In a New York Minute... Everything Can Change. Things Can Get Pretty Strange

Me encountering Curtis Sliwa in Middle Village, Queens — November 4, 2025

The idea that Zohran Mamdani is going to bring about the downfall of Western Civilization is stupid. For one thing, most people who try to claim such nonsense can’t even coherently define “Western Civilization,” or how Mamdani is supposed to be an existential threat to it. And if Mamdani is really such an existential threat, why couldn’t the Republicans in New York get their act together to rally behind the only viable alternative, Andrew Cuomo, who was eagerly soliciting their vote? With the emphatic endorsement of the current Republican President, Donald Trump? Again, if it was such an emergency situation, then presumably the 146,000 voters in New York City who opted to back the no-shot Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, did not adequately receive the message. Maybe they hated Cuomo too much to ever vote for him. Fine. But then don’t try to act like this was the nation’s Last Stand Against Communism if your personal antipathy for the one guy positioned to block the dreaded Communist Takeover was too much of a hindrance. “He’s a miserable rat bastard!” one Sliwa voter in Queens shouted to me about Cuomo.

There are those who believe that the likes of Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki defied Trump, and continued to stick by Sliwa, because they viewed the elevation of Mamdani in NYC as conducive to Republicans’ future political prospects — because the next crop of GOP gubernatorial candidates can now use him as a foil, and tell the rest of the state that they need to elect Elise Stefanik (god forbid) so she can remove the Communist or something. At which point, the likes of Giuliani and Pataki will gain more political cache and access. So let’s think about that for a minute. If the theory is true, and it’s plausible enough, NY GOP bigwigs such as Giuliani and Pataki were so unconvinced of Mamdani’s existential threat that they were willing to contribute to his election, rather than defeat him, as a 3D Political Chess ploy. (Although to call Pataki a bigwig in 2025 is a “big joke.” Rudy too, arguably.) Another part of the explanation is likely the role of decades-old dynastic blood feuds among these aging wannabe shot-callers. Pataki improbably beat Andrew’s father Mario in 1994, in an enormous upset. So it would be like a mortal political sin for him to ever endorse Cuomo. As for Giuliani, he’s generally embittered, tunnel-visioned, and drunk enough that this was the one area where he was willing to go against Trump.

However, there were some NYC Republicans who did follow their own “existential threat” logic. And that’s what made the Cuomo campaign so morbidly fascinating. The coalition he had to try to stitch together was comprised of factions and constituencies that he never had to seriously court in the past. He had to make a groveling apology to the Hasidim in Brooklyn, some of whom continue to believe that he “cursed God” (as one of them told me on Election Day) when he made a statement about their violations of COVID policy in 2020, declaring that his secular governing authority trumped that of God. Nonetheless, certain precincts in Borough Park ended up voting 96% for Cuomo. Say what you will about them, but these Orthodox Jews really know how to turn out the vote. As one of them explained to me — in one of the most priceless organic quotes I’ve ever received in a random voter interview — “I voted for Cuomo, because Trump said so. I think Trump deserves our respect. He knows things that we don’t.”

That quote was from a 34-year-old Hasid named Levy, who I approached while he was entering a Shul in Borough Park, which is one of the strangest places in America if you’ve never had the opportunity to visit. It’s like the “Old World,” except with Kosher cell phones. (Literally.) At first Levy didn’t want to talk to me. My typical approach was “excuse me, do you mind if I ask who you voted for?” Sometimes people blanched at this, so I’d transition to “will you tell me if I guess correctly?” (Which was extremely easy most of the time.) But Levy scampered into the Shul. However, he then seemed to have changed his mind, and came right back out. That’s when he gave me the Trump quote. He kept going in and out of the sex-segregated Shul entrance, as though another thought kept crossing his mind that he couldn’t resist imparting. After the fourth or so go-around, he told me to take down a phone number. Who the heck is it, I asked? It’s a guy who goes by the name of Mark Kennedy, he said. WTF? Is there an Irish-Catholic who attends your Shul? So I dialed the number. Turned out to be a guy who goes by the pseudonym @RealMarkKennedy, but whose real name is David Weinberger, 32. Amusingly enough, he was in line to vote at the moment I called him. About to vote for Cuomo. He said he was a registered Republican. He was going to vote for Sliwa, but then when Trump posted on Truth Social that everyone must vote for Cuomo, he took the last-minute directive to heart. “The moment that the Truth came out, I said Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt. Trump is the leader of this movement; Trump has done so much for us. So we should vote with our noses closed.” Mark/David, who identifies as a “Jewish political guru,” took credit for posting on some social media platform or groupchat (God knows what it was exactly) the voting logic that was then repeated to me by the original guy, Levy. So I guess he really is a guru of sorts, at least for 30-something Hasids. Weirdly, none of these guys ever wanted to be audio-recorded; apparently some paranoia about modern technology (even though they’re going around with the “Kosher cell phones.”) One guy in Crown Heights even made me delete the voice note on my iPhone during the interview. “Mamdani is anti-Israel, anti-Columbus, anti-America” he said. “Anti-this, anti-that. He should go to Pakistan.” The man, a Chabadnik, denied that Orthodox Jewish Leaders were using any “strong-arm” tactics to turn out Cuomo votes. But I didn’t buy it.

Outside the Shul in Borough Park

So these were the people that Cuomo was trying to court. Along with Republicans on Staten Island, a slice of Zohran-averse legacy Democrats, old Black Women in Brownsville, etc. Which was simply fascinating if you’re any kind of observer of US politics. Cuomo people are adamant they could have won the election on the strength of this coalition if a couple things swung differently. In particular they blame Sliwa. They claim they know for certain that Sliwa did a deal with Zohran. I have no idea if this is true — I’m just telling you that the Cuomo people adamantly believe it, and will probably believe it until the day they die. And they’re not wrong that Sliwa at times did appear to evince a begrudging admiration for Zohran, while reserving his most intense vitriol for Cuomo. I asked Sliwa about this myself on Election Day, and he launched into a raging tirade against me — blaming me for the sins of all the “media,” as though I’m a personal avatar of the NYC press corps. (Ask the actual journalists whether they’d agree with that. LOL.) I’ll admit I did needle Curtis a bit, asking if he was angling for the job of Animal Welfare Czar in a Zohran administration. (And why not? Seems like a harmless gig.) Sliwa proceeded to blow up, although conspicuously did not answer the question. There’s plenty of talk about how he needs a job, and is chronically in dire financial straits. Several people in positions to know told me that he frequently slept on the floor at WABC radio. (Sometimes he managed to find a couch.) But now he’s angrily renounced WABC, declaring he’ll never set foot there again. (Which I’m not sure I buy either. There’s nothing a radio station covets more than a good feud, followed by dramatic reconciliation.)

***On the point that Cuomo couldn’t have won even if he got all of Sliwa’s votes, because it still wouldn’t have added up to 50%, the argument is that a “One on One” contrast between Cuomo and Sliwa would have changed the dynamics of the race, and without Sliwa constantly hectoring Cuomo, and serving as Mamdani’s de facto attack dog, Cuomo could’ve gotten over 50%. Again, I’m not endorsing this logic, I’m just telling you what they vociferously maintain. It’s a counter-factual assertion, and thus inherently unprovable, but it’s stridently believed.

Cuomo and Sliwa have apparently never even spoken to each other, except on the debate stage, but the personal loathing between them is viciously palpable. As I told Sliwa in Middle Village, Queens, he clearly has no problem ranting and raving everyday that Cuomo is the most corrupt man on earth, who “won’t take no for an answer” — alluding both to his (phony) sexual harassment allegations and his decision to run as an Independent after losing the Democratic Primary to Zohran. But when Sliwa’s fellow New York Republican, Donald Trump, decided to get involved in the race and proclaim that all his supporters “must” vote for Cuomo, Curtis suddenly goes mute, and merely notes that Trump has a right to his opinion. Gimme a break. Curtis has been a professionally bombastic Talk Radio guy for decades, rattling off the most colorful takes about every possible political development. But now he was all mealy-mouthed about the current President making fun of his beret, and endorsing his bitter rival? “Curtis, are you afraid of Trump?” I asked him. He didn’t take the question well. And for anyone who would criticize me for asking these kinds of prickly questions, what’s the point of covering a NYC mayoral race, if not to ask prickly questions? Especially with a guy like Sliwa, who never shuts up about how he’s the only authentic NYC Street Guy, born and bred in Canarsie. If you can’t “mix it up” with a guy like that, might as well pack it in.

Some of Sliwa’s former backers are also 100% convinced that he did a deal with Zohran. They don’t know the precise contours of this deal, but they’re convinced it happened. Hence they are also convinced that what he claimed happened — that he was bribed by some cabal of billionaires to get out of the race, and make way first for Eric Adams, then Cuomo — was a fabrication. And yeah, it’s very weird that he’s still never identified the culprits who supposedly offered him this $10 million bribe. Why didn’t he report it to law enforcement, which he claims to be such a stalwart supporter of? Or could this be yet another fake crime he invented, like the ones he’s admitted to inventing in the past? This was a guy who once concocted a story out of thin air that he was abducted by the New York City Transit Police. And he’s only become a bigger publicity hound since then. So why wouldn’t he pull the same stunt in 2025? It’s a weird failure of the NYC Press Corps that they never investigated Sliwa’s bombshell “bribery” claim more thoroughly or conclusively.

Anyway, this is Part One of Two in my little NYC Mayoral Election retrospective. I’m planning to make Part Two partially paywalled, so please subscribe if you find this foray into local politics remotely interesting. I sympathize with those of you who live elsewhere in the country (or the world) and have no particular interest in NYC, but whether you like it or not, this was the most consequential election of 2025, with huge national implications, both real and imagined. Post-election, I took a few days to have some conversations and synthesize the data, numerical and anecdotal. If nothing else, hopefully you can acknowledge that this reflects my journalistic versatility! I’m also heading off this morning to do some more interviews that I’ll probably incorporate into an article tomorrow. Why am I telling you all this? I’m not sure. In a New York minute — woo-ooh, ooh — everything can change. In a New York minute — woo-ooh, ooh — things can get pretty strange.

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