Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Gerard Marrone | Criminal Defense Attorney Speaks Out Against Mamdani's Vilification of Italian-Americans

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Gerard Marrone | Criminal Defense Attorney Speaks Out Against Mamdani's Vilification of Italian-Americans · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It turns out that Gerard, making his debut on this program,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: was actually at the Lindsey Graham funeral a couple of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: days ago and was there with President Trump. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know the relationship between Gerard and President Trump, so I'm
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: curious to hear this. Gerard, good morning, buddy. How are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing very well, so nice to talk to you.
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  Speaker 2: We have a lot of nice friends in common. Thank
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  Speaker 2: you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we do. I love our friends we have in common.
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  Speaker 1: I love him a lot. And you know, I didn't
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  Speaker 1: know that you were at this Lindsey Graham funeral. I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: think one of them may have said to me that
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  Speaker 1: you know the president or your friendly. So what is
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  Speaker 1: that relationship between you and President Trump.
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  Speaker 2: I'm an admirer of President Trump. He's, of course a
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  Speaker 2: Queen's native like I am. I grew up in Ridgewood,
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  Speaker 2: Queens And I got to tell you from Italian American perspective,
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  Speaker 2: I look at Trump when he was attacked by the government.
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  Speaker 2: You know, they chose the man and then they created
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  Speaker 2: the crime. And they've been doing that to Italian Americans
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  Speaker 2: for about one hundred years. Our biggest enemy is criminal
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  Speaker 2: justice system in Hollywood.
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  Speaker 1: I think you're right about that, and they never talk
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  Speaker 1: about the Italians. They talk about obviously, my people of
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  Speaker 1: the Jews, and that's deserved. African Americans been through a lot,
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  Speaker 1: but they just seem to sweep the Italians aside. You
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  Speaker 1: guys have been the victims, like you said, of judicial
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  Speaker 1: wrongs and massacres and all of that. And then you
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  Speaker 1: get this idiotic mayor idiotic, it's not even the right word,
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  Speaker 1: this hateful scumbag that the science is going to redraw
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  Speaker 1: these immigration on clay mobs, and he leaves off not one,
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  Speaker 1: not one, but two little Italys. I think people forget
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  Speaker 1: we have two of them. We've got one in Lower
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  Speaker 1: Manhattan right down by Moultberry and Mott, and we got
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  Speaker 1: another one on Arthur Rovenue and the Bronx, and this
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  Speaker 1: low life hater left them both off. I know, mister
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  Speaker 1: moroone that pissed you off.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it pissed me off, and it pissed off a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people. Let me give a little context. So
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  Speaker 2: we brought about four years ago, myself and a few
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  Speaker 2: colleagues brought back the original Italian American Civil Rights League,
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  Speaker 2: the original Joe Colombo organization, from the nineteen seventies.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wait a second, So I don't even know this.
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  Speaker 1: So the the I a c r L. You're heavily
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  Speaker 1: involved with this.
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  Speaker 2: I'm the vice president.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, God bless you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm the vice president, God bless you.
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  Speaker 1: Ahead.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, So a couple of years back, I was looking
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  Speaker 2: for a vehicle for for for basically to protect Italians
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  Speaker 2: because I saw so much in dart injustice. As a
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  Speaker 2: criminal defense attorney, I see it daily. I was doing
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  Speaker 2: a sentence thing for one of my clients and this
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  Speaker 2: is how it all started, and I said, I have
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  Speaker 2: to look for something. And that's when we brought it
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  Speaker 2: back doing the sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court. And I'm
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  Speaker 2: telling the judge, judge, my client's been gainfully employed from
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  Speaker 2: the moment he left high school for the last twenty years.
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  Speaker 2: The judge says to me, you know, mister Maroney, I
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  Speaker 2: bet you there's a no show job in there somewhere.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god, he actually said yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And I you know, I tell you, I was. I
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  Speaker 2: was shocked and I had no words and you got
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  Speaker 2: to watch yourself with a federal judge. But then you know,
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  Speaker 2: it hit me and I got to do something and
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  Speaker 2: I found the Italian American Soil Rights League. It was
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  Speaker 2: a small, small little group. It was Roger Stone was involved,
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  Speaker 2: my Christie was involved, and I joined him, and then
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  Speaker 2: we brought it to New York and now we have
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  Speaker 2: chapters all over the East Coast. And actually actually Anthony Colombo,
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  Speaker 2: who is Joseph Colombo's grandson, is an attorney in California.
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  Speaker 2: He's our chairman. So we have really a large a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the original members or family members, and a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the original members from the from the seventies
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  Speaker 2: are still all members today.
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  Speaker 1: That is fantastic. I had no idea I like that.
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  Speaker 1: That's important. You know. I'm very good flends with pissed
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  Speaker 1: off a lot of people, No I know, I'm very
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  Speaker 1: good friends with Angelo Bivilo, and he's in charge of
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  Speaker 1: the Columbus Date Parade and he runs the Italian American No.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he is a wonderful, wonderful guy. Piscopoe and
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  Speaker 1: all those guys. And I was in Central Park years
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  Speaker 1: and years ago with author right Dollar and Boddle and
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: fiscapoone and all these guys trying to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: it messed with the Christopher Columbus statue, and you you
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  Speaker 1: know that not only did he leave all those communities
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  Speaker 1: off the map, but at one point this Ms. Maroni
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  Speaker 1: actually walked by the Columbus statue and gave it the finger.
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  Speaker 1: Who does that is?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he did. And we saw that about a year
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  Speaker 2: ago before he was elected, and we organized about we
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  Speaker 2: must have had about three four hundred members, and we
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  Speaker 2: knocked on his door and we were in front of
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  Speaker 2: his office in a story of queens protesting in the street,
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  Speaker 2: letting him know that we didn't appreciate that and we
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  Speaker 2: didn't like that. Unfortunately, a few the majority of New
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  Speaker 2: York has decided to devote him in his mayor so
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  Speaker 2: we're stuck with him. We're stuck with him for now,
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  Speaker 2: for now.
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  Speaker 1: Right, there's a lot that can happen in three years.
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  Speaker 1: So hopefully something happens and maybe somebody pops up that
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  Speaker 1: is worthy of winning the next election, and this guy's
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  Speaker 1: going to be gone, because again, as you know, Gerard,
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  Speaker 1: it's not just the Italians, it's everybody. He left the
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  Speaker 1: Irish off that map, he left, the Germans, he left
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  Speaker 1: the Greeks, Noahstoria queens, he left.
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  Speaker 2: You know, this is where I was thinking when I
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  Speaker 2: saw the map and I said, I grew up in Queens. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a New Yorker. A lot of these people that
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  Speaker 2: are not even that are on that map. They're not
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  Speaker 2: New Yorkers, They're not native New Yorkers, right, So if
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  Speaker 2: you grew up in New York, you know that the
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  Speaker 2: Greeks are from Astoria, you know that the Jews are
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  Speaker 2: from far As Hills, you know the Puerto Ricans are
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  Speaker 2: from Bushwick. That's New York. That's the kind of leadership
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  Speaker 2: we need. And if we don't have leadership in the
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  Speaker 2: mayor's office that does not unite us, sid we're in
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  Speaker 2: big trouble. So if our leadership is not uniting us,
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  Speaker 2: we have a big problem. And that's really my message
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  Speaker 2: for Italian Americans to unite. And I always say, you
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  Speaker 2: mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.
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  Speaker 2: I love it a lot of us now and we
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  Speaker 2: got to stick together. And it's not only Italian Americans
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  Speaker 2: because throughout history, the Italians have been close to the Jews,
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  Speaker 2: the Puerto Ricans, the Irish, the Greeks. We work with everybody,
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  Speaker 2: We respect everybody. But unfortunately we have leadership in our
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  Speaker 2: city that that is purposely dividing us. In my opinion,
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  Speaker 2: no question.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: This is the big time attorney Gerard Maroney, who just
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  Speaker 1: got back from the Lindsay Grahm f Younal. He was there
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  Speaker 1: with President Trump. You know, I had lunch with our
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  Speaker 1: mutual friends a couple of weeks ago, and I'll be honest, Rod,
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  Speaker 1: I complained about the Italian community. I said, let me
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  Speaker 1: ask you something. Guys, when I was a kid going
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  Speaker 1: to poly Preppan, Docker Heights, bay Ridge was mostly Italian.
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  Speaker 1: My friends are still there. And yet when they have
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  Speaker 1: these Prohamas marches and Bay Ridge, I see six thousand
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  Speaker 1: of these people marching Benson that's basically gone. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Howard Beach. They're stealing statues off the lawns Ozone Park,
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  Speaker 1: all these communities that were rich Italian communities. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of Muslims are moving in, a lot of other folks
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  Speaker 1: are moving in. And maybe it was like that something
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  Speaker 1: and that wasn't what the hell's going on in the
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  Speaker 1: last couple of decades.
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  Speaker 2: And that's really the problem. We as a as a community,
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  Speaker 2: we don't unite, and our opposition unites, and that's the problem.
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  Speaker 2: And if we don't start getting together and sticking together
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  Speaker 2: and have a major problem. I mean, the Mayor's office
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  Speaker 2: is doesn't it hates Italians, hates Italians. I have to
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  Speaker 2: say that he just hates Italian Americans. He might not
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  Speaker 2: come out and say it, but it's certainly like that
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  Speaker 2: in his actions. But not only Italians. He doesn't like
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  Speaker 2: the Jews, he doesn't like the Irish, he doesn't like
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  Speaker 2: the Greeks. It's clear, and we have to unite and
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  Speaker 2: we have to do something about it. We got to
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  Speaker 2: get somebody better in there. We have to get somebody
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  Speaker 2: that's going to represent all New Yorkers one.
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  Speaker 1: So tomorrow you've got a big event I think in Italy,
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  Speaker 1: and my dear friend who I spent the whole day
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  Speaker 1: campaigning with two days ago, Bruce Blateman, will make an
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  Speaker 1: appearance Giro, tell me about that day tomorrow.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, So tomorrow is a little bit of a
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  Speaker 2: victory for us. So we're going to be in front
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  Speaker 2: of Cafe Palermo in the Italian American Museum on Mulberry
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  Speaker 2: Street from six pm to seven pm. Bruce is coming
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  Speaker 2: down about six thirty. He's going to say some words
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  Speaker 2: for us. He's very excited to support Italian Americans. Italian
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  Speaker 2: Americans as a community support Bruce. I'm going to have
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  Speaker 2: the pleasure to meet him for the first time tomorrow,
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  Speaker 2: and he's going to speak at our victory rally. We
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of Italians coming down to you know,
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  Speaker 2: to show a support and to just speak in the
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  Speaker 2: street and really show our unity and you know, and say, look,
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  Speaker 2: you know we're here. We appreciate that the Mayor's office
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  Speaker 2: recognized us. I didn't see the map change. To be
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  Speaker 2: honest with you, not only should he add Italians, you
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  Speaker 2: should add Puerto Ricans, Jews, Greeks, Irish. There's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of people that he left off and it's the wrong thing.
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  Speaker 2: But at least tomorrow was a little bit of a
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  Speaker 2: victory and we're going to savor that tomorrow. In on
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  Speaker 2: Bulvery Street and Lialy.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I grew up on Quentin Road in Brooklyn,
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  Speaker 1: and my next door neighbor a guy named Joseph ja
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  Speaker 1: Vine was the Italian that every kid my age loved.
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  Speaker 1: Great looking guy and really great looking, had a Pontiac
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  Speaker 1: Via bird and you know his parents. For his father
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  Speaker 1: was a big time Italian attorney. He went to New
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  Speaker 1: corners like five nights a week, you know, talking about
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  Speaker 1: and Joseph used to take me out. I was an
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  Speaker 1: eighty pound asthmatic, skinny, geeky Jewish kid, and he had
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  Speaker 1: all the pretty girls. And I just wanted to be
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  Speaker 1: Italian my whole life, I swear to God. And then
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  Speaker 1: I saw a side in a feb I'm like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: come on, I want to be Tony Manero. I used
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: to yell at my parents. Yeah, I used to yell
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: at my parents to go mommy, Daddy. Happy to do
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  Speaker 1: this to me? Sidney Peris Roseberg, You're killing me? And
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  Speaker 1: really that stuck with me until October seventh and sent
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: since then, I've been an animal Jew. But I've always
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  Speaker 1: loved the Italian people. The contributions you guys have made
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  Speaker 1: to this city. I mean, damn it, You've found this
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  Speaker 1: damn country. Up with this nonsense, You've found the country.
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  Speaker 1: You'll make amazing contributions to this city, whether it's culture,
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  Speaker 1: music or the food. And nobody could Italian wood. I
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: could eat seven nights a week. So when you say
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  Speaker 1: this victory party tomorrow in little Italy, what exact victory
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  Speaker 1: are you celebrating?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the fact that this, this mayor recognized that he
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  Speaker 2: made a mistake. I mean he blamed it on the
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  Speaker 2: prior administration, which I don't believe is true. I think
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  Speaker 2: it's an excuse. But it's a victory where at least
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  Speaker 2: he conceded the fact that yes, he's going to put
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  Speaker 2: the Italians on the map, so we deserve to be
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  Speaker 2: on the We made the map, and that's the victory. Finally, listen,
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  Speaker 2: we reached out to him and social media and I
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  Speaker 2: always say the pen is mighty and the sword, and
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: we reached out on social media and we went viral,
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  Speaker 2: and within twenty four to forty eight hours he had
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  Speaker 2: a press conference and he said, you know, the map
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  Speaker 2: is wrong. It's not it's not inclusive of everyone, and
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  Speaker 2: we're going to add Italian Americans to the map. And
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  Speaker 2: that for us was a major victory because in the past,
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  Speaker 2: us as the Italian Americans were not united and finally,
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  Speaker 2: finally we're being we're under one flag. Unfortunately, Italians a
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  Speaker 2: lot of times there's jealousy and energy, just like other
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: ethnic groups. But that's starting to come to an end
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: because now people are seeing that there's really an enemy
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: that we have against us, and if we don't preserve
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: our culture, our way of life, family, our values, then
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: you know what, in a generation or two, we're gone.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to disappear. So now is the time really
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  Speaker 2: to get together? They strong unite, come out to Literal
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  Speaker 2: Italy tomorrow, meet Bruce, meet all of our supporters, and
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: and and just celebrate, have some good food, see baby
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  Speaker 2: John Etcafrey Palermo, go in front of the museum. And
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: and and just remember you got to remember there were
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: everyone in in that's in this country today. An ancestors,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: some courageous person came from from the other side, came
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  Speaker 2: from Europe right with nothing in their pocket, and they can.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what binds all of us. It's that courage
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  Speaker 2: that one of our ancestors came here, that entrepreneurial spirit,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: that fearless spirit, and that's who we are. That's the immigration.
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  Speaker 2: It's the hard working immigrant, the person that came here
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  Speaker 2: with nothing but a dream and and busted their butt
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  Speaker 2: and raised the family and did well. And that's what
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: binds all of us. Everyone in this country, everyone in
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  Speaker 2: the City of New York, has that common threat, has
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  Speaker 2: that common denominator, and we can't forget that. And we
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: can't forget that person that came from Italy to give
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: us a better life.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you just said it perfectly. Is a vile, wretched wife.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite songs ever is Malo Femina. His
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: wife is exactly that, that evil woman. I gotta tell you,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Jan I loved having you on. I look forward to
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: meeting you and I would be there tomorrow, but I'm
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: taking my daughter to college in Pennsylvania. But I will
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: meet you and bring you back on the show all
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: the time. Excellent job this morning. Thank you so much,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: God bless you much to take care. That is Attorney
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Gerard Moroni making his debut and he was terrific right
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: here on Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 12:27
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• 12:31
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