Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / John Chell | Former Chief of Department for the NYPD Demands Answers Regarding Released 9/11 Documents
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Talking about 9-11, the story broke yesterday.
- 0:02Speaker 2: Mamdani, so happy, found 170,000 documents and nearly 70 boxes,
- 0:09Speaker 2: telling everyone that the air was anything but safe, which
- 0:12Speaker 2: I think we all knew that. Obviously, people have been
- 0:14Speaker 2: getting sick for 24 years, but now it's the cover-up. Mamdani,
- 0:19Speaker 2: Jon Stewart, talking about the cover-up for administrations, Giuliani, Bloomberg,
- 0:24Speaker 2: de Blasio, Adams. gloating about people dying, a tragedy that
- 0:31Speaker 2: was not our fault. Sorry, Mom Donnie, your friends think
- 0:35Speaker 2: it was our fault, like Hassan Piker. And then a
- 0:40Speaker 2: lot of stuff happened afterwards. You know, I don't know
- 0:42Speaker 2: how much of it was a cover-up, how much of
- 0:44Speaker 2: it was not.
- 0:46Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 0:46Speaker 2: But I do know that John Schell was a copper
- 0:50Speaker 2: over 30 years, ended up being Jessica Tisch's chief of department,
- 0:54Speaker 2: and spent many, many months investigating down at Ground Zero
- 0:58Speaker 2: nearly 25 years ago. And he's joining me live from
- 1:02Speaker 2: New York this morning.
- 1:03Speaker 1: John, it's Sid in Dallas, buddy. How are you?
- 1:06Speaker 3: Sid, how are you, brother? Dallas, great town. Great town.
- 1:09Speaker 4: And I'm a little dismayed. Apparently I'm polling at about.
- 1:12Speaker 4: 05 %. Maybe 1%. But I figured it out and
- 1:17Speaker 4: I was waiting to come on. If I didn't wear
- 1:18Speaker 4: a red beret... and run.
- 1:21Speaker 5: Around and say, like, a fool, I can get 8%.
- 1:24Speaker 1: You could.
- 1:25Speaker 3: You can get 8%.
- 1:25Speaker 1: I think I'm there.
- 1:26Speaker 3: Right.
- 1:27Speaker 2: You also have to buddy up to the radical Islam mayor.
- 1:30Speaker 2: You've got to do stupid comedic videos with the mayor
- 1:33Speaker 2: in a circle. You've got to stab people like me
- 1:36Speaker 2: and John in the back that were there for you
- 1:38Speaker 2: for a lot of years. You do all that stuff,
- 1:40Speaker 2: and you may end up with 8%. But on a
- 1:42Speaker 2: serious note, are you still serious about running for mayor?
- 1:46Speaker 3: I'm dead serious.
- 1:47Speaker 4: And I'm fully aware I'm a Hail Mary piss. I'm
- 1:51Speaker 4: a long shot, but I'm going to go for this.
- 1:53Speaker 4: I'm just going to be in that middle ground voice,
- 1:56Speaker 4: just being a Brooklyn kid and speaking the truth on things.
- 1:59Speaker 5: And here's the thing, Sid.
- 2:01Speaker 3: I'm not running for a career. I'm going to be
- 2:04Speaker 3: running to fix this city.
- 2:05Speaker 4: Two different things. So I can actually be honest with people.
- 2:08Speaker 4: And if you like it, you like it. And if
- 2:09Speaker 4: you don't, you don't. And if I lose, I'll go
- 2:11Speaker 4: back to being retired.
- 2:13Speaker 2: Which is not terrible anyway. So, well, you have, like, officially,
- 2:16Speaker 2: have you done something? I don't know, paperwork or something?
- 2:19Speaker 5: I don't even know how this works. A little social media.
- 2:22Speaker 3: The paperwork I'll do at the end of the year.
- 2:24Speaker 4: Next year I'll start kind of moving around the city,
- 2:27Speaker 4: raising some money. Then 2028, it's game on. And we'll
- 2:31Speaker 4: meet up in November somewhere.
- 2:34Speaker 3: And here's the thing.
- 2:35Speaker 4: Guys like us and all the people running, we want
- 2:37Speaker 4: to fix this place. We all come from the same DNA.
- 2:40Speaker 4: We all come from the same neighborhoods in New York City.
- 2:42Speaker 4: We know what's right and we know what's wrong. We
- 2:45Speaker 4: might not agree on everything, but at least we're man
- 2:47Speaker 4: enough to have a discussion and meet in the middle.
- 2:50Speaker 4: And sometimes we disagree, but that's the way it goes.
- 2:54Speaker 2: I mean, are you running, John Schell, because... like Michael Rapoport,
- 2:59Speaker 2: for example, and me when I talk about it, because
- 3:01Speaker 2: I hate the mayor.
- 3:02Speaker 1: That's the bottom line. If it was just an.
- 3:04Speaker 2: Okay mayor, even a bad mayor like de Blasio, I
- 3:08Speaker 2: wouldn't even consider running. But I hate this guy so much.
- 3:11Speaker 2: You talk about toxic, the year down by 9-11. He's
- 3:14Speaker 2: so toxic for this city. That's why a lot of
- 3:17Speaker 2: people are motivated to run for this. Is that your motivation?
- 3:21Speaker 3: Yeah, I denounce socialism. I come from a world where
- 3:24Speaker 3: my parents worked all day.
- 3:26Speaker 5: I went to school.
- 3:27Speaker 3: I was working since 15. Nothing's for free. You have
- 3:30Speaker 3: to show up. You've got to be accountable. You've got
- 3:32Speaker 3: to be punctual.
- 3:33Speaker 4: You've got to work hard. When you work hard, good
- 3:36Speaker 4: things happen. And we're in a time now where nobody
- 3:38Speaker 4: wants to work hard. Everyone wants everything free.
- 3:41Speaker 5: And guess what?
- 3:41Speaker 3: You know what that got us? About $ 22 billion in
- 3:44Speaker 3: a hole in three years. That's what that got us.
- 3:48Speaker 3: According to Mark Levine, don't believe me.
- 3:50Speaker 5: I was horrible at math. I got an 800 on
- 3:52Speaker 5: my SATs.
- 3:54Speaker 3: Listen to Mark Levine.
- 3:55Speaker 5: $ 22 billion.
- 3:56Speaker 3: $ 22 billion.
- 3:57Speaker 5: If it stays the same, then it's not.
- 4:01Speaker 1: It's bad.
- 4:01Speaker 2: This is the former chief of department, John Schell, joining
- 4:05Speaker 2: me right here. And he is very, very serious. He's
- 4:08Speaker 2: going to run for mayor of this state. City coming
- 4:12Speaker 2: up in about three years. I mean, the funny thing
- 4:14Speaker 2: is we talk about Mamdani like he's already served four years.
- 4:18Speaker 2: Hasn't even been one year. It's already a complete nightmare.
- 4:22Speaker 2: I mean, what is it? Give me the top two
- 4:24Speaker 2: or three things and we'll move to the toxins in
- 4:26Speaker 2: the air. But the top two or three things that
- 4:29Speaker 2: you would want to fix, John Schell, if in fact
- 4:31Speaker 2: you won.
- 4:32Speaker 1: This race right away.
- 4:34Speaker 4: Look, number one, public safety. We need more cops and
- 4:38Speaker 4: public safety. If you believe the.
- 4:39Speaker 3: Quote unquote numbers, there's more than numbers. There's quiet life.
- 4:43Speaker 3: Number two, public housing in the city.
- 4:45Speaker 4: Three hundred twenty five thousand residents in public housing with
- 4:48Speaker 4: 80 billion in capital projects needed.
- 4:50Speaker 5: Why are they living that way? Number three, fiscal accountability.
- 4:54Speaker 5: I just said twenty two.
- 4:55Speaker 3: Billion projected over the next three years. What are we
- 4:58Speaker 3: going to pay for? What can we pay for?
- 5:01Speaker 5: And if people are leaving the city.
- 5:02Speaker 3: And businesses, where is.
- 5:04Speaker 5: That money coming from?
- 5:04Speaker 3: It's coming from your home in Rockaway, Sid.
- 5:07Speaker 4: They're going to tax the hell out of you. So
- 5:10Speaker 4: here's the thing. Just bring the city back to some normalcy.
- 5:14Speaker 3: We are not in normal times.
- 5:16Speaker 5: And then we have a mayor and his socialist party,
- 5:20Speaker 5: if I'm not going to tell you, Sid, despises the Jews.
- 5:24Speaker 5: Let's be real.
- 5:25Speaker 1: Oh, there's no doubt. Yeah, no, he despises... But he
- 5:28Speaker 1: despises Americans, too.
- 5:30Speaker 2: Yeah, he despises everybody, Americans, Italians, Jews. I don't want
- 5:33Speaker 2: to make it too much about the Jews because I get...
- 5:37Speaker 2: yelled out all the time that the Jews are whiny
- 5:39Speaker 2: and there's only anti-Semitism because the Jews are always bitching, which,
- 5:43Speaker 2: of course, that's anti-Semitism. But, you know, he hates everybody,
- 5:46Speaker 2: this guy. Let me ask you this. Yesterday was a
- 5:49Speaker 2: big rally outside of City Hall, and, you know, I
- 5:52Speaker 2: had Giovanni Galanti on this show three times.
- 5:54Speaker 1: I know you listen.
- 5:55Speaker 2: He gave me the credit for getting that petition up
- 5:58Speaker 2: over 100,000 signatures, which I appreciate. What are your thoughts
- 6:02Speaker 2: on the mayor showing up on Friday? This idea that
- 6:06Speaker 2: He should be there because he's the mayor.
- 6:08Speaker 5: Why?
- 6:09Speaker 2: Is that part of his job? I mean, I know
- 6:10Speaker 2: he has to balance the budget. I know he's got
- 6:13Speaker 2: to keep us safe, right? He wasn't there 25 years
- 6:16Speaker 2: ago like Rudy, where he took part in this thing.
- 6:19Speaker 2: What is it about his position that he has to
- 6:22Speaker 2: be there on Friday? My contention is the overwhelming majority
- 6:26Speaker 2: of the families don't want him there. I don't want
- 6:28Speaker 2: him there. My guess is you don't either. But you
- 6:32Speaker 2: answer me. You want him there?
- 6:33Speaker 5: Well, look, everyone has their own feelings about 9-11. I
- 6:39Speaker 5: would never tell someone how to feel. Okay? Now, to
- 6:43Speaker 5: your point, he is the mayor.
- 6:45Speaker 3: Should he be there? I guess so. I'm torn. But
- 6:47Speaker 3: then I see the other side. And the other side
- 6:49Speaker 3: is this. He brought up his aunt.
- 6:52Speaker 5: We use this as politics, right? Performance.
- 6:55Speaker 3: He brought up that his aunt was scared to go
- 6:56Speaker 3: on the subway. It wasn't his aunt.
- 6:58Speaker 5: It was his father's cousin. He signs executive orders. Why?
- 7:03Speaker 3: Why this week? Why are you doing this?
- 7:05Speaker 4: You handed a pen to a terrorist sympathizer.
- 7:09Speaker 3: Why are you doing this?
- 7:11Speaker 5: You put out this report that does no one, I
- 7:14Speaker 5: listened to you this morning, Sid, that does.
- 7:16Speaker 3: No one any good.
- 7:17Speaker 4: Now it's going to be lawsuits, and for the families
- 7:22Speaker 4: that lost people at 9-11, post 9-11 due to cancer,
- 7:25Speaker 4: how do you think they feel this morning? Why are
- 7:28Speaker 4: you taking away from their week?
- 7:30Speaker 3: To mourn their loved ones.
- 7:33Speaker 5: To come down to the site quietly, listen.
- 7:35Speaker 3: To the violin, and make a mental prayer to your
- 7:38Speaker 3: loved ones. Why? Why would you do this?
- 7:41Speaker 4: It's all politics, and I can't stand it, because for
- 7:44Speaker 4: those of us, like myself, who were down there for months, taking.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Out bodies, smelling death in here, smelling burning metal.
- 7:52Speaker 4: Having to register with the World Trade Center for those
- 7:55Speaker 4: who have cancer.
- 7:56Speaker 3: We don't want to hear this nonsense.
- 7:58Speaker 4: We want to go there Friday, say our piece, and
- 8:01Speaker 4: move on.
- 8:02Speaker 3: Why are we doing this? It bothers me.
- 8:05Speaker 1: No, I feel the same way.
- 8:06Speaker 2: I mean, you know, look, if there is a cover-up,
- 8:08Speaker 2: then exposing cover-ups is usually a good thing.
- 8:12Speaker 1: Let's be honest, okay?
- 8:14Speaker 2: Maybe the timing isn't great. Again, we're just two days
- 8:16Speaker 2: away from the 25-year commemoration. But if this is about
- 8:20Speaker 2: exposing Republicans like Giuliani and Bloomberg and even Eric Adams,
- 8:25Speaker 2: who by the time he was done, he was a
- 8:27Speaker 2: Republican or Whoever wanted to buy him, I guess, I
- 8:29Speaker 2: don't know. I know he's your boy, but God, give
- 8:31Speaker 2: me a break. But, yeah, I guess that is the question.
- 8:35Speaker 2: Why is there a victory lap for the mayor yesterday?
- 8:39Speaker 1: What good comes out of this?
- 8:41Speaker 3: Nothing good comes out of this.
- 8:42Speaker 5: We are two days.
- 8:44Speaker 4: Away from the 25th anniversary of the most tragic.
- 8:46Speaker 3: Event in our history. Okay? And you're going to do
- 8:51Speaker 3: this now? You found the box on Monday? No, no, no.
- 8:53Speaker 3: They found that box.
- 8:54Speaker 4: They had that lined up for months. They had this
- 8:57Speaker 4: teed up like a golf ball, and they hit the
- 9:00Speaker 4: ball yesterday.
- 9:00Speaker 3: Why? Politics.
- 9:03Speaker 4: And for the people that weren't down there, that want
- 9:06Speaker 4: to make.
- 9:06Speaker 3: This political, I say shut the front door. You know
- 9:09Speaker 3: what I mean, Sid? Shut the front door. You made
- 9:11Speaker 3: me nervous.
- 9:11Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say shut the F up.
- 9:13Speaker 2: So you're telling me, the former chief of department, the
- 9:16Speaker 2: great John Sher, running for mayor in a couple of years,
- 9:19Speaker 2: that you are sure— that they didn't just find these
- 9:23Speaker 2: boxes in the last day or so. They've had these,
- 9:26Speaker 2: and they couldn't wait to bring up this story right
- 9:30Speaker 2: before the most tragic day in the history of this country.
- 9:34Speaker 3: Well, let's play it out, Sid.
- 9:35Speaker 4: You think someone from the staff went down to the
- 9:37Speaker 4: basement and said, hey, I found a box down here.
- 9:39Speaker 3: Guess what it says?
- 9:41Speaker 5: Wow, I read through this whole set.
- 9:43Speaker 3: What, 70,000 pages?
- 9:44Speaker 5: I'm a speed reader. And look what it says. This
- 9:48Speaker 5: is the BS.
- 9:48Speaker 3: Of it all. Why this week?
- 9:51Speaker 4: You know the weather Friday is going to be beautiful
- 9:53Speaker 4: just like it was 25 years ago. You know people
- 9:56Speaker 4: are hurting severely.
- 9:58Speaker 3: This is, you know, 25 years later.
- 10:00Speaker 4: Why are we doing this now? If this doesn't get
- 10:03Speaker 4: you fired up, and you got me fired.
- 10:04Speaker 3: Up this morning when I was listening, I don't know
- 10:07Speaker 3: what to tell you. How about this?
- 10:08Speaker 4: For the next two days, let's leave the politics out
- 10:11Speaker 4: of it. Let's think of our friends, our families, the heroism,
- 10:15Speaker 4: all the stories. A thousand people have passed away. Let's
- 10:18Speaker 4: just keep them focused.
- 10:20Speaker 1: But it's hard to.
- 10:21Speaker 2: I hear you, and you're a good soul and a
- 10:23Speaker 2: nice man, John. But I can't leave the politics out
- 10:25Speaker 2: of it because the reason why the World Trade Center...
- 10:29Speaker 2: is no longer there is because.
- 10:31Speaker 3: Of politics, okay?
- 10:33Speaker 2: It's because radical Islam wanted to destroy America. Nothing to
- 10:39Speaker 2: do with Israel, you anti-Semite morons out there. Nothing to
- 10:43Speaker 2: do with Israel or Bibi. It's because radical Islam wants
- 10:47Speaker 2: to destroy America. And when the mayor's buddy says on
- 10:52Speaker 2: a podcast, with the mayor sitting right there, we deserved it,
- 10:56Speaker 2: I don't know how you make it nonpolitical. Now, for
- 10:58Speaker 2: the families, you know, it's kind of like this, John.
- 11:01Speaker 2: When they took the hostages after October 7th, okay, I
- 11:05Speaker 2: don't agree with Rebecca Goldberg on anything, or her husband, John, politically,
- 11:10Speaker 2: on anything. They actually spoke at the DNC. But their son, Hersh,
- 11:15Speaker 2: had his arm blown off and was held captive until
- 11:18Speaker 2: Hamas put a bullet in the back of his head.
- 11:21Speaker 1: And I said.
- 11:22Speaker 2: For a year or so, I'm never going to take
- 11:25Speaker 2: the families to task. I disagree politically. They were saying
- 11:29Speaker 2: nice things about Biden when I knew it was all
- 11:31Speaker 2: about Trump. But I'll never take them to task. Same
- 11:33Speaker 2: thing here.
- 11:34Speaker 1: I'll never take the 9-11 families to task.
- 11:38Speaker 2: But to say, let's not make it about politics, is
- 11:41Speaker 2: silly because this whole event happened because of politics.
- 11:47Speaker 4: No, and it's my wish. I know we're not going
- 11:49Speaker 4: to get out of politics. It's my wish. From my
- 11:52Speaker 4: personal opinion, just my wish. I understand what you're saying.
- 11:55Speaker 4: How can you in this day and age?
- 11:57Speaker 3: How can you?
- 11:58Speaker 5: You can't.
- 11:59Speaker 3: But I wish. And the wish is never going to happen.
- 12:02Speaker 5: And it happened because of politics.
- 12:04Speaker 3: Absolutely. Okay?
- 12:06Speaker 4: They wanted us dead that day. They came for us
- 12:08Speaker 4: that day. And we returned the favor. But now we
- 12:10Speaker 4: still mourn 25 years later. And it just bothers me
- 12:14Speaker 4: as a person that was down there.
- 12:16Speaker 3: It bothers me.
- 12:17Speaker 4: I went to a funeral the other day for Inspector
- 12:18Speaker 4: Mark DiPaolo who died of brain cancer down there.
- 12:21Speaker 3: It bothers me. That is my personal opinion.
- 12:24Speaker 1: Of course.
- 12:25Speaker 3: You know, the families are sacred. They are untouchable. Untouchable.
- 12:30Speaker 5: And the politics of it all, even though.
- 12:31Speaker 3: I don't like it, we can discuss it. No doubt
- 12:33Speaker 3: about it.
- 12:34Speaker 4: But again, why are we signing executive orders? Why are
- 12:37Speaker 4: we handing out pens? Why are we releasing the report
- 12:39Speaker 4: that we found months ago?
- 12:41Speaker 3: Not on Monday. Why? Because you want to make it
- 12:44Speaker 3: about you. Yeah.
- 12:46Speaker 2: Well, let me ask you about your former boss, because
- 12:48Speaker 2: you know this, John.
- 12:49Speaker 1: It's not just on-air talk. You know how close I
- 12:52Speaker 1: am with Jessica Tish. I love her. I love her.
- 12:55Speaker 1: But I would have loved to have seen.
- 12:56Speaker 2: Her take that pen and throw it right back at
- 12:58Speaker 2: that attorney a couple of days ago. And she just
- 13:00Speaker 2: kind of went through the motion and handed the pen.
- 13:03Speaker 2: And a lot of people that are close to me
- 13:06Speaker 2: were very upset with Jessica.
- 13:07Speaker 1: Now, she was your boss. I know you love her.
- 13:09Speaker 1: But she's not your boss anymore.
- 13:11Speaker 2: What did you think when you saw Jessica Tisch right
- 13:14Speaker 2: in the middle of that circus with the radical Islam
- 13:17Speaker 2: mayor and his al-Qaeda attorney boyfriend doing what they did
- 13:22Speaker 2: a couple days ago?
- 13:23Speaker 4: Like a deer in the headlights. Look at her face
- 13:27Speaker 4: when he handed her that pen. I think she was
- 13:28Speaker 4: completely caught off guard. Would it have been a magical
- 13:31Speaker 4: moment to take that pen and say, I had enough,
- 13:34Speaker 4: threw her on the desk and stormed out of the
- 13:36Speaker 4: blue room?
- 13:37Speaker 3: It would have been magical. What her motives are, what.
- 13:39Speaker 4: She wants to do, where she sees herself six months
- 13:42Speaker 4: from now, I can't answer that. But, yeah, it would
- 13:46Speaker 4: have been a defining moment to say enough is enough.
- 13:49Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
- 13:50Speaker 3: But when you're caught.
- 13:51Speaker 4: Like that, Sid, sometimes you're so caught that by the
- 13:53Speaker 4: time you pass the pen in this instance, five minutes later,
- 13:56Speaker 4: you're like, damn, I wish I would have done this.
- 13:58Speaker 3: Damn, I wish I would have done that. It's true.
- 14:00Speaker 1: No, you just don't know.
- 14:01Speaker 6: Well, I got to run, but I got to tell you,
- 14:03Speaker 6: this is the perfect time for you. All you have here, honestly... Boblons,
- 14:08Speaker 6: strip joints, steakhouses, tacos, and football. John Schell, you belong
- 14:13Speaker 6: in Dallas.
- 14:13Speaker 3: You want to go to the steakhouse? Yeah. I go
- 14:16Speaker 3: to Dallas a lot. The Town Hearth.
- 14:18Speaker 5: The Town Hearth.
- 14:19Speaker 3: H-E-R-T-H.
- 14:21Speaker 4: I guarantee you go or you'll be calling me tonight
- 14:22Speaker 4: after your second steak.
- 14:24Speaker 1: I'm going to go tonight right before Trump speaks. How
- 14:25Speaker 1: about that?
- 14:26Speaker 3: Town Hearth.
- 14:27Speaker 1: Town Hearth. Okay, my friend. I love you. Good luck.
- 14:30Speaker 3: Be well.
- 14:31Speaker 1: All right.
- 14:31Speaker 2: Stay in touch. There he is, the former chief of department.
- 14:35Speaker 2: My dear friend, he is running for mayor, John Schell.
- 14:40Speaker 7: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
- 14:43Speaker 7: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
- 14:46Speaker 7: mornings at 6. If you like the podcast, share it
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- 15:04Speaker 7: and X. See you next time for a new episode
- 15:07Speaker 7: so you never have to wonder.
- 15:08Speaker 2: What the heck is going on here?