In an exclusive interview in his midtown office, Sliwa speaks of the challenges New Yorkers face and how it would be a shandah to have a socialist in Gracie Mansion. Interview.
For many New Yorkers, choosing from the field of candidates vying to upset Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani in the upcoming NYC mayoral race boils down to “Anyone but Mamdani”. The polling so far has three main opposing candidates - former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams - consistently stacked up in that order.
Sliwa, the Republican in the red beret, hopes to bump up in place. This is round two for Sliwa, who lost to Mayor Eric Adams in the 2021 mayoral elections. The blunt talking radio talk show host, known for peppering his speech with Yiddish phrases, now polls ahead of the current mayor.
The founder of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit crime prevention organization that began patrolling the crime-ridden streets of NYC wearing red berets in the 1970’s, is intimately aware of what it takes to maintain law and order on NYC streets and subways. But Sliwa faces a seemingly uphill battle in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 8-1.
In an exclusive interview in his midtown office, Sliwa proves that he is every bit as engaging off the air as on. Punctuating his speech with historical allusions and tales of well-deserved bravado, he speaks of the challenges New Yorkers face and how it would be a shandah to have a socialist in Gracie Mansion.
According to Sliwa, the dangers of a mayor Mamdani would be irreparable.
Unlike previous decades, when NYC rotted and was then resuscitated, Sliwa does not believe NYC would recoup this time. “In the 1970’s, a million people fled and the Bronx was burning down. But back then, if you were in business you had to have a shingle in New York City, even if you were losing money. Now, all that has changed. You don't need to have office space in New York City. You can be in Waterloo, Iowa and have an impact globally. If we were to allow New York City to default in terms of people fleeing and businesses leaving, why would they have to return?”
As Covid has demonstrated, New York’s loss is other states’ gain. “If NYC becomes a socialist enclave, other cities will vie to be the epicenter of capitalism in the world. You will have a migration of wealth, equity, and business. In Miami, they are probably hoping that New York City self-destructs. Same for Atlanta, Charleston, Greensboro, Houston, Nashville. They're already trying to encourage businesses and residents to leave. You're never going to reverse that. And the socialists don't mind if there's decay as long as socialism prevails. So, I believe in ‘improve, don't move’.”
To that end, I ask Sliwa if he has a pathway to victory.
He points to the Independent voter. “Independents outnumber Republicans now 2 to 1. It’s the fastest growing category. They've chosen an independent position because they're not happy with Republicans, Democrats, or the far left. I can get them to vote.”
Sliwa’s math includes Republicans, Independents, moderate Democrats, and the Right. I ask if extreme left policies are pushing enough Independents and moderate Democrats into the Republican Party. Sliwa points to Chicago. “I think Chicago is a perfect litmus test for that. We saw how Johnson was the African American candidate in that runoff, and black people - the majority there - voted for him. Now they are severely disappointed. He’s only at 20% of the polls.”
Sliwa suggests that the first ever independent line he created to protect animals will also drum up votes. “No kill shelters, putting animal abusers in jail, is very appealing to women, especially. Men don't seem to understand how many women who love animals will vote for me, maybe for that reason alone, which can give me the edge.”
Can these push Sliwa over the finish line?
Sliwa himself acknowledges what so many people think - the notion that “Everybody loves Curtis, but he can't win.” But he pulls out the statistics that prove his favorability ratings - at 35% - are higher than Cuomo’s and Adam’s. He also presents the flip side. “Look at the numbers. Eric Adams has 65% unfavourability. I've never seen that in politics before. That means 65% of the people will never vote for him.”
When I ask Sliwa if there is a chance of coalescing around one candidate, the answer is an adamant negative.
“No,” Sliwa says. “All three of us would be like three scorpions in a brandy glass. We don't like one another; we don't get along.”
Sliwa blames Adams for the mayoral mess that the race has descended into. “I attribute Zohran Mamdani’s rise to the failure of Eric Adams as mayor. If he had been a halfway decent mayor, none of this would have emerged. We wouldn't even know who Mamdani is, because Adams would be running as a Democratic incumbent and would have won a Democratic primary. It would have been the Democrat Eric Adams versus the Republican Curtis Sliwa, round two. Governor Cuomo was such a failed governor. He's responsible for most of the chaos we have, like no cash bail. The only reason he entered the race is he saw that Eric Adams was wounded and reached out to Trump to keep him from going to jail. So, Cuomo saw his opportunity. Otherwise, Cuomo would have focused on challenging Hochul in the primary, and Mamdani would have remained the assemblyman of Astoria, Queens.”
Blame aside, jittery New Yorkers are looking for a savior as they see Mamdani hold a steady edge in the polls. As the Republican candidate, and an unconventional one at that, one would think Sliwa would look to the top Republican, also an unconventional leader, for support. But Sliwa has not won President Trump’s endorsement so far and has been quoted as asking the president not to intervene.
In a recent interview with Fox 5, Sliwa indicated that Trump’s interference in the NYC election can embolden Mamdani. “Every day that it’s Trump versus Zohran Mamdani, it’s a good day for Zohran Mamdani.”
While he acknowledges his “love-hate relationship” with President Trump, Sliwa is quick to note that he is not alone. “Trump has had a love-hate relationship with a lot of people. He’s a New Yorker. He knows that at times you agree, at other times, you're at each other's throats. That's the kind of relationship we've had. I don't have a working relationship with Trump, but I'm not disrespectful either.”
Sliwa realizes that Mamdani has made Trump the issue in an effort to evade discussing substantive topics.
“You see how Mamdani is running against Donald Trump. He doesn't want to run against Cuomo or Adams or Sliwa, because then he has to focus on local issues. It's easier for him to run against Trump, so he has a five-borough tour against Trump.”
Other prominent Republicans have come out in support of Sliwa. Reps. Mike Lawler and Elise Stefanik have endorsed him, as has the Republican State Chairman Ed Cox. He just received $1.9M in public matching funds for his campaign by the Campaign Finance Board, which he points out surpass what Mamdani received.
Sliwa is counting on upping his campaign war chest.
“People don't realize that you don't get money when you don't have a primary. This is my first opportunity, and there'll be even more money because I have all the small donors. I don't have billionaires like Adams and Cuomo. And now we find out Soros and his son are backing Mamdani. I have blue-collar, working-class people, average everyday people, and that's a very powerful voting-block, despite not getting Trump's open endorsement.”
That doesn’t mean Siwa isn’t looking for financing from NYC’s wealthy business sector. He recently met with a group of them in the Hamptons and described the “vertigo” of the community that originally backed Cuomo, then Adams after Cuomo’s primary loss, and now Cuomo again.
Sliwa says many in this sector are now interested in meeting him. He spoke with Catherine Wild, the CEO of the Partnership of New York, and asserts that she was very impressed with his knowledge of the economy and his pro-growth, slash-tax Republican positions. “I told businessmen to take a deep breath. Look at the analytics. Don't immediately jump from one campaign to another campaign. They're just out of their minds in fear, fright and hysteria.”
Sliwa is unsure if this will translate into funding. “Will they give me the money? Will they support me? Only time will tell, but they're at least now reaching out to me. They’ll support someone if they think he has a chance. They see it's a four-person race. They see I start with 28%. And if I bump it up to 32% or 33%, I'm going to be the next mayor. You just do the math. Eric can't crack double digits. He can't get matching funds. I have more money now available for the campaign than Cuomo. And Cuomo was swimming in money originally.”
Sliwa is counting on Adams’s continued inability to get matching funds, because of concerns over possible legal violations, and his loss of the African American vote to Cuomo and Mamdani. According to Sliwa, Adams is now dependent on the Orthodox Jewish vote, a vote Sliwa is determined to get. In the 2021 mayoral election, according to Sliwa, he won 54% of the vote in the heavily Chassidic Boro Park’s District 48, while Adams took only 39%.
With lingering resentment at Cuomo’s ill treatment of Orthodox Jews during Covid and Adams’s dismal polling numbers, Sliwa hopes to siphon Orthodox Jewish votes away from both. Sliwa has a long history of pro-Israel activism and defense of Jews from antisemitism. He and the Guardian Angels are remembered as the protectors of Chabad Jews in Crown Heights during the riots of 1991.
Still, many Jews recall some hurtful and objectionable comments that Sliwa made about the haredi community in the past. And they wonder if Sliwa is on their side. When I ask Sliwa to clarify, he is quick to express remorse.
“First of all, that was heated in the politics of the time in Orange County back in 2018,” Sliwa said. “I clearly said things that I regret saying, and I certainly apologize. In fact, Zev Brenner, who runs Talkline Communications, had me on his show a number of times and I stood up and said, ‘Hey, I made a mistake. We make mistakes in our life. But you don't have a better friend than Curtis Sliwa. When you're in need, who's always been there? Curtis Sliwa. And not just in Crown Heights.’ Nobody makes an issue of it, except obviously my political adversaries. Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo, they're not antisemites, but they too have done things that have hurt the Jewish communities. Cuomo went behind closed doors and apologized. He never did a public apology like I did.”
Sliwa remembers the time he came to the rescue of Jews in Crown Heights when the community was being terrorized.
“That's when you had Al Sharpton and Sonny Carson causing trouble. And Eric Adams was with them. At that time, Adams was a devotee of Louis Farrakhan. Now, that doesn't mean Adams is an antisemite. People change. In no way, shape or form, is he an antisemite. But nobody else was there for the Lubavitchers.”
As far as Jews are concerned, the stakes in this election cannot be higher.
Jews are facing a double threat of socialism and antisemitism. The dangers of a hardcore, unapologetic antisemite as mayor of a city with the largest Jewish population in the country intensify at a time when antisemitic incidents are at an all-time high. Especially when Mamdani is bent on defunding the police and is stacking his campaign with known antisemites like ex-Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
Sliwa is attuned to that fear. And he feels that as mayor he would have the tools to stem rising antisemitism with prevention through education. “I understand Jews; I grew up with Jews. I don't think they understand that people in elective office have the power to alter antisemitism in the schools. When Cuomo controlled the Department of Education in the state, he never implemented a mandatory curriculum teaching people about the evils of antisemitism. Likewise, Adams could have done it. He controls the Department of Education. It's got a $41 billion budget. They just don't want the blowback.”
He explains that in order to thwart the spread of antisemitism, prevention must start early on.
“If you really want to cut into anti Semitism, you have to do it early on in the schools - in second, third, fourth grade - because antisemitism starts in the home. A kid may come home spewing antisemitism and his home may not correct that behavior. Kids pick up a lot of it in the streets. This is historical. And history repeats itself. You know, when all else fails, what do you do? You blame the Jews.”
Sliwa lauds Trump’s legal action against universities for antisemitic practices, but he believes that “by then, it’s too late”. His plan as mayor is simple. “What I'm going to do is get control of that $41 billion budget with all the antisemites who exist at the Department of Education, and I would tell them that at second, third grade, we're going to have mandatory teaching to kids about the evils of antisemitism. That includes Holocaust education. I'll deal with the blowback. And there's going to be a lot of blowback.”
This is something Sliwa insists that Adams and Cuomo could have done but didn’t because “they won't touch that third rail. I'm used to touching third rails. Both these men had an opportunity to do it in very powerful ways by controlling that budget.” He maintains that if there is pushback at the education department, he will fire the Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, teachers, and principals.
Sliwa remembers the failure of Chancellor Banks during the antisemitic incident at the high school in Hillcrest a year ago, when a Jewish teacher got chased through the halls and had to barricade herself in an office to protect herself from menacing students screaming antisemitic epithets. “There were no consequences, there was no discipline. And that's taking place in other public schools with taxpayer money. So that's where the mayor can really have an input and start addressing antisemitism.”
A recent poll reportedly shows that 83% of people voted for Mamdani in the primary because of his pro-Palestinian stance. Sliwa agrees that Gaza is an excuse for antisemitism and blasts the “crazies in the street with the shmata on their face” who are completely ignorant of the facts.
That trend is being mainstreamed.
“Gaza gives oxygen to antisemitism. America is divided, but every time they see an image of Gaza, it pushes more and more people over to the socialists.”
That animus is directed at all Jews. “Guess what? In the eyes of an antisemite, whether you're rich, you're poor, you're in a shtetl or a mansion, you're a Jew, you're a target.”
Antisemitism on the right is not taking a backseat either. It’s accelerating, and Sliwa vigorously slams it. “Oh, you got so many on the extreme right. They were always there, but they were quiet. They didn't think that they would be tolerated. They used code language. I recognize the code language.”
While Sliwa stresses education as an antidote to antisemitism, he cautions Jews not to depend solely on Gentiles.
“Jews have to organize among themselves. That's why the State of Israel came about. There are good Gentiles, but do not rely on Gentiles, because history tells you that is replete with failure. If you do, you're going to be disappointed.”
“Travel the world, you find Jews in places you never expect to find them because they are the merchant class. But then when there are problems locally in these countries, historically they turn on the Jews. ‘You got six months to pack your bag and get out of here.’ There's a resentment, a jealousy that exists. ‘Where did they acquire that wealth? Why are they doing so well educationally?’ And what I would do as mayor is say, ‘Follow their path. They believe in education. So don't despise them, don't hate them, don't be jealous of them. Ask what is it that they're doing. How does such a small percentage do so well?’ It's all about education.”
Sliwa’s frank assessment is buttressed with a predominantly positive interaction with the Jewish community and a candid desire to augment outreach.
Will it tip the scales come November? We will have to wait and see.