'DARK MONEY': Sliwa calls for probe over Mamdani campaign funds

Welcome back. Well, New York City's mayoral race now two months away. Self-described Democrat socialist Zoran Mamdani seeing a million dollar fundraising haul in the most recent round. He is raising money fast. A majority of those donors, however, are from outside of New York City.

Mamdani's haul between July 12th and August 8th nearly double that of independent Andrew Cuomo and incumbent Eric Adams in the same time. The latest polls show Mamdani leading the pack, but now New Yorkers seem to be souring on his socialist policies. His campaign had to walk back a position from the Democrat Socialists of America, which first endorsed him to wipe out enforcement of misdemeanors.

Joining me now, a man who is rising in the polls, New York City Republican mayoral candidate, Curtis Sliwa. The latest city filing show. You raised money, Curtis, from more than 4,000 donors. You quadrupled Mondani's totals, and most of them are from New Yorkers. Congratulations for that, and welcome to the program.

Well, thank you, Maria. And they get matched, an 8-to-1 match, because they're New York City donors. First off, I want to check to see on Zoran Mandami's donors if in fact they're bringing in dark money from overseas. I would suggest that the Justice Department immediately look into that, because all of a sudden, from being such a favorite of so many people in New York City, he can't seem

to raise money in New York City. He can't seem to raise money in New York City. He's exhausted that supply. Why it makes sense that he would have not only Soros money, which we know he has, but maybe dark money. Let's investigate that. Let's find out if I am correct or if I am incorrect.

But I have a feeling that's what's happening in this election cycle.

Well, this is breaking news. You want an investigation be done about where that money came from.

Correct. I may be wrong. I'd be more than happy to apologize.

Well it's interesting because somebody on the Cuomo team recently said to me they were shocked that he beat Cuomo in the primary and they said one of the reasons is they shipped all these people from outside New York to work on the campaign and get them to vote? Because there's a law in New York that if you say you lived here for 30 days and you go to vote early, you actually can be counted.

Oh, there's no question. In fact, you can be signed up to vote right on up to the first 10 days of early voting. Those are the rules and regulations.

So they can just ship outsiders in to vote?

Well, yeah, they can temporarily come in and vote. How are you going to prove that, in fact, they're living at that residence? Nobody goes to prove. But I think with Cuomo, he bailed out on that election cycle. He mailed it in from the Hamptons. I'm in the streets every day and in the subways.

There's blood flowing up in the Bronx. You're not seeing any of these candidates all weekend long. They were doing silly things, lifting weights, eating potato chips. I'm dealing with what is becoming the number one issue, crime, public safety and quality of life. I'm the expert in that field. These other three candidates have failed the public in that regard.

Well, look, they're all talking about affordability and they're talking about public safety. You founded, you know, the Guardian Angels and have seen this city go through different cycles. What is your

solution? The solution is we got to get back to the basics. We got to let the police officers be police and restore qualified immunity. Most people say, what is qualified immunity? All civil servants are insured, including as we've seen Cuomo, who continues to get sued for sexual harassment. We as taxpayers pay those bills.

Cops now can be personally sued for anything they do. And we don't have enough cops. We need at least 7,000 more cops. So that's why, when all of a sudden, Pam Bondi comes to New York City and says to our police commissioner Jessica Tish, you know, we can assist you. And Jessica Tish says, no, it's an anomaly.

It's a perception of crime. No, no, no. Crime is rising. And the other way you actually address affordability, none of the candidates talk about this. You slash the taxes, the income tax, the corporate tax, the property taxes. You have congestion pricing right here, which is covered in this area where you broadcast

from. It is destroying businesses all up and down the corridor. It's another tax. Speed cameras, higher sewage rates, water rates, electricity rates. You are basically being taxed from the cradle to the grave and being driven out of New York City.

I want people to improve and not move. And there's only one way you're going to get them to stay, if you put money in their pocket, so they can actually spend it and fuel the economy here.

So Curtis, your priorities are ensuring that you get this city back to being safe and cutting taxes. Can you do that or do you need the governor, Kathy Hochul, to get involved in terms of overseeing a tax cut? Can you do that as mayor?

Some of it you can do as mayor, and some of it you can do when I will be out there side by side with Congresswoman Stefanik from upstate New York to beat Kathy Hochul and this Democratic stranglehold on the state and the city. That's a one-two combination. Remember, you had Rudy, followed by Pataki. What did we have?

We had order, no chaos, no corruption. We could do the one-two punch. Slewa, the Republican candidate for mayor, followed by Stefanik, congresswoman for governor, will get this city and state back on track. Slash taxes, provide public safety that will keep people here instead of fleeing the Florida, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee and other parts of the country.

And you think you're going to get an electorate to come out and vote for a Republican in New

York?

Well, the other advantage is I have the first ever Protect Animals line. No-kill shelters, put animal abusers in jail. That resonates with a lot of women, who are the majority of the voters, the majority of the workers, and are the ones being attacked in the streets and subways in New York City. Yes, it will resonate with the voters. I will become the next mayor of the city of New York.

Well, I like that. I mean, I think you're right in terms of these no-kill shelters. Look, President Trump has kept out of this race so far, although he has been outwardly opposed to Mamdani and his rise of socialist policies. You've urged the president not to get involved in this race. Why?

Because you think it's largely Democrats because they're against President Trump? Why not?

It should not be a focus of Zoran Mandami versus Trump. He wants to run against Trump. He doesn't want to run against Sliwa or Adams or Cuomo on the issues. The other thing, the president has a full plate. Peace, Ukraine and Russia. But the biggest peace he can negotiate, he has the power.

Stop the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. That's the biggest selling point that Zohan Mandanami has amongst millennials and Gen Zers. And I'm going after that vote. I haven't forsaken it, like Eric Adams says and Andrew Cuomo.

Well, the president yesterday said, look, if anybody kills somebody in Washington, D.C. in the Capitol, you will face the death penalty.

Do you agree?

In a federal city, sure. I think somebody should face a death penalty, but it will be tied up in courts. I loved what the president did and said that Cuomo no cash bail has to be rescinded or we will deny federal funding to New York State. Cuomo started it, he doubled down on it, HOKO continues it. That's why we have so much crime that's rampant in the streets and subway in New York City. That, the president can be very helpful.

I thank him for that. We got to get rid of this no-cash ban.

Well, the president has been saying this for a long time. I sat down with the president months ago and tried to get his take on this mayoral race, and that is exactly where he went. Here's President Trump with me just a few months ago. Watch this.

Who would you be poised to support in New York? I know that you have a lot of people, a lot of friends, and I have everybody, so I don't want to get into that. I can tell you this, whoever is mayor of New York is going to have to behave themselves, or the federal government is coming down very tough on them financially.

He could hold back federal funding for New York the way he's been looking at all these sanctuary cities.

Well, he already has if you look in the big beautiful bill, Medicaid, education, they're going after NYCHA, the federal housing. Now we need to cut the budgets. Yeah. Way out of whack. But I think that's when you sit down with the president and his cabinet and you say

this is where I agree with you but this is what is going to hurt the city. We cannot hurt the city because Adams has hurt it, Cuomo hurt it as governor, before that de Blasio, and Zorhan Mondani will destroy the city. That's why you have to vote for the only Republican in this race who will bring law and order, slash taxes, and keep people from fleeing.

Well, the mayoral race took an interesting turn over the weekend. Mondani's campaign held a scavenger hunt in Queens. There's viral video showing him failing to bench press 135 pounds of weight, needing a spotter to help him. Curtis, I mean, it was like now we're getting goofy with the weight. But let me just ask you a serious question here in terms of you, Cuomo and Adams all

being in this race. Somebody's got to step down. You're going to take votes away from each other. What do you say to the criticism that if the three of you are running against Mandani, Mandani wins?

Well, because there are three Democrats in this. There's Mandami, and then there's Mandami-Light. There's Cuomo and Adams. And they agree on most things. They want illegal aliens to vote. I don't. They believe in a sanctuary city.

I don't. So why would I remove myself from the race when I'm the only one promoting law and order, patriotism, return to the basic concepts that you and I grew up with in New York City when it was the greatest city in the world? I am the believer in Republican principles. Let the two other Democrats, Cuomo and Eric Adams, be on the Titanic and play musical

chairs. They can knock each other out. I'm going to become the next mayor. You loved it when Rudy was mayor. You loved it when Bloomberg was mayor. You're going to love it when Sliwa is mayor, because we'll have no chaos, no corruption,

and we're going to crack down on the crime that is plaguing this city. Is this a new persona for Curtis Leigh with no beret, red beret? Well, Maria, you gotta take part of the credit. You suggested you're with all the heavy hitters, and the heavy hitters seem to say, Curtis, when you come into the boardrooms of the corporate Fortune 500 companies based here in New York, you gotta get rid of the beret. And as I've said to you, I was born without a beret, I'll die without a beret. There are people out there, obviously when I'm in the streets and subways and I'm helping

people, the beret stands for guardian angels, six who were killed in the line of duty, three doesn't seriously injured. But if you want me to take the beret off, vote for me for mayor, day one, I'll never wear the red beret again.

Curtis Lee, it ain't over till it's over. Good for you. We're watching your moves. Thanks for being here this morning. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Maria.