Bruce Blakeman | Nassau County Executive | 07-17-26

Get Ready, Staten Island. The Fairy Hawks are back at S-I-U-H Community Park next weekend for a four-game series against the Long Island Ducks. Friday, August 7th, first pitches at 7 p.m. Plus, it's kids glow around the bases. Saturday, August 8th. It's a single admission double header with first pitch at 4 p.m. It's Italian Heritage Night with postgame fireworks. And Sunday, August 9th, first pitches at 1.30 p.m. Plus, kids run the bases. Visit fairy hawks.com now to lock in your seats. When I'm inducted officially into the New York Broadcasting Hall of Fame in October at that beautiful luncheon at the Rainbow Room, guess is going in with me? Rosanna Scotto. So Scotto had the governor on yesterday, and anybody with a half of brain knows that these data centers are not only important, but they provide. You ready for this word? Jobs. Bruce Blakeman is the current Nassau County Executive. He won it with a second consecutive time, getting a lot of votes from Democrats and Independence. He's running for governor. He's my brother. Here he is the great Bruce Blakeman. Bruce, good morning, pal. How are you? Good morning, Sid. We're doing great. I know you guys are, and I know because I've got a spy in your office every day. It happens to be my son. We'll get to that later. But let me get to these data centers. Here is another example of Kathy Hochul costing New York jobs. Or am I wrong? This is an act of economic cowardice and malpractice on the part of Governor Kathy Hochul. There is a way to get this done where it can be a win, win, win. You sit down with the data center developers and local governments and other community people of interest, utility companies, and you figure out how to make it work. If there is a water problem, you make sure that there's a water recirculation. element to the project so that the water keeps recirculating. If there's a utility problem, you make the dentist data center provide its own power generation, and on top of that, you let them sell for a minimal cost, the excess energy, to the grid to bring down people's utility costs. And you provide tax abatements to people who live around the data centers, so their taxes are reduced. So you cut their taxes, you cut their utility costs, and you put in data centers that create jobs that will be employing carpenters, electricians, plumbers, steam fitters to do the work, to build these places, and you get along with the future. of an industry that is now the fastest growing industry in America. But Kathy Hochul, she has continuously made blunders and huge mistakes that now have us rank 50, 50 out of 50 states at the very bottom of economic outlook and economic development. And that's why people are leaving the state. They're looking for jobs in other places.

And that's why businesses don't want to locate here. When I become governor, We're going to sit down with all the stakeholders and figure this thing out and get it done. So it's a win, win, win for everybody. Well, what is she complaining about? You have to, because this is a little, look, this is some pretty good inside baseball stuff. A lot of my listeners I stole from Boomer Ossison. So they're getting ready to watch the Yankees and the Dodgers later on tonight. You just explained it. It sounds like it's a great opportunity. For people in any one of these states to build these data centers, what is she bitching about? What's her problem? Well, there are legitimate concerns. The number one concern is energy generation because these data centers require a lot of energy. So the developers have said we will produce on-site. the power generation, not only for our data center, but we'll provide extra for the surrounding community, or we will rebuild your existing power plants to increase the capacity. They're willing to invest money in that. The data centers require a tremendous amount of water. There's new technology now with recirculation systems, so you can make it mandatory for the recirculation of water at the data centers. So there are solutions to the problems, but there's a lot of misinformation out there. And it's coming from the left. It's coming from China who doesn't want us to beat them in this AI race. AI is the fastest growing industry in the world. For New York to completely shut themselves out of it. is another reason why we are in a death spiral here in New York, the most overtax state. Utility costs 70% higher than the national average and unsafe communities because Kathy Hochul's lack of leadership. And now she's partnered with Zohran Mamdani, who is completely clueless when it comes to economic development. He's a communist. So the two of them together. are trying to destroy our state. I'm not going to let that happen. I will be the governor on January 1st. And we will find solutions to these problems. We will make AI data centers work for the communities that they go into. And those communities will want them, provided that there are enough incentives to make sure that the surrounding communities are happy with the data centers, which I believe will happen because it's happening in every other state. It is. And you mentioned the people leaving, and they are leaving. I know, you know, John Katzmatiti, thank God, is still here. We love John. And others, you know, Bill Ackman is still here. And Griffin still has some stuff here, you know. But people are leaving. I think I saw a number like 11 billion.

in tax money, basically out the door. You know, years and years ago, you remember Bruce, before you ran for governor, she actually told us to leave. She said, yeah, Lee Zeldin, President Trump, Sid Rosenberg, hop on a plane, see you. I was down in Fort Lauderdale a couple of months ago, and that was when she was begging New Yorkers to come back, and I joked around, I made a tweet. You know, I'm on the beach in Port Lauderdale trying to convince New Yorkers to go back to a state where they want to overtax you with a mayor who hates Americans and Jews. Come on home. And I think it got like 3 million retweets. But the truth is, she has invited, invited New Yorkers to leave for years. This is someone who is completely out of touch doesn't understand that when high net worth individuals leave, they take their tax revenue with them. So who has to fill that gap? The burden falls on middle class taxpayers. And when those rich people leave, who does it hurt? It hurts the waiter, the waitress, the electrician, the plumber, the carpenter, the dry cleaner, the local dry cleaner, the local pharmacy. It has a ripple effect in a deleterious way on the economy. And that's why New York is last in economic outlook. And one of the things she said on Rosanna's show yesterday, and it just shows her antipathy for people around this state, she said people upstate don't have the sophistication to deal with the people in the AI. I heard us say that. I heard of say that. And that's rough. Listen to me. I have traveled to every nook and cranny, every corner of this state. And I can tell you that I have found really, really bright, sophisticated, articulate people located throughout the state, whether they're farmers, whether they're... working in in blue collar jobs. They have what Kathy Hochul doesn't have said, common sense. Yes, but here's where I'm going to agree with her, but it's her fault. Because I was just at my mom's house in White Lake slash Conyanga Lake, New York, two weekends ago, Bruce. She's exactly five miles from Monticello. Those people barely have teeth. I'm being serious, let alone income or smarts, because the last couple of governors, Andrew Cuomo, Kathy Hochul, who promised to help the people in Monticello, in Rochester, in Binghamton, in Syracuse, in Utica. Promise to help them have left them behind. And these people are drug addled. They don't have jobs. And quite frankly, they're not sophisticated. But that's because the leadership has basically left them to die. As Todd Hood, he'll tell you firsthand. Well, you know, Sid, there are pockets of abject poverty.

throughout the state of New York, created by Kathy Hochul, especially on the southern tier of our state where she won't let extraction of natural gas. But let me tell you something. I've talked to a lot of people in small towns upstate. I talk to a lot of farmers. Let me tell you something. They're sharp, you know, and I wouldn't take them for granted. You know, it's like what Kathy Hochul said that, quite frankly, I thought was racist. when she said that black kids in the Bronx don't know what a computer is. She said that? Yes, she did. Oh, my God. She has an antipathy towards people. She's an elitist. Oh, my God. And the fact that she would say something like that, first of all, you know, I'm of the generation where I'm not the most technologically savvy. Me either. Okay. The majority, the vast majority of black kids in the Bronx or any other place are better on a computer than I am. Me too. Well, that is absolutely a racist remark. Absolutely. Well, it's like what she said about people upstate, lumping them all together. And she has this superiority complex that she knows better than anybody else, what's best for our families. She wants to have government parent our children, this nonsense of gestating parent and non-gestating parent instead of calling them moms and dads or mothers and fathers. This is all part of her superiority complex where she thinks she should be able to control our lives and she's doing a miserable job. She willing is. She's overtax. Yeah. 70% higher utility rates. How do you explain that? You can't. That's why people are leaving. And what is her issue, Bruce Blakeman? My man, Bruce, the next governor here in New York, write it down right now. What is her issue with gas stoves? What's the problem there? It doesn't fit into her green energy scam dogma. She is engaged in a scam on the ratepayers of everybody who pays an electric bill in the state of New York. where every time you make a payment, a portion goes to a fund that she controls where they invest in science projects that produce very little energy. It's very costly, like the solar farms in upstate New York that were under snow for four months. How's that going to produce any energy? But somebody made a lot of money off of that, Sid, and somebody got a lot of political contributions from that. And how about 60-story wind turbines out in the middle of the ocean? Now, I talk to contractors and developers every single day, and I ask them, is it cost efficient to build in the middle of the ocean? You've got to barge everything out there. It's dependent on weather. It's dependent on tides. You probably only get two days a week of work. It's insane when we have one of the largest natural gas reserves in our state, and Kathy Hochul won't let us use it. It would dramatically increase the supply. It would make us more secure with the electric grid. And it would bring down energy costs. It would create jobs and prosperity in our state. And here's the stupidest thing about it.

She won't let us do it in New York State, but she's buying the same natural gas from Pennsylvania. Oh, come on. That's a reality. Come on. Is that dumb? Yes. It's not only dumb. It's killing us. It's just killing us. I mean, you know, and the other thing you talked about, somebody's making money, and I'm not accusing her necessarily, but you go back to COVID way before you ran for governor. There was a lot of rumors about her and her husband and masks and all the things that she wanted for New Yorkers. Where some of that money meant. I'm just saying it's out there. Or those memorabilia stands at the football stadium for the Buffalo Bills. All that stuff is out there. I'm not accusing her of anything. I'm telling you, all that stuff is out there. And sometimes when there's smoke, there really is a fire. I do want to clear up one thing. This state and city. They're a bunch of horrible liberal losers. They write terrible things about me all the time. They actually accused me. You ready for this? They accused me of inspiring the guy that dropped the bombs at Gracie Mansion until they found out it was two ISIS guys. But the first story they wrote accused me. of inspiring some white supremacist to bomb Gracie Mansion. They're terrible people. And they've been writing all week that there is a much bigger discrepancy in funds raised between you and Kathy Hochul than you are willing to admit. What's the truth there? Well, the truth is that they have these arcane accounting systems for the reporting of your funds. And right now, my people tell me that they have done a thorough accounting and that we've raised over $11 million. Nice. She's claiming I raised only $8 million. First of all, what's the difference? The bottom line is I will raise enough money to beat Kathy Hochul because there are people out there that are writing me checks for $100. They're going on my website and they're giving their credit card, $50. They're doing whatever they can. to support this grassroots effort to save our state. And Kathy Hochul tries to change the narrative all the time. And here's the bottom line. We are last in everything except for taxes, which were at first, and utility costs, which we're 70% higher. That's all people have to know. about Kathy Hochul. And then I'll put something on top of that that people have to know. She's the most pro-criminal governor in the United States of America. Cashless Bail, Raise the Age, the Halt Act.

We are in a death spiral in New York. She has partnered up with somebody who is a mayor of our great city of New York, who is anti-American. His July 4th speech was dark. It was vindictive. It was anti-American. Couldn't get one sentence in his whole speech. praising the United States of America, the freest country in the world, the country who's created more prosperity than any other country in the world, the leader of democracy in the world, he couldn't say one nice thing about us. He comes from Uganda. Lord knows what government is like there. Lord knows what life is like in Uganda. He was blessed to be able to come here. He was blessed to be elected mayor of the city of New York. And he hates America. And that's a problem for me. Big problem. That's why when you win, you're going to remove them. So listen, on the way out, everybody knows how close you and I are. We're brothers. I think people don't even realize how close we are. We talk every day. We are that close. But now, Bruce Blakeman, now, now you've got two generations of Rosenberg's in love with you. My son, Gabriel, started working for you on Monday. He put in the last four days. He liked you. He knew who you are. He knew that I love you. I talk about you at home at the dinner table all the time. I'm not saying this. just to patronize you or, you know, make sure you take good care of Gabriel. He loves you. He loves you. He comes home now. He talks about the governor's race. This guy's got to win. My 17-year-old son even knows that you need to win to save New York. So just so you know, two generations of Rosenbergs adore you. Well, first of all, he's a great kid. Thank you. And second of all, look. I give kids an opportunity every summer. I got a lot of interns. I want them to learn about government. I want them to learn about public service. They come from all walks of life. They come from all communities. And I want them to see firsthand how government operates. And I got to tell you, I got the greatest group of kids. I've got an alumni of interns that have worked for me that are going to very prestigious universities that are going on to do great things in their life. And that's what you have to do. You've got to get young people involved. But let me tell you something. I love you, Sid, and I love Gabriel, but I only give an opportunity. It's up to the kids to produce. They got to do their job. And one thing, I asked one of my other interns, who this is her second year, I said, how's Gabriel doing? She said, he's doing great, he's a great kid, and he's a very kind person. Oh, my God, you're going to make me cry.

Thank you for saying that. And I've heard from some of the other parents of the interns. You know, Doug Goodstein, pre-famous guy. He worked for Howard Stern and Mark Levin. His son, Judd, is one of your interns. And one of the mothers actually reached out to me, Briel's mom and said that Briel loves working with Gabriel, so you've got a great group of kids. And the future, the future of New York, works hard every day to ensure that Bruce Baitman wins. This was an amazing conversation. Maybe our best yet. Mr. Governor. Thank you for hopping on on this Friday. Have a great weekend. We'll do it again next week, Bruce. I love you. Thank you so much. Love you, too. God bless you, Sid, and God bless America. You too. There he is, the amazing Nassau County Executive and the next governor of New York. He's an impressive guy. Tremendous man. Well, he is, Bruce Blakeman. Thanks for listening to Sit and Friends in the Morning. You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning, weekday mornings at six. If you like the podcast, share it with your friends, and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the Wabc Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time for a new episode, so you never have to wonder. What the... What the heck is going on here?