00:02:24.760um man how you feeling uh well i'm in the ring right yeah uh political ring but it's it's uh
00:02:32.400it's it's like a boxing ring wrestling ring uh we're getting down to it we have about 10 days
00:02:38.280what they call early voting in new york we have a period of early voting november 4th is the
00:02:43.420election so on one hand you feel relieved uh that you're coming down to the end right because it's
00:02:50.760a long process. On the other hand, as you know, the anxiety goes up, the tension goes up, the
00:02:58.500attention goes up, and that's where we are now. I have a debate tomorrow. These two debates left.
00:03:05.480The debates are very important. People tend to start to focus the last couple of weeks, right?
00:03:11.480They watch the campaign with one eye as it drones on, but the last couple of weeks,
00:03:15.840they start to focus so this is an important period now and it's just a 24-7 period right
00:03:23.960you're just out there touching as many people as you can as often as you can doing podcasts with
00:03:29.600youtubers yes sir i think we should we should set up a little bit of context here as well like this
00:03:34.720this new york city mayor mayoral race is is highly contentious highly uh uh talked about uh between
00:03:41.900you and Zoran um I'm gonna mess this up so many times say Mamdani um and uh going into this uh
00:03:48.840election I think where where are we at from a from at least a speculated polls standpoint right now
00:03:54.480you have three people in the race so you're splitting the vote uh Mamdani is the lead I'm
00:04:00.520second there's a Republican candidate who's third uh if uh on a three-person race Mamdani has the
00:04:09.980benefit uh if the republican drops out of the race or his vote is compressed he gets a fairly
00:04:18.340minimal vote because people don't see him as a viable candidate then we're looking at a head
00:04:23.960to head race and we did also just have uh adams mayor adams dropout correct which which based on
00:04:31.880a potential endorsement in a direction would also influence polling as well correct that would also
00:04:36.820make a difference but you're right mayor adams dropped out uh because he was he didn't want to
00:04:42.260be a spoiler in the race this race is different as you said because you know elections are normally
00:04:47.660between two people jack and jill who do you like better uh democrat or republican even this is uh
00:04:55.800but a question of philosophies right i am a democrat my father was a democrat i worked for
00:05:02.080Bill Clinton. I'm a lifelong Democrat. Mamdani is a socialist. They call themselves democratic
00:05:09.760socialists, but he's a socialist. And there's a national socialist organization, and he's a
00:05:17.420member of that. There's a statewide socialist organization. So it's a question of, are we a
00:05:25.120capitalist country capitalist city or a socialist city and that is night and day that difference
00:05:34.480can you break that down what that difference is for our audience who who may not actually know
00:05:40.120the nuances of what that means yeah if you by their policy uh they uh are heavily influenced
00:05:50.340that the state should control and basically equalize assets among people in society.
00:06:01.900So government should control the means of production, all right, not private sector
00:06:09.040companies. They're against private ownership of land. Government owns all the land and allocates
00:06:20.320land for housing, which is the exact opposite of America, right? American dream, I want to own my
00:06:25.860own home, my own backyard. No, government would own all the land. Very high taxes on the rich0.98
00:06:35.640as a way to equalize income distribution, to try to get income equality by using the tax code.
00:06:46.400government provides basic services to everyone regardless of income government provides
00:06:55.580transportation government provides child care government runs food stores so it's a government
00:07:03.480driven society as opposed to a private sector entrepreneurial capitalist society what is what
00:07:11.060And what is the benefit of having a private sector society as opposed to a state-driven society?
00:07:18.380Private sector society is capitalist society says we will – government provides certain benefits to all, public education systems to all.
00:07:30.900Government will help you if you're really poor and you're really sick because we have compassion as a society.
00:07:37.420but your success is dependent on what you do and we don't cap your success you know if uh you work
00:07:48.140really hard and you're really talented and you do really well god bless you there's no limit we're
00:07:53.340not going to limit your success uh that's the basic rule of capitalism so why is why is mamdani
00:08:00.780currently leading the polls he does very well uh well right now he's the democratic nominee
00:08:07.660uh because the his he calls himself a democratic socialist he ran in the democratic primary he won
00:08:15.020in the democratic primary in this city if you're the democrat you automatically get x percent of
00:08:22.180the vote because it's a 70 democratic city by enrollment and there are people who if you're a
00:08:30.040democrat you just vote democrat you're republican you just vote lifelong blue voters yeah and and
00:08:36.060i think i'll i'll be a devil's advocate on a lot of things today i think one of the reasons why uh
00:08:43.500mom donnie is having the success he he is and you explain the difference between socialism and
00:08:47.980capitalism uh but truthfully the the capitalistic approach in new york city lately has not been
00:08:55.020working at least in the in the in the way the system has been set up rent prices are out of
00:08:59.360control uh there's there's there's a lot of factors and a lot of uh things that are pushing
00:09:05.080people in the in the into the concept of looking in a new direction and whatever that direction is
00:09:10.580and so like when you look at the policies in this mayoral race i hate that freaking word uh rent
00:09:16.620control rikers you know there's a couple mainstay topics where do you where do you differentiate on
00:10:21.100they go call it the affordability crisis if you are middle class it is very very hard to live in
00:10:28.320this city rents number one who could that be it's a hotel room private hotel room but everything
00:10:35.520is expensive right uh restaurants are expensive uh food is expensive transportation is expensive
00:10:42.540everything is expensive and you're feeling pressure uh and he has appealed uh to that need
00:10:52.560to that uh uh feeling with what i consider very simplistic solutions that would never work
00:11:00.800but at least uh he's talking to them he also was very good on social media he's very good
00:11:08.140on social media yes he's he's basically a content creator well he's younger he's very he's you know
00:11:13.120he speaks very well he's a he's a likable enough guy how old is 33 33 years old he is yeah he his
00:11:20.060mother uh is a noted film director he was a rapper artist and he had very good social media presence
00:11:29.000uh captured the imagination he was great on tiktok uh connected with uh the younger generation he's
00:11:37.000only 33, generational shift, fresh face, blah, blah, blah. And that shtick, if you will, you're
00:11:44.920in New York. That's a New York expression, shtick. That shtick works in politics, right?
00:11:54.160And especially nowadays, a lot of people don't get into the substance. They don't want it. It's
00:11:59.320too technical. Who has the time, right? Nobody reads anything more than a tweet. So he has great
00:12:07.320slogans, freeze the rent, freeze the rent. Yeah, I'm in favor of that. He's going to freeze my
00:12:13.500rent. Yeah. Now, if you read the details, you find out that he's not really talking about you
00:12:21.260and your apartment. He's only talking about a sliver of the market, but freeze the rent sounds
00:12:27.320good free fast free buses oh yeah that sounds good fast free buses everyone wants a fast bus
00:12:35.260what do you want a slow bus fast free buses yeah that's good i'm down for that you know child care
00:12:42.420uh free child care grocery run store uh government runs grocery stores that's the
00:12:50.400i'm sorry that's the craziest one to me that's the wildest one yeah that is the craziest one
00:12:56.060Well, the concept is crazy on that one because it's that government is now going to go into the grocery store business and somehow they're going to be so efficient and effective in the grocery store business, the prices are going to be lower than private stores, which, you know, government can't figure out how to fill a pothole.
00:13:16.620Now they're going to go into the grocery store business?
00:13:41.680The difference that I think of immediately when I think of the mayor versus the politicians that we talk about more often, which is at a government level.
00:13:49.980and they are these talking heads these personalities these character characters that
00:13:54.600people buy into the difference in new york city is the mayor of new york city has to govern you
00:13:59.560actually have to get out there and you have to govern this city people don't want to be stabbed
00:14:03.200they don't want to walk on rats they want to be feel safe in the city he has a he's a very like
00:14:08.880i say he's a very likable 33 year old guy with zero experience yeah with with no experience to
00:14:13.860actually govern and and this isn't a i i don't live here i live in los angeles i have no reason
00:14:32.060Well, it would be determinative, but you are exactly right.
00:14:38.360You know, so he's good on TikTok, attractive, et cetera.
00:14:42.460If you're choosing a legislator, frankly, you're voting for a state assembly person, senator, you're voting for a congressperson, legislators, they articulate, they argue, they vote on the bill, they don't vote on the bill.
00:14:58.040Mayor, governor, these are different jobs.
00:15:11.860You're accountable. It's not rhetorical. It's reality. Any given morning, you can wake up and there's a mass shooting. Any given morning, there's a hurricane, there's a flood, there's a fire. God forbid another terrorist attack. God forbid COVID. And you have to know what the hell you're doing.
00:15:34.920It's 300,000 people. It's a $115 billion budget. 33-year-old, never managed more than five people,
00:15:44.640never had a real job. Just think about it. And it's life and death because if you don't know
00:15:56.160what you're doing or you make the wrong call, people die, right? And New York City is a national
00:16:05.300target and an international target, right? So it even compounds the mayor's job in New York City.
00:16:14.120And this is a complicated, dense, conflict-oriented place. So knowing what the hell you're doing
00:16:24.740actually matters it's not normally in the political discourse but it should be the first
00:16:30.920question right you go for any job application the first thing they say is uh what's your experience
00:16:36.760what are your qualifications not in government you know hey quick shout out to the four seasons
00:16:42.500they gave us this place uh very kind of them but also shout out to the world's number one sports
00:16:47.140fan festival fanatics fest and it's making its return to new york city oh boy i love the fanatics
00:16:52.040fest fanatics is bringing you closer to the leagues teams ww superstars me and athletes you
00:16:57.720love across four action-packed days in july meet your favorite athletes that's going to be a fun
00:17:03.680thing ww superstars get your hands on exclusive merch catch live podcasts interact with the
00:17:07.720biggest name in sports tickets go on sale this november so mark your calendars and don't miss
00:17:12.260out full information at fanaticsfest.com back to the show you've heard the chaos now you can see it
00:17:18.260Watch all your favorite podcasts from start to finish right inside the free iHeartRadio app.
00:17:25.640Catch every laugh and eye roll on shows like the Tom Green Farmcast and Park the Bus.
00:22:31.080I mean, I don't even know what to say there.
00:22:34.680So, like, maybe paint that picture of, like, what reality could look like and what someone with little experience would have to be dealing with.
00:24:58.660Uh, so reduce the police because it's a tool of government to oppress people and0.97
00:25:06.460infringe individual liberty. Uh, but create to a crazy extent, their DSA platform says
00:25:15.060reduce police down to zero, no new jails, uh, uh, release people from prisons, you know,
00:25:25.120Just really crazy stuff. No misdemeanors. Misdemeanors would be eliminated. Misdemeanors would legalize prostitution. Assault is a misdemeanor. So they wouldn't enforce any misdemeanors. So the crime rate would go way up, which in and of itself is a major problem because that would then fuel the exodus.
00:25:50.680so the consequences are very are very big here so safety's at play people's perception of the
00:25:58.760city's at play and by the way i want to i want to reiterate like me being in california him being
00:26:03.240in pr no ties to this race like we sat down with you the same way we sat down with with trump
00:26:09.260and we would we we extended an offer for kamala to come on the show she didn't we would we would
00:26:15.640extend the same offer to mom donnie to come on the show to defend his positions and to and to
00:26:20.320you know, have this, this argument, um, in a, in a place where we're not a, a pick aside type
00:26:25.840of show, just asking questions. Um, you've, you've, I want to, I want to talk about crime
00:26:31.180and Rikers, especially a little bit, but before that you've talked a lot about policies and for
00:26:36.780people in the city and people in the know policy is, is in the zeitgeist and in the, in the, is
00:26:42.300the main portion of the discussion. But I want to hit on a little bit of a, a more exterior and
00:26:48.380potentially darker um point do you think that his uh uh religion being muslim uh comes into play at
00:26:59.360all in in the idea that potentially the people of new york city are not ready for a muslim mayor
00:27:03.900no i think the uh muslim community which is quite big in new york is actually very excited
00:27:11.520about the potential of having a muslim mayor as the italian community was excited about having
00:27:18.280the first Italian mayor, and the Jewish community was excited about having the first Jewish.
00:27:23.400I don't think that's a factor. I think to the extent there's a religious factor,
00:27:28.140you have more anti-Semitic incidents in New York City than any city in the United States,
00:27:34.740which is, that is shocking, shocking to me. But that's the religious, you know, and that was
00:27:42.480inflamed obviously by the middle east and uh we will pray that this peace uh holds and uh president
00:27:50.680trump and his administration should be commended uh for what they did uh and what they've achieved
00:27:56.180so hopefully that brings down the temperature but to the extent there has been religious
00:28:01.940tension that's what it's been about and obviously like it's it's it's so apparent that there has
00:28:07.720been this rise of anti-Semitism without having to give a rationale or a reason for why it exists
00:28:12.720and it's become so prevalent online on X and so many other places. New York City has a massive
00:28:20.060Jewish community. Do you think Mamdani will put kind of extinguishing those current fires and the
00:28:29.860safety of the Jewish people in New York City at a forefront as a priority? No, he's done the
00:28:35.640opposite. You know, the Middle East issue, the Gaza issue is very controversial. And he is very
00:28:44.360much pro-Gaza. He has been very outspoken against Israel in this situation. So no, I think he believes
00:28:57.560it and uh he's been he's been quite uh outspoken about it so other than the other than rent which
00:29:07.840i i guess like i think everyone would agree that even if you're not from here when you look at rent
00:29:13.440prices in new york city they're insane it's it's absolutely out of control right and that's that's
00:29:20.680pretty obvious to anybody looking in uh what what would you say is like the next issue that's that's
00:29:26.280of the utmost importance in this race? Well, you know, rent ties into affordable housing. Why don't
00:29:32.680we have housing? Because we don't build housing. Why don't we build housing? Because government is0.74
00:29:39.120slow and incompetent. And to me, that's the root cause of a lot of this and a lot of the frustration
00:29:46.520and a lot of the alienation. You know, when you go back to, well, we're not really picking people
00:29:53.400based on qualifications. And we don't really know what an executive is supposed to do.
00:29:59.880And yeah, we hire people for mayor who have no experience managing anything, which we have done
00:30:06.740in New York City many times, as other cities have. Yeah. Then they don't know how to do the job.
00:30:13.140And then government doesn't accomplish anything. And then the frustration actually goes up because
00:30:19.920you're not making any progress. And that's what goals meet. You know, it's not just
00:30:25.120we should have been smarter in our decision making. Ultimately, what happens is the people
00:30:33.340aren't qualified for the position. They don't do the position. And now everyone is hurt and
00:30:39.200everyone is more frustrated with the entire process. You know, government is supposed to
00:30:44.560function it's not a debating society it has very real roles i'm sorry i used to do it in my vlogs
00:30:55.620it's the entrance for my theme song ayo i'm sorry i got two shirts up on wwe shop fanatics right now
00:31:01.760i hate logan paul yes i am the one behind it you're gonna monetize the haters and still humble
00:31:08.120because after all i am your humble king and i'm gonna stay humble because i'm just that humble
00:31:12.660You can grab my shirts and all WWE merch, hats, tees, replica, title, belt, superstar, collections on WWE Shop and Fanatics.
00:40:08.660The union labor, the construction trades, they are the blue-collar workers, right?
00:40:17.140They are like tremendous respect for them and the trades and what they do.
00:40:23.940As a matter of fact, we have degraded as a society that skill set and that occupation and that job.
00:40:33.620You know, uh, you have all sorts of kids who went to college and, uh, now they're barely
00:40:40.160making it, you know, being an electrician, be a carpenter, be a skilled trades, you
00:40:47.560know, those guys are highly talented, uh, highly paid, highly sought after.
00:40:54.380Uh, so yeah, those are my people, you know, do you have to make, uh, any kind of policy
00:40:59.880concessions, uh, in order to get those endorsements?
00:41:03.620uh no with i have always supported union construction anyway so uh that's a no-brainer
00:41:13.380for me i got some stuff over here oh yeah go for it hi so dylan is dylan is our show's producer but
00:41:19.700he's also our resident like new yorker yes you could probably tell new yorker born and raised
00:41:23.480brooklyn my entire life and jewish let's go i appreciate you giving trump and his administration
00:41:28.540credit for the peace in the middle east so we appreciate that um so a couple things is first
00:41:35.740of all not having if if you want less cops on the streets of new york you know nothing about new
00:41:40.480york so a vote for the other guy is a vote for destruction but maybe before you go on this right
00:41:45.920now i want you to keep in mind no no no no he's no he's fine let's let's keep it even no but it is
00:41:52.300okay but i'm telling you ask questions i'm just telling you okay that less cops is a disaster
00:41:57.320It sounds like it would be. If you're after the goal of public safety, in my mind, the idea of removing the people who enforce public safety, this is not an endorsement. Once again, that seems crazy.
00:42:08.420I want to offer a point of view. This particular issue, as I said, I just don't understand the whole defund the police. I just don't. But I see it through the lens of the police protect the citizens. That's the lens I see it through.
00:42:21.420I think this is a kind of the dress is golden white or the dress is blue and black situation where, like, the opposing side may see what you said, where it's like the police are a vehicle for the government to oppress.
01:01:29.260We live in a world now where all we see are differences
01:01:32.720and we get polarized by the differences.
01:01:37.780New Yorkers, you're forced to find the similarity
01:01:42.660and the commonality and tolerate and accept.
01:01:45.880And that is a beautiful thing. Now, we have hiccups. Anti-Semitism rises post-COVID. Trump called it the China virus. There was a lot of anti-Asian activity. There's some racial tensions. But by and large, we make it work. And that's a beautiful statement of humanity, right?
01:02:10.500uh that's one of the things uh i love i love most about it it's i it's you couldn't have said any
01:02:18.080better i i love this city i'm coming back you know i'm gonna i plan to move back here i i'm
01:02:23.560obsessed with uh going out at night meeting people and a lot of the commonality that i think people
01:02:29.460find here uh oddly enough but pretty much everybody knows this is through food i met some
01:02:34.800georgian people last night and they told me that georgian food is really good i didn't even know
01:02:38.600what that meant really thumbs up over there um and so and so um i i i completely agree with you
01:02:45.440and what what's what's your favorite pizza in the city by the way i'm a queen's boy you know
01:02:51.840there's nobody's really from new york city some people actually grew up in manhattan but very few
01:02:58.380because you had to be very rich to live in manhattan so you're a brooklyn boy or a queen's
01:03:03.360boy or a bronx boy that's really how you identify it's that an island boy uh and then you're local
01:03:09.860you're loyal to that locality right so there's like a rivalry brooklyn queens because queens
01:03:16.200is better than brooklyn so the brooklyn guys never really could get past that right so the
01:03:21.400best pizza is in queens and it's gabby's pizza on hillside avenue in queens brooklyn tries right
01:03:27.980Yeah, well, Defara and Avenue J in Brooklyn is the best.
01:03:32.760What is your order in a deli or a bakel shop?
01:13:57.400How do you reflect upon your time in office during COVID and how you handled COVID?
01:14:02.220COVID was the most horrific situation I could possibly have lived through.
01:14:13.100New York had it first and worst, and it just exploded, and nobody knew anything, and people panicked, and it was the most difficult situation to deal with.
01:14:27.060I did briefings every morning where I would tell New Yorkers what I knew, but it was horrific.
01:15:19.420Because the staff would go home at night, go home for the weekend.
01:15:24.200they catch it staff brings it in and it was just a constant cycle you know how do you stop it
01:15:31.140uh the staff have to go home and the staff see their family yeah you know so it was just
01:15:38.880it was horrific as you look back and obviously like i don't even know how much more time we have
01:15:43.940uh the the the response to covid five minutes the response to covid and covid in general has been
01:15:50.840such a catalyst to an increase in distrust in the government the scientific community historical
01:16:00.440events everything and has really kind of in my eyes blown up the the conspiracy movement into
01:16:08.260what it is today um how much of how much of that do you attribute to just the idea that we just
01:16:16.680were so dramatically underprepared and so uh taken aback by the the scope of the problem that
01:16:24.340we made mistakes i shouldn't say we that the people in power made mistakes um that weren't
01:16:29.420intentional that weren't driven to fund you know or to bring higher revenue to pfizer or to to
01:16:36.280control the population like a lot of people would say but was just a result just not being ready for
01:16:40.380something of that scope i think that's what it was but you're right it didn't start that way
01:16:44.780We had it first and worst. So I was doing these briefings that people watched all across the country, all around the world, just to find out what was going on. And Democrats and Republicans followed them, believed them, and were very grateful.
01:17:15.420They said, and it was not politicized at all.
01:17:20.380Later on, the exact opposite happened.
01:17:24.040It started to become politicized, and then it went on for a long time, and it started
01:17:30.100to have real negative ramifications on the economy, on schools, et cetera.
01:17:35.060And then the vaccine, government says you must take a vaccine, that now is triggering for people, and conspiracy theories arise.
01:17:48.380So by the end of it, it was a terribly destructive situation for this country, not just in the number of deaths, et cetera, but it has divided us in a way.
01:18:03.560I think that's where the division really started. The red, blue, close the state, open the state, business open, business closed, schools open, schools closed. That started that crazy red, blue polarization. This trust of the experts, you know, you like to trust the federal health expert.
01:18:26.540hurt now i don't believe them i don't trust my government the polarization that was the net
01:18:34.040consequence of all of it and god forbid we go through it again it we're going to be in worse
01:18:39.620shape because nobody's going to believe anything anybody says i've thought about that it really is
01:18:46.420worst case scenario when a more destructive like contagion comes along and people are like oh no
01:18:52.300Well, I'm not being tricked into believing that this is deadly.
01:18:54.780Again, it's actually a really fucking scary, sorry for my French, very scary thing.