
(23:08):
in you window, always put you before me, always.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Thrived seems a little strong. I know, if the city
has thriveds probably better than Deblasio. But I mean that's
the lowest possible bar you could ever add. So the
next person, of course, that people think needs to leave
the race is our friend Curtis Sliwa. That's not happening.
He puts out a statement yesterday actually from his spokesperson
that says Curtis Lee was the only candidate who can
(23:33):
defeat Mamdani. Our team, our resources, and our funding are unmatched.
Most importantly, we have the best solutions to help working
people afford to stay in New York City and feel safe. So, Jim,
the numbers still aren't going to be great because Adams
was you know, single digits.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, and there aren't that that he Adams voters to
reallocate to all these other candidates that you.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
So what do you make of his flip flop on
on being in the race and whether this actually is
going to make much difference in the final fallacy.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
So a couple of weeks ago, Greg, when word broke
that you know, Adams is announcing a as as a
press previously unscheduled press conference late on a Friday afternoon,
if I remember correctly, You're on Twitter and like, well,
it's not going to hold a press conference to announce
he's not quitting, right, And that was exactly what he did.
They kind of like, my news is that I have
no news, nothing has changed, and he The thing that
(24:22):
got me is like, we've been you know, you and
I have covered politics for a long time. It is
particularly in presidential primaries, but in all kinds of races.
It's not that shocking for a candidate that's trailing badly
and the campaign is going nowhere that some unlucky campaign
spokesman gets shoved in front of the cameras to say
this campaign is going on, there's no truth to the rumors,
(24:44):
we are in it to win it, blah blah blah,
And this campaign spokesman knows that at that moment, the
candidate is on the phone with other candidates trying to
get something in exchange for their endorsement, right, so we've
used to that.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
But it was just an Adams spokesman.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Who got shoved out there to offer the implausible spin.
Adams himself went out there and he insisted that, you know,
he of course he's not gonna quit this race, because
let me tell you, you know, New Yorkers never quit.
And I'm just like the fighting spirit and blah blah
blah blah blah, you know, and then three weeks like, never.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Mind, I'm out just this like no one. But like
it was, it was the indignation.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
It was the sense of how dare you accuse me
of leaving this race early?
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Oh? What's that?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I'm really unpopular? Never mind, I'm out of here. This
is you know, it was kind of infuriating, uh to this.
By the way, you're asked why he was sitting on
the stairs, Uh, little known factor rereg that these stairs
are actually Mayor Eric adams Second favorite place to sit.
First place, of course, is first class in Turkish airlines.
And this whole thing, when you kind of died it
on a corruption thing, stop telling me. I always put
(25:44):
you first, particularly if you were a Turkish club that
needed to get past the fire inspections. Let me tell
you that's when Eric Adams was always putting you first
over that.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
I also don't think Curtis Sliwa will uh will drop out.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
I'd be shocked, honestly.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
And I you know, he sounded really I am fatic
in our interview with him, and I don't think that's
I don't think that's bluster. I think that's just who Curtisely.
He's not interested in an administration job. He doesn't want
to be ambassador to someplace. He just wants to, you know,
live in New York City and take care of small
animals and let feral cats take care of the rat problem,
(26:18):
and like that would seem like something would appeal to
Eric Adams. The one two things though, crime has gone
down a little bit late, you know, since the beginning
of the year, and Eric Adams hates rats. So those
are two nice things we can say about this guy
as he prepares to depart this I have. You know, Look,
one of the reasons I'm glad we did that interview was, Look,
we've got Mom Damie, who's a disaster for the city.
(26:38):
Andrew Cuomo, who leaves a trail of slime everywhere he
goes and we put a lot of effort into getting
Andrew Cuomo out of public office, and the idea that, oh,
now it's time for conservatives to turn around and support
him strikes me as a really unpersuasive argument. Yeah, Curtisely
was an unjok, there's no getting around it. But I
kind of feel like, if you're right of center, well
(26:58):
you could shrug your should and some people are saying, well,
let's let New York sink into the Hudson River and
write it off, and I'm not willing to do that
for one of the.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Greatest cities in the world.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
All by the way, when things are bad in New
York City, then you tend to see bad economic effects
throughout the entire region and country. So it's not like
we can just say, oh, let the crazy socialists run
the city. Let's you know, it won't be that bad.
So I think on the right we probably should be
trying to help Curtis Leewa. It's gonna be tough, no
going about it. But the idea of like, if you're
a conservative, you need something better than Andrew Cuomo as
(27:28):
your consolation prize, and I just you know, yeah, if
you see it differently. Fine, it's a free country. I
don't live in New York City. I travel there every
now and then, grew up not too far from it.
But all in all, yes, we got some. You know,
we have two extraordinarily bad options and a long shot
third option who's considerably better. I'd be supporting the third option.
I don't see one of these guys, either Cuomo or
(27:50):
a mom Dammy as you know, as a as a
good vote.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Your mileage may vary.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
But yeah, also it's kind of interesting, you know, Andrew
Eric Adams, who you know probably should never run for reelection,
finally recognizes it right before October.
Speaker 4 (28:03):
Two straight years prominent Democrats ran for reelection when they
probably shouldn't have. Neither one of them turned out too well. Yeah,
neither one of them made it to election day. Amazing. Jim,
you will be gone the rest of this week and
most of next week starting tomorrow. I don't know how
much we're allowed to divulge now, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So for listeners who don't know, like so for a
lot of these days, sometimes I'll say I'm going to
a country that's being innovated by Russia.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You can do the math on that. You can figure
out you this one.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
I am going to a country that, let me just check, Okay,
as of this conversation, is not at war. That doesn't
mean it hasn't been in war, not that long ago.
This is not a particularly dangerous trip compared to some
of my other places I've gone to this year, Ukraine, Syria,
et cetera. Really excited and people wonder how do you
get on these trips. Well, you do reporting from one
(28:50):
foreign country. People seem to like it and say, hey,
would you like to join me on this trip to
this other country. So that's I'm going to one. I
will be back here on October tenth. I expect to
be telling you all about it. It's going to be,
you know, probably like my other shrips to places like Taiwan,
a lot of briefings, a lot of meeting with government officials,
getting how they see America, how they see the world.
And it should be great. But I will be on
(29:10):
a plane for extraordinarily long time. But apparently sitting in
the lap of luxury at least that's what they're telling
us is going to be the flight. So it should
be going to go anyway. Good luck to everyone while
I'm gone. This should be fine. I should be fine.
I've come boy from every previous trip. Can't wait to
be back.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Jim drop you a little clue there. I don't know
if you can figure it out from that, but anyway, Jim, seriously,
safe travels, have a good time, and we'll see again
late next week.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
See you in early to mid October.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Jim Garrety, National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America.
Thanks so much for being with us today. Please subscribe
to the Three Martini Lunch Podcast if you don't already,
tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
your five star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep
those coming. Get us on your home devices. All you
have to say is play Three Martini Lunch Podcast. Follow
us both on X He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at
Greg Corumbus. Have a terrific Monday, and join us again
(29:57):
on Tuesday for the next Three Martini Lunch
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