Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Staten Island Borough President Vito Fosello | 07-03-26

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Staten Island Borough President Vito Fosello | 07-03-26 · Sid & Friends In The Morning

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Speaker 5: Kate Smith and friends here, and we have a new
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Speaker 5: we have a new we have a new person joining
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Speaker 5: us here on the cast and Company takeover sitting Friends
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Speaker 5: of the Morning in studio Staten Island Borough President Vito Cella.
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Speaker 5: This is a really special weekend.
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Speaker 6: Uh.
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Speaker 5: You know for those of us, I think everyone in
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Speaker 5: this room, we all remember the nineteen seventy six by
1:27
Speaker 5: centennial celebration. I couldn't have imagined another fifty years as
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Speaker 5: a six year old back then. But if there's if
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Speaker 5: there's a borough to go to to really experience two
1:37
Speaker 5: hundred and fifty and really know that this is this celebration,
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Speaker 5: it's got to be Staten Island.
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Speaker 7: Right, no doubt. And thank you, happy forth to everybody.
1:46
Speaker 7: As I was driving in and listening to our great
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Speaker 7: friend Peter King and you all just Peter's a dear
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Speaker 7: friend and nobody embodies this country more so than he.
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Speaker 7: But as we're coming over with the Arizona Bridge and
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Speaker 7: you're watching New York Harbor is starting to fill with
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Speaker 7: Navy ships, aircraft carriers, think of the power and the
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Speaker 7: might of this great country, but also the humility of
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Speaker 7: always standing up for freedom and liberty regardless of where
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Speaker 7: the people are, and that's the arc of history. And tonight,
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Speaker 7: for example, we're hosting a concert on Fort Wadsworth overlooking
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Speaker 7: New York Harbor with the Marine Corps band. Tomorrow we're
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Speaker 7: hosting an event at the Alice Austin House right on
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Speaker 7: the water to watch the parade of tall ships as
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Speaker 7: they come to the harbor. So yes, Staatenle is full
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Speaker 7: of patriotism, loves this country, supports our police and law enforcement,
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Speaker 7: but also understands the magic. And I heard all of
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Speaker 7: you talking about the immigration, and we're all a nation
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Speaker 7: of immigrants. But when they come here, they work hard,
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Speaker 7: they respect the flag. And somebody very close to me said,
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Speaker 7: and they live in another borough, But he said, when
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Speaker 7: he comes to Staten Island, the one thing that stands
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Speaker 7: out first and foremost is the number of American flags
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Speaker 7: that are across the borough. And that's what not just
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Speaker 7: this weekend is all about, but every day is all about.
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Speaker 7: So very lucky to represent the great people of Statemoil.
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Speaker 8: What were they doing in California the other day? There
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Speaker 8: there was an objection of some people that had American
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Speaker 8: flags out on their on their front lawn.
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Speaker 5: They made him take them down, They made them take
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Speaker 5: them down.
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Speaker 6: They take them down.
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Speaker 5: I'm gonna I think it might have been their hoa,
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Speaker 5: but we'll have to find out.
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Speaker 9: You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna remind everybody. I remember
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Speaker 9: when Trump tasked myself and a few other people in
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Speaker 9: regard to flying the American flag, and my specific one
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Speaker 9: had to deal with his property in Paulo's Verdice, California,
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Speaker 9: very similar to what happened in mar a lago where
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Speaker 9: they thought he went excessive. Imagine imagine this, he went
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Speaker 9: excessive in terms of the size of the American flag.
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Speaker 9: They thought it was too big. He created and bought
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Speaker 9: a flag which you could see from virtually anywhere in
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Speaker 9: Palm Beach or on the Pacific coast side.
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Speaker 6: I saw it from Fort Lauderdale.
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Speaker 9: You could see it from New York. And here's the
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Speaker 9: crazy thing. Imagine that somebody has the goal to tell
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Speaker 9: you the size of the American flag that you want
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Speaker 9: to fly on your own property. And so, of course
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Speaker 9: he won that, but he won it at a tremendous expense.
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Speaker 9: It was not a freebie where they just said, hey, yeah,
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Speaker 9: you know, you can fly this large American flag. When
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Speaker 9: they talk about Trump's patriotism, you may not like and
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Speaker 9: that's okay. Like Peter King was saying, you don't have
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Speaker 9: to agree with someone one hundred percent of the time,
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Speaker 9: but at least acknowledge that the man is patriotic. Again,
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Speaker 9: you may not like some of his policies, that's your para,
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Speaker 9: but don't question the man's patriotism because he has proven
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Speaker 9: it many many times before.
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Speaker 7: President Trump is the most patriotic guy i've ever met
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Speaker 7: in my life. And there's another story to the height.
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Speaker 7: Wasn't it the height of the flag in Mono Lago?
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Speaker 7: It was the height and it was mostly the size
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Speaker 7: of the flag. So tell like a little inside baseball
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Speaker 7: as to what ultimately he did to sort of circum
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Speaker 7: event what they wanted to punish him in a way.
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Speaker 9: Well, and they did, and they started to find him
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Speaker 9: and they started to really just bust his chops, to
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Speaker 9: which point he just filed the lawsuit based upon his
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Speaker 9: right to fly the flag. I mean, imagine that somebody
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Speaker 9: has to bring a law suit in order to fly
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Speaker 9: the flag. By the way, the size of the flag
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Speaker 9: should never be a question that anybody should have the
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Speaker 9: right to tell you how big the flo We're.
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Speaker 7: Going to have one of the largest flags in the
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Speaker 7: world be hanging from the Arizona Branch over this weekend.
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Speaker 3: Well, you know the CEO of cam Being World, Marcus
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Speaker 3: Lamone's the same thing happened to him. He was ordered
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Speaker 3: to take down the flag because it was too big.
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Speaker 9: You know, I don't think I mean it's we could
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Speaker 9: talk about it. To me, it's dumbfounding. I just I
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Speaker 9: cannot imagine that somebody can turn around and say you're
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Speaker 9: too patriotic, or you know, the size of your flag
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Speaker 9: is too big. I mean, this is in the nineteen seventies. Poor, No,
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Speaker 9: this is the American flag you're talking about. Nobody should
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Speaker 9: tell you the size of the flag that you want
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Speaker 9: to fly on your property.
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Speaker 6: To me, it's just stupid, Beautificla.
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Speaker 5: We were talking about the strength of the US economy,
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Speaker 5: and of course it's not perfect. And you know you're
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Speaker 5: you're the one elected official in this room, so I
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Speaker 5: understand the third rail that talking about how great the
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Speaker 5: economy can be, because even if it's one hundred percent true,
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Speaker 5: there are always some people who are left at and
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Speaker 5: it makes you feel like it makes you seem like
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Speaker 5: you're out of touch. But let's just but I just
7:00
Speaker 5: want to fixate on one specific, specific statistic that we
7:03
Speaker 5: didn't get a chance to talk about in the last hour,
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Speaker 5: and I think you'd be a good person to talk
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Speaker 5: about it. We learned last week that the US economy
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Speaker 5: is creating twelve hundred new millionaires every day. Now, we
7:14
Speaker 5: talked about the net loss. Obviously it's not a net
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Speaker 5: but it's twelve hundred new millionaires a day. Something's going right.
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Speaker 6: Here. I'm sorry. If that's the case, our best days
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Speaker 6: are ahead.
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Speaker 7: I think to use stock market lingo. I'm going along
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Speaker 7: on the United States of America. Spend a lot of
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Speaker 7: time with in schools, I spend a lot of time
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Speaker 7: with business owners across that mileland.
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Speaker 6: I am bullish on this country.
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Speaker 7: As long as we allow them to fulfill their American spirit,
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Speaker 7: it provide incentives for them to do well. Don't punish success,
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Speaker 7: don't punish those who just want to achieve the American dream.
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Speaker 7: And if we allow those incentives to remain in place
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Speaker 7: without crushing them, this country will forever be the greatest
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Speaker 7: in the history of the world. And then you say,
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Speaker 7: compared to what you're compared to other economies, other economies
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Speaker 7: across Western Europe are flat. If you start going into
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Speaker 7: some parts of Asia, yeah, sure, the Chinese, China's China,
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Speaker 7: whatever you want to say. But the American economy is
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Speaker 7: rooted in the American individual, and the American individual still
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Speaker 7: believes the sky is the limit. And as long as
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Speaker 7: we push that and allow it to flourish, America will
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Speaker 7: forever be the land of opportunity.
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Speaker 3: You know, you need to respect capitalism. That's what this
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Speaker 3: country is about. You know, my parents immigrated here from
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Speaker 3: the Dominican Republic in nineteen fifty. I grew up in
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Speaker 3: the Lower East Side of New York. All I had
8:43
Speaker 3: was an opportunity to succeed, and I took it. You know.
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Speaker 3: I dropped out of school when I was fourteen. I
8:50
Speaker 3: started my own little carpet company at the age of seventeen,
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Speaker 3: and I got married at the age of seventeen, and
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Speaker 3: I had my first son before I was twenty. So
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Speaker 3: you know, today I am who I am. But I
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Speaker 3: know who I owe it to. I owe it to
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Speaker 3: being in this country. If I had to give everything up,
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Speaker 3: my biggest asset, I've always said is being in the
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Speaker 3: United States of America and being an immigrant coming here
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Speaker 3: and working for it and respecting the flag, because I
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Speaker 3: swore to respect the flag of the United States. You know,
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Speaker 3: I would fight for this country before I would fight
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Speaker 3: for the country I was born. Why Because it's made
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Speaker 3: me who I am today. So I wish that every
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Speaker 3: migrant and anyone welcoming migrants would understand us. And by
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Speaker 3: the way, uh wait, wait, you know what I keep saying?
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Speaker 8: Immigration, Yes, migration, migration no. Hold im Lee Harris here
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Speaker 8: to keep us legal and to make an announcement of
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Speaker 8: all the stations were on this morning.
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Speaker 6: Gentlemen, it's that time again.
9:56
Speaker 9: This is WABC New York, WRCR Haverstraw, WLR Ampton Bays,
10:03
Speaker 9: and WLIV Hatchhok.
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Speaker 6: Thank you.
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Speaker 8: And I must say that WABC New York. He is
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Speaker 8: worldwide one hundred and seventy eight countries right now and
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Speaker 8: fifty states. And Lee Harris is also in charge of
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Speaker 8: the Worldwide News Network. That was a big ad yesterday
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Speaker 8: in the New York Post in this special edition.
10:28
Speaker 6: And it's can.
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Speaker 8: Where CBS closed down their operation, the syndication worldwide, we
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Speaker 8: WABC and Worldwide News Network is taking over. And Lee Harris,
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Speaker 8: you're doing a great job.
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Speaker 6: That's breaking news. That's breaking news. Thank you, John. And
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Speaker 6: there's a lot more to do and we'll keep doing it.
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Speaker 3: I am honored because Lee uses my mic when he
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Speaker 3: walks into the studio and listen, big shoos to Phil.
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Speaker 6: Guys.
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Speaker 3: Have you realized that the fourth of July weekend is
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Speaker 3: the day that Taylor Swift and Travis Keltch decided to
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Speaker 3: get married. That's an honor, Yeah, I mean, it's an
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Speaker 3: honor to New York. It's an honor to the to
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Speaker 3: the nation that this is the weekend day two hundred
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Speaker 3: and fiftieth anniversary of the United States is when they're
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Speaker 3: getting married.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, that's national holidays were common for weddings in this country.
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Speaker 8: There.
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Speaker 5: I think they still are a little bit because people
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Speaker 5: could get to them. For Jewish people, especially in the
11:26
Speaker 5: New York area, Christmas Day was a very common day
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Speaker 5: to get married.
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Speaker 6: That's because you get a discount.
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Speaker 5: You get a discount. People were off work and then
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Speaker 5: and then until nineteen fifty nine, they would go to
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Speaker 5: Havana for their honeymoon. Vitaficla is with us in the
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Speaker 5: studio right now, the Borough President of Staten Island.
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Speaker 8: And the largest, the largest flag ever in the Arizonta
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Speaker 8: Bridge reto.
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Speaker 6: That's right.
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Speaker 7: We petitioned to get it done and it's going to
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Speaker 7: be flying this weekend. So as the ships are coming
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Speaker 7: into New York Harbor from around the world and they
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Speaker 7: approach and they see Statenel on the left, they will
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Speaker 7: know that we truly love our country. In fact, what
12:03
Speaker 7: we try to do a couple of years ago, in
12:05
Speaker 7: fact we did Fort Wadsworth is as you're coming to
12:08
Speaker 7: the staten Ison is the first thing you see, and
12:11
Speaker 7: there's an old fort, one of the oldest in the
12:13
Speaker 7: United States, if not when it was active.
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Speaker 6: And we wanted the highest flag and the biggest flags.
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Speaker 7: When people come to staten nyone coming over the Arizona,
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Speaker 7: we want them to know that State Lyon loves this
12:23
Speaker 7: country by waving that flag. And we got the largest
12:27
Speaker 7: one possible to be flown in Fort Wadsworth.
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Speaker 6: Do you know what the dimensions are? I'm curious.
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Speaker 7: I don't know offhand, but believe it or not, we
12:35
Speaker 7: wanted to get a bigger one, but the Park Service
12:38
Speaker 7: said we can't get a bigger one there because we
12:40
Speaker 7: need a number of people to fold it and remove it.
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Speaker 7: So we said, get the biggest one that's practical. So
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Speaker 7: I don't know the dimensions off hand, but I could
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Speaker 7: probably get them.
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Speaker 9: I mean, it's curious because when you start arguing about
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Speaker 9: how big the American flag can be, it's those individuals
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Speaker 9: that I'm more concerned about with their anti patriotism. It's
13:03
Speaker 9: almost as stupid, to be honest with you, as the
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Speaker 9: negativity about, for example, what's taking place the two hundred
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Speaker 9: and fiftieth fair that Trump and the administration created there
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Speaker 9: in the Great Mall in Washington. Oh, there's nobody going.
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Speaker 9: The ferris wheel isn't working. Look at the reflecting pool.
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Speaker 9: Everything is a indication of his presidency because it's failing
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Speaker 9: that there's a.
13:29
Speaker 6: Problem with it.
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Speaker 9: First of all, Donald Trump didn't build the ferris wheel.
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Speaker 9: Let's be serious about that, right. If Coney Island has
13:36
Speaker 9: a problem with the ferris wheel, it mean that it's
13:38
Speaker 9: the borough president of Brooklyn. Doesn't mean that Coney Island
13:43
Speaker 9: isn't a fun place to go. He created a place
13:47
Speaker 9: for people to go to share their moment that two
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Speaker 9: hundred and fiftieth We're so fortunate to be alive and
13:54
Speaker 9: to be able to celebrate this. So why is this
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Speaker 9: now an issue? Just like the reflecting pool? I mean,
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Speaker 9: I know JJ Kafaro, the guy that was hired within
14:03
Speaker 9: which to put down the port. Guy's done thousands of pools, thousands.
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Speaker 9: Why did Trump use him? Because Trump used him for
14:10
Speaker 9: dozens of pools over the years. There's a mistake in
14:14
Speaker 9: the material that was used. Okay, whatever it might be.
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Speaker 6: Fix it, fix it.
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Speaker 9: It's a maintenance issue. It is not an indices of
14:24
Speaker 9: what's going on with the presidency. Let's stop with the nonsense.
14:28
Speaker 9: Let's focus on the real issues.
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Speaker 7: There. I look at it a little differently, and that
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Speaker 7: is most of the people, the vast majority of people
14:37
Speaker 7: of this country love it. They love the fact that
14:40
Speaker 7: their parents and grandparents and great grandparents sacrifice to give
14:44
Speaker 7: them a better life, which is why you have a
14:46
Speaker 7: so called immigration problem because people still want to come here.
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Speaker 6: But there's a handful that hate this country.
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Speaker 7: They hate capitalism, they hate what the country stands for,
14:55
Speaker 7: they hate the flag, they hate the fact that they
14:57
Speaker 7: can't control every aspect of people's lives.
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Speaker 6: So to those.
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Speaker 7: People who just want to find evil in everything and
15:05
Speaker 7: find a problem and everything, I think it's our responsibility
15:09
Speaker 7: that credit John Katz, Matit's and Margo for giving us
15:12
Speaker 7: a voice to crowd them out and simply say, what
15:15
Speaker 7: you want to do is destroy this country. What you
15:18
Speaker 7: want to do is bring the people down, and we're
15:20
Speaker 7: not gonna allow with that.
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Speaker 6: So how was the different than what I just said?
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Speaker 7: Excuse me no, only because the approach is let's focus,
15:29
Speaker 7: my opinion, focus on the ninety eight percent of the
15:31
Speaker 7: people that truly love this country, and we're always going
15:35
Speaker 7: to find the guy in the back. Who's going to
15:36
Speaker 7: stand up and say I don't like you, I don't
15:38
Speaker 7: like this country. But then there's ninety eight people who
15:42
Speaker 7: are going to stand there and say sit down. You
15:44
Speaker 7: have every right to stand up and voice your opinion
15:46
Speaker 7: in this country because people died to give you that right.
15:50
Speaker 7: People die to give you the ability to walk freely,
15:53
Speaker 7: speak freely. You could be a total idiot, But at
15:56
Speaker 7: the same time, the most people I know, when tomorrow comes,
16:00
Speaker 7: they will be waving that flag, loving this country. Some
16:04
Speaker 7: will have tears in their eyes because they know the
16:07
Speaker 7: sacrifice that was made to give all of us a
16:10
Speaker 7: better life. That's how I used to hear stories from
16:12
Speaker 7: my father. You know, Thank god I still have he's
16:15
Speaker 7: still alive. Ninety one Holocaust survivor was fortunate enough to survive,
16:21
Speaker 7: ended up not being able to come to America because
16:23
Speaker 7: they had malaria, so ended up in Toronto, Canada. Came
16:27
Speaker 7: to the United States to practice head and neck reconstructive surgery.
16:32
Speaker 7: After becoming a doctor in Canada, met my mom the
16:36
Speaker 7: whole bit. I was eleven years old. It was nineteen
16:39
Speaker 7: seventy six, on a bi centennial that my father became
16:43
Speaker 7: a US citizen and I remember him constantly throughout my
16:47
Speaker 7: entire life talking about there is no country greater than
16:52
Speaker 7: the United States of America. At one point he almost
16:55
Speaker 7: had to leave. They were throwing him out of the
16:56
Speaker 7: country because his visa had expired.
16:59
Speaker 9: It was actually what you mccallth it was the mayor
17:04
Speaker 9: at the time who gave him an indefinite visa to stay.
17:09
Speaker 9: Jacob Javits gave it center. Jacob Javits is the one
17:14
Speaker 9: who actually gave him the ability to stay and ultimately
17:18
Speaker 9: again took him almost eleven years.
17:25
Speaker 3: Nineteen seventy six was the year I opened my first
17:28
Speaker 3: carpet store on Avenue between Houston and Second Street. Yeah.
17:32
Speaker 3: It was a yeah, it was. It was way back then,
17:36
Speaker 3: and you know the city was different back then. You know,
17:39
Speaker 3: the city was hungry. You know, it was destroyed. I
17:44
Speaker 3: mean there was a lot of burnt out buildings everywhere.
17:47
Speaker 3: Landlords turned their keys over because you know, they couldn't
17:51
Speaker 3: afford it.
17:51
Speaker 6: Right.
17:52
Speaker 3: We have a mayor today veto that said to everyone
17:58
Speaker 3: bring your thermostat up to set than the eight degrees.
18:01
Speaker 3: But yet City Hall was at sixty three degrees. I'm
18:04
Speaker 3: sure Gracie Mansion is probably at sixty three degrees. Right,
18:09
Speaker 3: So it's the whole socialist communist mentality. They're gonna eat, well,
18:13
Speaker 3: they're gonna eat great steaks, but the people should eat
18:17
Speaker 3: affordable food.
18:18
Speaker 7: Sure.
18:18
Speaker 9: But even on top of that, Mayor Mandani refused to march,
18:23
Speaker 9: for example, and if this doesn't tell you everything about
18:27
Speaker 9: his character, refuse to participate in the Israeli Day parade. Now,
18:33
Speaker 9: you don't have to agree with Israel's policies.
18:37
Speaker 6: That payer.
18:38
Speaker 9: You're supposed to show up for all people. I agree
18:41
Speaker 9: the same way. If you've shown up for the lgbt
18:43
Speaker 9: Q plus community, you show up as the mayor the
18:46
Speaker 9: same if it's the Greek parade or the Palestine show up.
18:50
Speaker 3: You might have revenged that word revenge right my books, Okay,
18:53
Speaker 3: it's your right revenge.
18:56
Speaker 8: I'll tell you something because today is the fourth of July,
19:02
Speaker 8: third of July. Tomorrow's the fourth and all the ships
19:05
Speaker 8: are coming in. Uh, and I won't mention which pacifics Uh.
19:09
Speaker 8: I got a call from the White House a few
19:11
Speaker 8: months ago, and it was not the President, it was
19:14
Speaker 8: I won't mention names. Uh, and uh that uh that
19:19
Speaker 8: somebody in the mayor in the mayor's office, and I
19:22
Speaker 8: won't mention names, would not allow the police to cooperate
19:28
Speaker 8: with uh the uh uh, with the coast Guard and
19:32
Speaker 8: with the ships coming in. And I did make the
19:35
Speaker 8: phone call, and we, like I said, with the Mayor's office,
19:39
Speaker 8: we had the we had the mayor at the Police
19:41
Speaker 8: Athletic League. I said, we might not agree on everything
19:44
Speaker 8: we say, and the same thing ed conscious to say,
19:47
Speaker 8: you might not agree with everything you say, but we
19:49
Speaker 8: got to keep communications open and we have to be
19:52
Speaker 8: civilized as much as we can. In the Mayor's office
19:56
Speaker 8: took care of the ships.
19:58
Speaker 3: You know, Michael. I look out of my window every
20:00
Speaker 3: day and I feel so privileged to have an amazing view.
20:06
Speaker 3: I also live in a Trump building, and I'm proud
20:08
Speaker 3: to say that it's probably the best maintained building in
20:11
Speaker 3: New York where I live. And I look out the
20:14
Speaker 3: standards and I see and I see the ships out
20:17
Speaker 3: of my window, and I get goosebumps because I see
20:21
Speaker 3: the power of the United States. You see, it's like
20:26
Speaker 3: amazing to be here. For those people that don't live
20:30
Speaker 3: and have never been to the US, you know, they
20:32
Speaker 3: don't know what we all.
20:33
Speaker 6: Take it for granted.
20:34
Speaker 9: We do because you know, we're here and we get
20:38
Speaker 9: to enjoy the freedoms of this of this.
20:41
Speaker 6: Great country of ours again. And I want to be
20:45
Speaker 6: crystal clear, you.
20:46
Speaker 3: Haven't enjoyed the freedoms all the time.
20:49
Speaker 9: But here's the crazy thing that we all have to
20:53
Speaker 9: just acknowledge and understand. We're all different. The Italian you
20:58
Speaker 9: could be think it agree right, So we're all different.
21:03
Speaker 9: We come from different neighborhoods, we come from different walks
21:05
Speaker 9: of life. We're never going to agree on everything one
21:10
Speaker 9: hundred percent of the time. If you agree with somebody
21:12
Speaker 9: one hundred percent time, you're in a cult, plain and simple,
21:15
Speaker 9: you're in a right As ed Cott said, you should
21:18
Speaker 9: see a psychiatrist. Here's the thing. That doesn't mean that
21:24
Speaker 9: anything you disagree on is poison, that everything that you
21:28
Speaker 9: disagree on should be smashed and pounded down, especially when
21:32
Speaker 9: you're talking about the President of the United States in
21:35
Speaker 9: a policy. You have every right, the Constitution grants it
21:39
Speaker 9: to you, every single right within which to disagree. But
21:43
Speaker 9: that doesn't mean that that disagreement has to turn to
21:46
Speaker 9: hatred and to a lynch mob. And that's what this
21:52
Speaker 9: far left. I know, I've experienced it. I refuse to
21:56
Speaker 9: acknowledge something which wasn't true about Trump and the Epstein file.
22:01
Speaker 9: I refuse because it's not true. And that cost me
22:06
Speaker 9: about fifty thousand subscribers on my substack. Wow, fifty thousand.
22:11
Speaker 9: Literally people walked away because the far left attacked me vociferously,
22:16
Speaker 9: like I couldn't understand. I'm saying, it's just not true.
22:20
Speaker 9: And if you want me to dopamine rage hate bait,
22:26
Speaker 9: this crowd, don't follow you. You've got the wrong person.
22:29
Speaker 9: And they ended up leaving and they went someplace else
22:33
Speaker 9: to go listen to somebody else that was willing to
22:35
Speaker 9: do it. That's one of the big problems that we
22:38
Speaker 9: have too. Media rewards people financially with dopamine hate.
22:45
Speaker 6: It just does.
22:46
Speaker 9: Their whole goal is to rage bait you for clicks
22:50
Speaker 9: and for profit.
22:51
Speaker 6: And they put words in your mouth. They most certainly do.
22:55
Speaker 7: There's not enough but just a respectful disagreement in public,
22:59
Speaker 7: the public sphere. You know, you like the Mets, I
23:02
Speaker 7: like the Yankees. Okay, let's move on and have a
23:04
Speaker 7: beer whatever it is. And that doesn't happen as much
23:06
Speaker 7: as it should. But we also have and this is
23:10
Speaker 7: the beauty that comes together and the assimilation. This country
23:14
Speaker 7: doesn't exist but for and you Finander, you mentioned that
23:17
Speaker 7: the men and women who wear our nation's uniform, they
23:21
Speaker 7: are the ones who are on the front lines every
23:23
Speaker 7: single minute of every single day preserving our freedom and
23:27
Speaker 7: those who gave their life the ultimate sacrifice to preserve it.
23:31
Speaker 7: And we just when possible, reinforce that message of yearning
23:38
Speaker 7: for that as opposed to it's easy when things are
23:41
Speaker 7: going cool and you grow up and you never got
23:44
Speaker 7: into a street fight, and you went to the best
23:46
Speaker 7: colleges and you never get and then you're twenty five
23:49
Speaker 7: years old and you think you know the world. And
23:52
Speaker 7: I guarantee you when you opened your first carpet store
23:55
Speaker 7: and you had to grit and grime every single day
23:57
Speaker 7: and you had to learn the rules of the world
24:00
Speaker 7: on the streets that when you come across folks who
24:03
Speaker 7: think they know it all, you probably look at them
24:05
Speaker 7: and say, you have no clue what you're talking about.
24:09
Speaker 7: You have no clue how the world works, and you
24:11
Speaker 7: have no clue how evil some people can be, which
24:14
Speaker 7: is why we get sort of roped up in some
24:16
Speaker 7: of this dope talk about dopamine dopey foreign policy because
24:21
Speaker 7: we think that everybody's good and no, there are some
24:23
Speaker 7: evil people in this world and we need to crush
24:25
Speaker 7: them when possible.
24:26
Speaker 3: You know what, I believe always that competition is good.
24:31
Speaker 3: I've never looked at a competitor as being an enemy.
24:35
Speaker 3: I've never looked at a challenger as being an enemy.
24:39
Speaker 3: I look at situations and I like to address issues. Right,
24:43
Speaker 3: I'm not going to go after you personally when we
24:48
Speaker 3: are discussing an issue. It doesn't matter whether you're running
24:51
Speaker 3: for office or not. But the most hateful people in
24:55
Speaker 3: the world are those that when they see you as
24:59
Speaker 3: a child, automatically see you as an enemy and start
25:03
Speaker 3: making stories up about you. Okay, I experienced it with
25:08
Speaker 3: this guy by the name of Curtis Sliwa. This guy
25:12
Speaker 3: and I I carpeted his first apartment when he moved
25:15
Speaker 3: in with Lisa Sleewa on the Lower East Side.
25:18
Speaker 6: I should have yeah, yeah, with a shmata. Yeah.
25:21
Speaker 3: You know what, I should have put a red permanent
25:23
Speaker 3: rug on his head. Right. So, you know this guy,
25:26
Speaker 3: we had been friends for forty years. All of a sudden,
25:31
Speaker 3: I'm running from mayor. He's running from mayor. The guy
25:33
Speaker 3: accused me of things that I hadn't even heard about, right,
25:38
Speaker 3: And those are the kinds of that's the hatred that
25:42
Speaker 3: kills certain people. That's why they can't get out of
25:45
Speaker 3: the hole, because they're full of hate. You know, it's
25:49
Speaker 3: not about issues, it's about hate.
25:52
Speaker 7: Somebody I respect, nearly one of most my dearest friends
25:55
Speaker 7: put it sixth succinctly. When you're calling me friends, know
26:00
Speaker 7: what happened? Oh no, no, he said. He's a private
26:04
Speaker 7: business guy. He said, in business we have competitors. In politics,
26:09
Speaker 7: you have enemies. Yep, and I.
26:11
Speaker 6: Want to see you.
26:12
Speaker 7: I didn't know he said it many many years ago,
26:14
Speaker 7: and it resonates to this day. In business you have competitors.
26:18
Speaker 7: In politics, you have enemies and they want to see
26:21
Speaker 7: you death. And that unfortunately carries through and to the
26:26
Speaker 7: extent that is this. Unless it's again, unless it's crushed,
26:29
Speaker 7: it's going to fester.
26:30
Speaker 3: For right.
26:33
Speaker 6: We need a whole other show, that's for sure.
26:34
Speaker 9: But sometimes you can't get to the individual himself, like
26:39
Speaker 9: what happened with Trump in twenty seven, twenty eighteen. So
26:43
Speaker 9: what do you do? You go after those people who
26:46
Speaker 9: are around you. You go after the closest and if
26:49
Speaker 9: it's not family. You go after to the surrogates.
26:52
Speaker 8: You know.
26:53
Speaker 9: We saw that happen, for example, and he was with
26:55
Speaker 9: me in Otisville. Joe Percoco, right, was Andrew Cuomo's chief
27:01
Speaker 9: of staff. Wow, Yeah, with me. He's one of the funniest,
27:05
Speaker 9: nicest guys you could ever meet.
27:07
Speaker 6: He really is.
27:07
Speaker 9: I enjoyed every second hanging out with him, and we
27:10
Speaker 9: hung out a lot. Joe's case was actually overturned because
27:16
Speaker 9: the allegations raised against him were false. They went after
27:20
Speaker 9: him because they clearly couldn't get no different than many
27:25
Speaker 9: of the Democrats, and some Republicans went after me, and
27:30
Speaker 9: actually many Republicans too went after me in order to
27:33
Speaker 9: try to get to Trump. And I understand Trump's animus
27:39
Speaker 9: as it relates to the system and the fact that
27:43
Speaker 9: they were constantly attacking him and trying to knock him
27:47
Speaker 9: down every single day, starting with that Russia hoax, which
27:51
Speaker 9: it was. I understand it because I lived it.
27:56
Speaker 6: And to be.
27:56
Speaker 9: Honest with you, I don't blame him. I really don't.
28:00
Speaker 9: Now sure he's the president of the United States. Should
28:05
Speaker 9: he be bigger than life. In order to say I
28:08
Speaker 9: can forgive, I can let it go, I couldn't. I
28:11
Speaker 9: still can't let it go. The fact that their goal
28:15
Speaker 9: was to take him out of office, even before he
28:18
Speaker 9: was inaugurated the first time, and the fact that an
28:22
Speaker 9: ordinary person doesn't see that. And when they create this
28:24
Speaker 9: illusion they created, they know the facts are wrong, they
28:28
Speaker 9: manufacture things, then they create a narrative that some of
28:33
Speaker 9: them really believe it. And then when they repudiated and
28:37
Speaker 9: they say it's absolutely false, and they still carry the
28:40
Speaker 9: message to this day even though it's you know, been
28:43
Speaker 9: thrown out in the trash bin. It shows you what
28:47
Speaker 9: they really are all about. Well, you know that old expression, right,
28:50
Speaker 9: you repeat the lie. If this is Stolin, repeat the
28:56
Speaker 9: lie as many times as you need to in order
28:58
Speaker 9: that the lie becomes the truth.
28:59
Speaker 6: And they've done that. It happens, and it does happen.
29:02
Speaker 6: It happens. He believes his own lies.
29:09
Speaker 9: But I am living proof, which is why when you know,
29:11
Speaker 9: you know, is going to be so important for people
29:14
Speaker 9: to hear, because there are more lives than there are
29:18
Speaker 9: facts and truths. It's amazing they have learned how to
29:21
Speaker 9: weaponize lies.
29:24
Speaker 3: Vito, you you were a congressman. To me, you were
29:27
Speaker 3: probably one of the finest congressmen up on the hill
29:30
Speaker 3: alone with Peter King. And what's the life of a
29:33
Speaker 3: congressman like? You know, you guys get to travel, you
29:38
Speaker 3: get to go to great dinners, you get to meet
29:40
Speaker 3: the president, you get to do big things. You know,
29:45
Speaker 3: what's life like as a congressman? And what do you
29:48
Speaker 3: think these socialist congressmen that have just been elected, what
29:52
Speaker 3: are their lives going to be like? Because they don't
29:54
Speaker 3: like uh.
29:57
Speaker 7: Exuberance, right, I would in any public life, but especially
30:01
Speaker 7: remember of Congress.
30:02
Speaker 6: It's a privilege.
30:03
Speaker 7: You know, my hometown in Staten Island, born and raised
30:06
Speaker 7: in South Beach. Was a kid from South Beach. I
30:08
Speaker 7: still have a kid from South Beach of Staten Island.
30:10
Speaker 6: And still the fact you look, yeah, I don't know, it's.
30:19
Speaker 7: It's South Beach. It's good not to the South Beach
30:22
Speaker 7: in Miami, the South real South Beach. When people entrust
30:26
Speaker 7: you to say, Vito, we're hiring you for the next
30:29
Speaker 7: two years to go out and exercise the best judgment
30:32
Speaker 7: to represent us in the United States House, to represent us,
30:34
Speaker 7: there's no greater honor. So it was a privilege and
30:37
Speaker 7: an honor. And you go out and you work hard,
30:40
Speaker 7: you be straight with people. You have to cast I
30:43
Speaker 7: think probably over ten thousand votes, and you have to
30:46
Speaker 7: be able to explain it. But the key point is
30:49
Speaker 7: know what you're talking about. Know that you're the people
30:52
Speaker 7: you represent come first. I found that in Congress a
30:56
Speaker 7: lot of guys and gals drifted away from that, became
30:59
Speaker 7: more of a function of DC.
31:01
Speaker 6: Uh.
31:02
Speaker 7: They'd be more concerned about the party, more concerned about
31:05
Speaker 7: other things other than fundamentally you work for the people
31:08
Speaker 7: of Staten Island and Brooklyn. That's your job. And sometimes
31:12
Speaker 7: you have to stand up to people in your own party.
31:15
Speaker 7: Sometimes you have to stand up to the President of
31:17
Speaker 7: the United States. And as long as you can look
31:19
Speaker 7: yourself in the mirror and say I'm doing my job
31:22
Speaker 7: for the people I represent, that was my standard. Not
31:25
Speaker 7: everybody has it, But what can you say? What can
31:27
Speaker 7: you say? So was it privilege? Yeah, you get to
31:29
Speaker 7: do some cool stuff. You you can hang around with
31:32
Speaker 7: an air force one. Peter and I. In fact, Peter,
31:36
Speaker 7: you know, Peter King and I were with President Bush
31:38
Speaker 7: a number of times.
31:39
Speaker 6: In fact, we went to Ireland.
31:41
Speaker 1: Uh.
31:41
Speaker 7: I know Peter is very very involved with the Irish
31:45
Speaker 7: peace peace process, and to his credit, Bill Clinton was too,
31:49
Speaker 7: and we traveled to Ireland prior to you know, resolving
31:53
Speaker 7: those things once. I yes, but I'm a proud Irish
31:58
Speaker 7: son of an Irish mother. Uh, my mother's probably listening
32:01
Speaker 7: right now. My mom, she does, She's still she worked.
32:05
Speaker 7: She just retired at the age of eighty eighty five.
32:08
Speaker 7: She just retired.
32:09
Speaker 6: Everyone else.
32:09
Speaker 5: I was talking Abito Faicela, the borough president of Staten Island.
32:12
Speaker 5: You're listening to the Cats and Company Takeoversuela.
32:16
Speaker 6: Hello, missus.
32:17
Speaker 7: She's an O'Leary, Lucy and O'Leary. My great grandfather was
32:20
Speaker 7: a member of Congress from Staten Island nineteen thirties and forties.
32:23
Speaker 7: So we believe in public service. We believe in doing
32:26
Speaker 7: what's best and focusing on the good and the good
32:29
Speaker 7: and people. And we keep making making trying to make
32:32
Speaker 7: him sat in on a better place.
32:33
Speaker 3: To Michael Cohen, did you ever travel on Air Force One?
32:36
Speaker 6: I did not.
32:38
Speaker 9: You didn't have I thought you were so close to
32:40
Speaker 9: Troy I was. I just didn't want to go. I
32:42
Speaker 9: mean I was invited. I just had other things that
32:45
Speaker 9: I was more involved with. And you know, it's easy
32:50
Speaker 9: and it's fun to hang around with the president to
32:52
Speaker 9: travel and so on. But that was never my thing
32:55
Speaker 9: with him, right, It was always four thirty am and
33:00
Speaker 9: thirty at night. The man's got the most incredible stamina
33:04
Speaker 9: that I've ever that I really have ever met. But
33:08
Speaker 9: I would handle the base. He was doing what he
33:12
Speaker 9: needed to do, and I didn't want to be that
33:14
Speaker 9: guy that's hanging over his shoulder camera right for the
33:19
Speaker 9: you know, hey, look at me on TV. Look at
33:20
Speaker 9: me ato you I four point four billion articles written
33:24
Speaker 9: about me, all right.
33:25
Speaker 6: I don't need any.
33:26
Speaker 9: More, you know, any more fame or notoriety or infamy
33:31
Speaker 9: more like it. But so many people have so many
33:34
Speaker 9: things to say about Donald Trump and his character. And
33:38
Speaker 9: the funny thing is I say to them all the time,
33:41
Speaker 9: how much time have you spent with him? And the
33:44
Speaker 9: answer is generally zero? Correct, I, on the other hand,
33:48
Speaker 9: have spent a decade and a half by the man's side,
33:51
Speaker 9: twenty hours a day. So do the math yourself. It's incalculable.
33:55
Speaker 6: And now you're gonna spend it with us here.
33:57
Speaker 8: At w A.
33:58
Speaker 9: But I bring that point up because I'll give you
34:01
Speaker 9: an example. The first time I showed up, it was
34:02
Speaker 9: about a month and a half two months after Trump
34:05
Speaker 9: was inaugurated to the Oval office. He wanted me to
34:08
Speaker 9: come in and to see it. He wanted to experience
34:12
Speaker 9: the whole White House. And so when I got there,
34:16
Speaker 9: they give you a little visitor's badge. You had to
34:19
Speaker 9: wear it around your neck. And was sitting in Trump
34:21
Speaker 9: looks at me right in the face and he goes,
34:23
Speaker 9: take that thing off.
34:25
Speaker 6: I'm like what.
34:26
Speaker 9: He goes, You're not a visitor because this is your house.
34:30
Speaker 9: He goes, you come, you go whenever you want. It
34:33
Speaker 9: was very It was meaningful to me. So I take
34:37
Speaker 9: it off. And then a'm Arosa, who was a friend,
34:40
Speaker 9: started walking me through the White House to see and
34:42
Speaker 9: to go say hello to some of the people who
34:44
Speaker 9: obviously you know, I knew through the campaign. And one
34:49
Speaker 9: of the Secret Service agents turned, sir, you need to
34:54
Speaker 9: put on your visitor pass I said. President told me
34:56
Speaker 9: I'm not allowed to wear it like sir, you have
34:58
Speaker 9: to put it on. A Rosa said, I'm telling you.
35:01
Speaker 9: President said, he's not to put that on around his neck.
35:05
Speaker 9: He's not a visitor. This is his house. We then
35:08
Speaker 9: went upstairs, we had dinner, the whole nine yards. He
35:10
Speaker 9: gave me a complete and total tour that stayed with
35:15
Speaker 9: me as it does today. And that is a description
35:19
Speaker 9: of his character to people who he cares about me.
35:23
Speaker 7: And we had one thing about President Trump. And when
35:27
Speaker 7: I ran for Borough President, I was in a primary
35:29
Speaker 7: with June twenty second of twenty twenty one, Saturday was
35:33
Speaker 7: three days before. Out of the blue, I get a call.
35:36
Speaker 7: I was with my wife, Mary Patton Grasmir in the
35:39
Speaker 7: car and looking for an address or something. Out of
35:41
Speaker 7: the blue, I get a call from somebody. And it
35:44
Speaker 7: wasn't somebody I thought it was. It was President Trump.
35:48
Speaker 7: Never asked for anything, and all he said was you
35:50
Speaker 7: though I heard you were running. I want to do
35:53
Speaker 7: what I can to help. How come in and tell
35:54
Speaker 7: me Within five hours. President Trump came out to support
35:59
Speaker 7: me publicly the next day and he was the first
36:02
Speaker 7: person to call me on Tuesday night when I won.
36:05
Speaker 6: Uh.
36:05
Speaker 7: That is the Donald Trump, the President Trump that many
36:08
Speaker 7: people who want to hate him don't understand.
36:11
Speaker 6: He is one loyal guy. Uh.
36:14
Speaker 7: And I'm a loyal guy as well. But he didn't
36:16
Speaker 7: have to do any of that, and he stepped up
36:19
Speaker 7: to do it, never asked for anything in return, and
36:21
Speaker 7: I was grateful for it.
36:22
Speaker 5: Being if A Sella, that Borough president of Stat nine,
36:25
Speaker 5: sticking around with us. We've got to take one last
36:26
Speaker 5: break here on the Cats and Company take over. Yes
36:30
Speaker 5: you do, Yes, you don't need the Hall pass.
36:33
Speaker 6: Also you also, just like Michael Cohne, you don't need
36:35
Speaker 6: a pass. You can go ahead and use the back.
36:37
Speaker 6: We'll be right back. Oh, we were still alive.