Welcome Michael Cohen to the 77WABC Family! | 07-03-26

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To get the word out, and I don't want people to misconstrue what's really going on here. This is not a radio show, or at least when, you know, when you know, is not going to be about either side. I want to talk about being part of what I call the tired majority. And the tired majority is really the 54 plus percent of Americans that no longer want to identify with either party because the extremes, like what we're seeing here in New York City, are too extreme. Michael Cohen, tell us a little bit about when you'll be appearing so that people can get the idea of your schedule and things like that. Well, it begins on Sunday at 5 p.m. And that would be on June 12th, Sunday. June 12th. July 12th. July 12th. Okay. Okay. So that's a. So he's coming on just before I come on with no excuses. Oh, my God. Remember Michael Cohen, Fernando Mateo back to back. What comes on at seven? And Jake Novak at 7. Freedom 250, the decisions that made America. John, now you want to know why this radio program is number one in the country, right? Yeah. We work harder. That's right. And we've got, I mean, honestly, so a lot of talking points to hit, and that's, so that's. That's the headline for those of you who are looking at me. The pictures of the New York Post today. I look great. I looked phenomenal. I missed it. How'd you miss it? I don't know. At least I made the post again without. At least I made the post again without being in handcuffs. Listen, I want to be on page six, though. That's what I want. Jake, I'll tell you, I'm excited that Michael is here. I think that he's going to really make that five to six hour very exciting because I really personally didn't think it was that exciting before. But Michael's going to make it exciting. He's going to have my chair warm so that when I walk in, it's nice and warm. It used to be cold, but now it's going to be warm. Oh, wow. Okay. That's an important endorsement. Speaking of cold and hot. The headline, it's July in New York, and it's going to be very hot today. I understand, for those of us who are adults, that's nothing to go too crazy about. By the way, I see Chad Lopez is here, too. Yeah, Chad's on the other side of the glass. And Kevin. Wow, Kevin. We have some all-stars here. What happened to the other crew? I mean, they don't know how to work on holiday? It's too hot. Apparently, it's hot. Listen, I've got to get some days off. I don't want to lie. Everybody's faking. something. Yeah, I don't know. But I'll tell you, it's hot, and we want to be nice, and we want to say everyone get hydrated, make sure you do that kind of stuff. But, of course, the heat has become a political football in the city because Zohran Mamdani, a couple of days ago, told everyone to set your thermostats in your home and your offices at 78 degrees, which is not realistic. I don't know how many people are going to do that. Thank God we're not doing that here. By the way, the coldest place to be...

is a TV or radio station in the summer because of the equipment. This studio is nice and chill. Yeah, I mean. But you know what? It's very hypocritical for the mayor to say, bring your temperature up to 78 and keep the temperature at City Hall at 63. Yeah, but it's a communist way. They all eat well. And the people eat nothing, right? That's the way it is. You take it all for yourself and you give very little to the people. Well, I want to know what his temperature is. Well, we know what happened, by the way, with that, right? With Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake. Yes, exactly. It didn't really work well for them. It didn't work well for the Russian czar either. I experienced Fidel Castro, and the people were starving to death, and Fidel Castro was doing well. And he had air conditioning. Absolutely. Okay. That's the way. I want to interview. Well, you do know that air conditioning is in the Constitution, right? That thou shalt receive air conditioning. In 1776. Well, it's good to have a lawyer in the house, right? That's an interesting interpretation. Now, I wonder if we interviewed all the socialists if they would say that the person that invented air conditioning deserves to be a billionaire. Oh, yeah. At least the Nobel Peace Prize for sure. By the way, all kidding aside, that to me is one of the things that really gets me. I want the person who finds the real cure for cancer to be a billionaire. I want the person who figures out a way to create a real renewable energy source to get to be a billionaire. I don't understand. Do these people not understand incentive? I mean, I'm sorry, I'd love to live in the Star Trek world where people just create stuff for no reason, but we need incentive and as the great, great... Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman said, the greatest achievements of mankind have come mostly from selfish self-interest, which ends up helping everyone. Listen, I love billionaires. You know why? Because they had the mind, they had the will, they had the hard work behind them to make it happen. You know, people are criticizing Donald Trump for making $1.2 billion in his crypto, whatever. But guess what? When Michael Bloomberg entered City Hall, he was worth $4 billion when he left. He was worth $31 billion. 31 billion. That's the only $31 that you know of. Well, now he's worth over $100 billion. But you know what? It's good. Money makes money. That's right. Right? You know, you got to have money to make money. And billionaires have a lot of investments. And the chances for them. I mean, it's basically having a ticket to the game. And, listen, President Trump lost money in his personal wealth during that first term. I didn't see a lot of headlines on MSNBC about that then. Let's talk about that. They tried to ruin him. They tried to put him in jail. They tried to take away all his money. Michael Cohen, you were his lawyer. You were there. Tell us what happened. Well, I wasn't there when they were going if. I was actually spending time. at Otisville, correctional facility. So give us a scenario what happened in case people forgot. I'll tell you, one of the things that they did do to Trump is they started with this Russia hoax. And again, it was all BS. It's all both. Every aspect of it was nonsensical.

There was the Steele dossier created, which was initially to be opposition research by the Clinton campaign. Hillary Clinton herself took one look at the document by Christopher Steele, and so this is ridiculous, unverified, uncorroborated information, 13 allegations in that document about me. Who the hell am I? That 13 allegations in this document, let's see. I went to Prague. I've never been to Prague. I do really want to go. I've never been to the Czech Republic. That I met with Russian compromats on behalf of Trump and the campaign. I went with $10 million in cash. And the goal was to pay off Russian compromats for compromising information on Clinton. My family owns a Dacha directly next door to Vladimir Putin. I've never been to Russia. I've never been to Sochi. That my family, my in-laws are, my father-in-law specifically is the biggest real estate developer in Moscow. My father-in-law has never been to Moscow. He's Ukrainian. There's 13 of these nonsensical. They... Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in at Chumbacasino. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. VTW Group. Boyd were prohibited by law. CTNCs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino. And nobody went to jail. I did. You went to jail, but nobody that created all this BS, this bull crap. None of them went to jail. No. I mean, how's that possible? You're asking the wrong guy. You should have asked at that point in time sessions or maybe Bill Barr or somebody. We should get them on one of my shows and ask him because that's a great question. It gets worse. That document was then picked up by John McCain. I write about it in my book, Revenge. That document got picked up by... by John McCain, who read it and felt, I need to do something with this document. And not because the document had truth or veracity to it, but because it was pounding on Donald Trump. They never wanted him to run. They thought it was a joke. He ends up winning, and now they need to find a way how to rip him away from the office. Everybody, including a whole bunch of Congress members, start immediately with things like, we're going to impeach him. He hasn't even stepped into office. They're already talking about kicking him out. Well, they now turn around and turn that document over to John McCain. John McCain turns it over to, ready for this one, John James James Comey James Comey then opens up an investigation. Where were you on so-and-so date? Well, I was in Los Angeles. Really prove it. Well, go speak to the baseball coaches at USC. My son had a triad. He was a big lefty pitcher. They were like, is that true? Don't take my word for it. Of course, I'm telling you it's the truth. Go speak to the baseball coaches. And so they did. Well, maybe we got the day wrong. What was the, what did you do the day after that? I was with Harvey Levin in studio. I know Harvey forever. Michael, were you scared through this whole process? I mean, you weren't scared. No, because I believe that I had the president behind me. I felt very protected. What do you know is that?

That was 2017. And he was still president. Of course. He was just elected. It was just elected. So now I'm sitting there and I'm like, this has got, this is just ridiculous. It goes on and it gets worse because then James Comey turns it over to Andrew Weissman. Andrew Weissman then turns it over to Jeffrey Berman for whatever reason. And I still don't know, recuses himself. And then it gets turned over to Robert Kazami. And they then turn it over to these two numb nut. prosecutors, Tom McKay and Nicholas Roos. And they come after me. Four and a half months, I keep asking them. Four and a half months every single day. What are you guys bothering me for? After having 80 federal agents raid my home, the hotel I was staying in because we had a flood damage, my law office, and my safety deposit box, which I only just opened in order to put stuff in because... I was going to have people inside our apartment. But you were close to the president. There was no one closer. There was no one closer to the president of the United States. And friend. And friend. By the way, he texted me last night and he told me he was glad we're to get this this morning. And by the way, for those who are just tuning in, we're talking to Michael Cohen. And Michael, you know, you're giving us all these, again, and this has been documented, what you just, there's nothing that you just said that wasn't completely documented and proven. But I just want to pull out just a little bit. And I don't even know how much you're aware of this because obviously this is a personal thing for you and it's hard to see it from a national level. But I want people to understand this isn't just another story of insider political dirty games and these kinds of things happen. Understand that the Russia collusion hoax destroyed families in this country, created divisions between longtime friends, people who got along for many, many years. A lot of people said like, well, I can't be a friend with someone who supports a president who's a puppet of Russia, even though there's no, you know, no proof of it. I mean, this tore the country apart. He's told my family apart. Yeah. You know, I'll personalize it. It ripped my family apart 35 plus years of successful business. taken away from me in one shot, lost my finances, my law license, my reputation, my honor, my family's happiness. How do you get past something like that? And for what reason? So that they could destroy the man who won the presidency? Think about that. I went from... I went from the White House to the S House, right? I can't say that on air, right? That's a big move, man. You think? There's nothing bigger than that, Michael. When I say the S House, I'm not joking, because I worked over at the water sewage over at Otisville. All your clean water here in New York comes from up there, just so you know. Michael Cohen, tell us a little bit more about your, for those who.

Don't know. A little bit more about your overall background. Are you a lifelong New Yorker? Tell us about your education. Yeah, I'm a lifelong New Yorker. I was born in Brooklyn. At the age of two, we moved out to the five towns of Long Island. After that, I went to college in Washington. I worked actually for Congressman Joe Mokely in 87 and 88. Had a chance to even work on Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign. I was there. I was an intern in the summers of 87, 88, and 89 for Congressman Floyd Flake. Oh, sure. So in D.C., so we probably, you know, as people should know about summer interns in D.C. They have all these receptions. They think tanks and Congress has all these receptions with food and drinks. And congressmen show up just for the quick photo op and then they leave. The food is for the interns. I don't think I paid for one dinner every time that I was there. So I probably saw you one of the same. Oh, you were like a legislative. I was there. So 80, all the way through 88. Okay. And what was interesting is it gave me sort of a perspective on Washington and it made me interested in politics. Suffice it to say, I then went to law school, came back in 1991, and I've been here in New York City ever since. I was fortunate enough. I had done very, very well, and I started buying up apartments, and I liked the Trump brand, and I liked the name. And so I started buying apartments in various different Trump buildings. Not only did I buy it for myself, but I bought for my parents, my in-laws, friends. We took a gigantic block over at the Trump World Tower on West Street from the United Nations. And that's really was my foray because there was an issue that erupted there. And I was able to resolve it for Mr. Trump at the time in a manner that he liked. I've been known to be somewhat rough and aggressive in my litigation and in my tactics. And he liked it because what they had done, talk about early on, people coming after him for no reason or all. They made allegations, the board against him, which were unfounded. And I proved them to be unfounded by spending over 100 hours and going through thousands of invoices. It was a lie. And they were doing it in order to remove the Trump organization as management. Well, I bought in the building because of the Trump brand and Trump management. And because you were such a good customer of Trump, is that the way he got to meet him originally? Sure. And then it was really Donald Trump Jr. who made the intro because he was building my apartment. I had just moved from 87th Street to a different property to a Trump property. And we were doing a combination. So Don was building the apartment. So he introduced me to his father. And he was like, I really appreciate what you did for me at 845. I have a different issue for you. Like, okay, I'll handle it. So he went ahead. He gave it to me. We resolved that one. And what year was that? That was in 2005, 2006.

And we handle that one very, very quickly, again, in this style to which I've always been accustomed, which was somewhat rough. Is that when you started to work with him as his personal attorney? No, because then I was a partner over at the law firm of Phillips Snyzer. And then he had another issue with Trump Entertainment Resorts. Asked me to review a series of documents. I was like, what's a different series of documents? He gives me two books, each one bigger than war in peace. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. He goes, trust me, Michael, I guarantee you're going to be able to do it. You're going to do it just fine. You're going to be great. You're going to be great. And I go ahead and I do it. And I go through it. I couldn't find the hook. I couldn't find the hook. The hook drove me crazy. So I stayed up. Literally 40 hours going through this, not once, twice, and then I found the hook. I bring it to him in a memo. He turns around and he goes, don't bring me a memo. Just tell me. So I tell him, he goes, it's amazing, amazing. And we went together over to the GM building. He gave. A butt-whooping to this board and to their lawyers like I've never seen. And the whole time, he's looking at me. John, you would know this because you know Trump pretty well. He gives you that look, that sort of half-cockied smile, you know, where you know that he's, it's almost like a mischievous child because he's got something and he tore into them. Like I never saw anybody tear into a board and they were just, they capitulated 100%. And he gave me that look, you know, that silent look of approval. And that's when he asked me if I would come to work for him as Executive Vice President of the Trump Board and his special counsel. answering to no one other than him. He asked me, Michael, you know who Roy Cohn is? I said, actually, I do. I met him several times when I was a kid. So he goes, really? I said, yeah. So he said to me, you're going to be my new Roy. I said, I'm honored. That's when you became the fixer? I think I was the fixer before that. Michael, for those of you don't know, was the special counsel for Joseph McCarthy and was really the hammer for a lot of those investigations, some of which turned out to be completely true. Some of which were a little stretched, but he was his hammer. That's for sure. Go ahead for name. Michael, you know, do you think the country is more divided than ever today? Absolutely. So what's going on? Talk to me. You know, it's a phenomenon that I don't, I'm not a sociologist, I can't really understand the reason why. We're all Americans. I'm supposed to be as concerned for you and your family as you are for mine. We're supposed to want to lift one another up, but that's not what it's about. It's a kill or be killed mentality today. And that's the part that.

I want desperately. It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to Chumba Casino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumba Casino has over 100 online casino style games all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free. Welcome bonus now at chumbacasino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. this show to be speaking to when you know you know the tired majority. We are tired of the divisiveness. I don't ascribe to the far left, nor do I ascribe to the far right. I'm somewhere and I've always been. Trump and I used to have this argument all the time. I say, I'm slightly left of center. I've been a Democrat my entire life. He goes, no, you're not. You're slightly right of center. I said, boss, I'm slightly left of center. So he goes, no, no, you're slightly right. Okay, okay, whatever you can't beat him in a, you cannot beat Donald Trump in an argument like that. So I said, fine. Michael, but I'm still a Democrat. Do you feel the media has treated you fairly? No, no. Not in the slightest. They have. come up with their own narrative for my story. It's why I put out my first book, Disloyal, which became number one. I read it. I read it. You didn't read the second book called Revenge. I just need them autograph now. I will get them for you. Both of them. Okay. Okay. I don't have the disloyal, but I do have still a few of the revenge. But put it all that aside. Maybe there'll be a second printing. We could do that. John, would you help me with that? Listen, the media has the media treated you right. And secondly, now you have the power of the mic. Now you have the power to tell your story. And I'm thankful to come to the most possible. Let me say it, John, please. Go ahead. In the most powerful radio station in the nation. There you go. The most listened to radio station in the nation. And I come on after you on no excuses. And guess what? Now, we both have the power to defend ourselves because in many cases, I wasn't treated fairly by the press. And both of you want a Monday through Friday gig, so that means somebody's going to lose. Well, no, listen, we can make it. We can maybe do it together. And Jake wants to do a trio. We can do a trio after Sid. Let's see whose ratings go up. Jake, Michael, Mateo? Only me and Chad know. Only me and Chad know what's going to happen. Well, Chad's my buddy, man. Chad is the man. Chad is the man. Here's that. You know, when yesterday the story came out that I'm coming to WABC, it's really truly interesting because it goes to your issue of divisiveness. I put out a statement in conjunction with John's statement, and I said, I'm thrilled to be joining WABC Radio, who wouldn't be, because it gives me something every truth teller needs. A megaphone.

For too long, I've watched facts twisted, narratives manufactured, and misinformation repeated until people mistake it for reality. That's over. I'm bringing decades of firsthand experience. Not all this nonsense that you hear from the side. Everybody's got an opinion. I'm bringing decades worth of firsthand experience, an unfiltered perspective, and a willingness to say what others won't. If the truth makes people uncomfortable, so be it. That's exactly why this platform matters. Well, you could only imagine when I put that out some of the commentary that I got. Now, from some, and I write about it in my substack of this morning. This is so crazy. From a husband and wife, this is what I woke up to at 4 at after 4 a.m. Russell and Cynthia, I won't mention their last name because you're despicable people. But F. U. Cohen, how much is Trump paying you now? Go F yourself, you're probably a pedophile, pedophile protector just like Trump is. You know exactly what Trump is because you work for him. Go crawl back under his desk and take care of business. Russell and Cindy. Well, Russell and Cindy, let me turn around and thank you for that marvelous and well-written email this morning. But when you talk about divisiveness, This is exactly the point that I'm trying to. You cannot have an opinion that is yours unless it describes to a certain group. And the second you step over that line, this is what you get. I've received hundreds of thousands of these over hundreds of thousands. It could be even millions. Some of them, it becomes too hard to even read. Well, you have thick skin, man. I've got to give it to you. You've got thick skin. But when people stop writing the things they're writing to you, then you become irrelevant. Yeah, I don't mind that. Okay. We're going to take a quick break right now, starting with the traffic from the Applebank traffic desk. We'll be back with Michael Cona for Nettao in just a moment. Let you know right now, again, I want to let you know that there's a little bit of a confusing situation out there on the roads and the bridges and your rails this morning. Biggest thing I want you to know is that the Long Island Road is running on a weekday schedule today, even though it's a federal holiday. But Metro North is on a Sunday schedule. Did they just screw up? How did that happen? No, they've done this before. I'm a longtime Long Island Road rider myself. So I'm just giving you the facts here, but they do this sometimes, especially when national holidays turn out to be a regular weekday. Metro North, however, is on a Sunday schedule. And to make things even more confusing, New Jersey Transit may have a bunch of delays on every single line because of the heat and the equipment yesterday. So make sure you know about that. Better news. from the bridges and tunnels. They're all in good status right now. So if you're looking to get out a little bit early before the traffic gets a little heavier for the break, this is what you want to do. Maybe you want to go out now, because things are looking really good, at least at the moment on that score. All right. Traffic sponsored by Apple Bank now with its highest annual percentage yield this year on any six to 12 months CD. Visit your local Apple Bank to open today. Member FDIC, $25,000 minimum deposit required to open, new money only. Early withdrawal penalty may apply. We're going to be right back.

Sid and Friends in the Morning on the Red Apple Podcast Network. Sid and Friends in the morning. Entertaining and informative. On the Red Apple Podcast Network. All right. It's not quite Lee Greenwood, proud to be an American, but it's still a kind of alternate anthem. 250 year anniversary. And you know why we're working seven days a week? We're working seven days a week because we want to make the 300th year. Yeah. It's our responsibility to move our country into the 300th year because I am really, I really feel pretty sure that if Harris would have gotten elected following Biden, because we, you can't, the normal people can't realize how bad a shape. Our country was in under Biden. And I don't know. It wasn't Biden pulling those strings. It had to be, you know, people are saying it was Obama's third term. I don't know. And Michael, you might have some intuition. I mean, you went through a lot of suffering. And it seems like this whole thing with the happened after. 2008 when President Obama became president, and he went, I want nobody to forget, he went from state senator or community, community activist, community activist to president within three and a half, four years, and he didn't have a pot to pissing. Yeah, but that doesn't really matter. But how did it happen? Oh. And don't forget, when he became president, he went to Saudi Arabia and kissed the ring. In Egypt, and he was smooth. He was smooth. Yeah. We're talking with Michael Cohen, by the way. That's the Michael that John Kassman Tees. Well, let me start by thanking John for bringing up all these rough memories. It's excellent for my PTSD. This is 250 years. Yeah. So we have to bring up the rough memories because people have to know what the truth is. Well, that's true. I don't know how. Obama ended up pulling it off, again, to go from community activists to immediately send her, then straight to the White House. Things happened. No different than Donald Trump, who went from billionaire businessman to president of the United States, something that I actually orchestrated with him going back to 2011. Michael Cohen. What are some of the things? Maybe even just rank your first one. Something about President Trump. that people really don't know, even the so-called fans of them. Well, thank you for asking me that question because I didn't write the question, right? No, yesterday. I don't take submitted questions. That's not sure. Well, yes. Depends on who's giving them to me. Yeah, it's not for me. So yesterday, I actually wrote in my substack, which is what prompted these two marvelous writers, these two Shakespearean writers with their email. I wrote about it.

People underestimate Donald Trump's intelligence. They underestimate the fact that things that he does are strategic. Now, you may not understand it, and I acknowledge that. I was with Donald for almost a decade and a half every single day, five hours, 10 hours, 20 hours a day, 4.30 in the morning, the man was called me. He has incredible stamina. Anybody that knows him, whether you like him or you dislike him, you have to acknowledge his stamina. 4.30 in the morning, he would call me. Every single day, seven days a week for almost a decade and a half, and also at 11.30 at night. just to sum up what's going on, a thought he might have. And a million times, I could be in vacation, and he would end up calling. Didn't make a difference. Same 430, 1130. He's a creature of habit. I don't mind to interrupt, Michael, but that's an important point you just made about a bad stamina. Because, you know, last month, there was this whole flurry of pictures in the mainstream media of Trump with his eyes closed. Let me tell you something how these cameras work. They work in split second. They take a ton of shots in split seconds. People blink. People close their eyes sometimes. This whole narrative that he was falling asleep. It's normal. He wasn't falling asleep. You have it all wrong too. And I want to set the record straight for people because when you know, you know, and they don't know. He does close his eyes. I've watched him do it at the Trump Organization on the 26th floor for years, whether it was when I first started to the day that he became president and so on. He's not sleeping. He's listening. He listens with his eyes close. It's unique to Donald Trump. My dad does the same thing. My dad does that. By the way, it's my parents' 63rd anniversary today. Oh, Mazel, Mazel, John. John, wait, wake up a second. I didn't snore, though. And I'm sitting there and I'm saying to myself, this is not accurate. I have watched Donald Trump close his eyes. Five minutes, ten minutes, if he's not speaking, he's just listening. And that's how he memorizes things. He closes his eyes and he's listening. Now, here's the funny thing. You could watch in a video. And I don't want people to take, again, when you know, you know, they want to have their own. Is that the name of your show? It is. No, like no excuses. When you know, you know. Correct. All right. And when you watch the video, he's sitting there, he's got his arms closed. His eyes closed, and somebody's talking, whether it's Pete Hegseth, and I can understand why you'd sleep during Pete Buttigieg then he finishes speaking, and immediately, boom, he's off and he's speaking. When was the last time that you were fast asleep? Yeah. And you were listening to somebody speaking, you got up, and you continued with the conversation. That would be incredible. But that's not what's going on here. His eyes are closed. He's concentrating and he's thinking. He's not asleep. You know, here's another thing. Like sometimes I'm sitting with my wife and we're watching like a terrible Netflix show or something like that. And she nods off. What happens when you nod off?

Your head drifts to the left, just to the right, it goes forward, right? You snore a little bit? Something like that. And, you know, or when you're on an airplane and the person next to you's head ends up on your shoulder and so on. Now, it bothers you, especially if it's, you know, if it's someone who's not attractive. Someone that's unattractive. There you go. Someone's attractive. Come a little bit closer here. You can lean here. You want me to fluff up my bicep for you? Is your wife listening to this? Of course she's listening. We're only married 31 years. And by the way, John, if hypothetically we. make it to the year, right? Where a 300th anniversary, I'll be married 81 years. All right. So do me a favor. Are you practicing law? No, I lost my law license. I can get it back now. You have to wait seven years. Imagine this, right? Is the president pardon you? Did he? Yes, I'm asking. No, no. Did he and could? Do you think that you wouldn't know right now if he pardoned me? You wouldn't know about it? You would be asking me that question. A lot of the listeners don't know that. The answer is no. Okay. Would you like for him to pardon you? Sure. In fact, John, could you ask the president to pardon Michael once he joined WABC? Absolutely. Maybe first anniversary. So John will ask. You should have said depending on his ratings. Right, exactly. Depending on his ratings. Yeah, thank you. So here's the crazy thing. I submitted. a pardon application under the Biden administration. I had two sitting members of Congress. I had two legal scholars, constitutional law scholars, number one and two in America. I had a former ambassador who's an ethics czar. I had seven people write letters, every single one of them known to Watergate. The Dershowitz, write a letter? No, he doesn't like me. And literally at 1201, right after Biden left, I got an email that says denied. It's amazing. He didn't pardon anybody other than his family. And I turned around, I tried to get my hands on to the auto pen. It didn't work. You know, Michael. I figured, you know, now Trump coming in, I could maybe use my old FBI pin to get in. I'd sneak and get the freaking, what do you call it? The auto pen. And I would sign it like all about Biden's other stuff. Specifically, though, that was Joe Biden himself, right? Everything else was the auto pen. People should understand that the Biden administration parted in a record amount of people, including. And this is probably the auto pen. For those of you remember that pay to play judge in juvenile court, the one who took money for every kid he sent to juvenile court. He got a clemency. He got out of jail early. No one knows why. This was not someone that the left loved. This is not someone that the right loved. And yet, so, you know, I guess you didn't pay the right people. Ouch. Michael, you know something? Getting to know you here today to me, whenever I think of somebody or something, it happens, okay? After I read your book, I said, gee, how do I get in touch with Michael Cohen? I'd love to have dinner with him. I'd love to speak to him about what he went through. Because to be honest with you,

I feel for your family. Me too. I don't feel as much for you. Although you went through it, I feel for the pain and suffering. Your family went through. Your kids. Yep. Because that would destroy me. Not me physically, but my family. Yeah. What you went through, you know, your family, I'm sure, you know, has suffered. And my parents, you know, my father's... Your family. My father's a Holocaust survivor. And, you know, he's seen enough in his lifetime. He's still around? Yes, he's turning 91. He was a child, 7 to 11, you know, there and dealing with the camps and so on. So he's seen more than his share. Hey, it is Ryan Seacrest here. If you love great games and a little extra excitement to your day, I got something fun for you. Chumba Casino and I have teamed up to create an exclusive online social casino game. It's called Ryan Seacrest 10K ways. It's fun and free to play. Just like all your favorites from Chumba Casino. And every spin brings 10,000 ways to keep the good times going. Check it out and play for free today at chumbac casino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Voidware prohibited by law. CTs and C is 21 plus. Sponsored. like Trump a casino. My father's a surgeon, a head and neck reconstructive surgeon. My mom is a surgical nurse. I have three siblings, all lawyers. My uncles, my aunts, my cousins, we're all lawyers and doctors. And now there's one felon in the family. Did anyone represent you? Did anyone in your family represent you? Any other lawyers? No, I actually went with somebody who was a former head of the Southern District of New York Criminal Division. But even he was powerless. Even he was powerless. This was the most amazing thing. For four and a half months, every day, we reached out to the prosecutors. What do you guys want? What are you doing? It was all political. It was. What are you guys doing? What do you want? But Trump was the president, though. I understand. But the system hadn't yet jump started into so Trump. So we called every single day. We're not ready to talk. We're not ready to talk. At 5.30 p.m. on a Friday. My lawyer calls me up. And I knew that he was going in for the first time after four and a half months. You need to go in on Monday and plead guilty. I said, plead guilty to what? Whatever we tell them. I said, what do you mean? So he said, they're going to charge you a tax evasion. That's a tax evasion. I've never been ordered in my life. I've never, I've had a CPA my entire life. My tax returns were 1811 pages long. I never did my own tax. When my CPA told me to pay, I paid. Okay. He says, if you don't go in, this is 48 hours on Monday at 9 a.m. and plead guilty. They're filing an 80-page indictment that's going to include your wife. It's okay. I'll see him on Monday. Wow. That's exactly how it happened. Michael, when these things happened, you find out who your friends are. You find out the true colors of a lot of people. So I want to get right to the nitty gritty here, Michael Cohen. No. Who disappointed you the most throughout this whole process? Wow. You know, I never even thought of that. A lot of people disappoint me. A lot of people who I didn't think would stand up actually did. Okay.

But a lot of people who I was very close to, all of a sudden, oh, I can't, I can't. I, you know, and the reason why many of them can't is because they were afraid. They're afraid that the system, you know, the expression, the old adage, could indict a ham sandwich. Yeah. There's not a person born or dead that government cannot destroy if they want to. You know, there's a book that I read, I read like 97. That's the only good thing about prison. You have a lot of time, and I'm an avid reader. I read 97 books in my 13 months there. One book that I read was by Harvey Silverglate called Three Felonies a Day. And I reference it quite often because it blew me away. Every single person in America commits three felonies a day. You just don't know it. But if Uncle Sam, if government, prosecutors... If they want to get you, they're going to get you. Amen. We have a good friend that's in... in jail right now. And we can't get him out. Norman Seabrook. Sure. And the fact is that the federal judge, they ordered him, you know, he was involved in the way he tells me the story. He tells, the way he tells me the story is that when he decided to support President Trump, Trump in 2015 or whatever that was. And he was the head of the corrections union. And he just felt that he was the right person to select. They, the Democratic Party got so mad at him. that, who was the U.S. Attorney there, Preet? Yeah, Preet Barrera. With the orders of certain other high-level Democrats went after him, and he went to jail. And it's a long, long story. I'll tell you, your story reminds me a lot of the story, General Michael Flynn. I read his book as well. Although he was pardoned or excused, whatever it may be, he went through a lot just because he was close to Donald Trump. And here we have a situation in California. Today, it's from page, it's in the New York Post about Gavin Newsom, crying and complaining. that he's being politically attacked. How about Trump? Well, how about Watson, Minnesota? Well, how about Watson, Minnesota, pardoned a rapist, an illegal and a immigrant that was here from Laos? Yeah. And he was raped a 10-year-old girl. Yes. And he was convicted. And they pardoned him. Because they didn't want him to be deported. Anything that Trump does, they don't want to do. We're speaking with Michael Cohen. If Trump breathes.

The left, the far left, will attack him on. And that's cost me a tremendous amount of followers, by the way, like, for example, on my substack and my social, my YouTube, my social media platforms. Why? I don't know. They don't want to hear facts. And that's why when you know you know is so important. When you know, you know, they will attack. If Donald Trump created the cure for cancer tomorrow, they would come back and say, yeah, but he didn't cure the common cold. They will never give him credit for anything that he does. Again, if he breathes, they have to be on top of him. Now, not everything Donald Trump does, I agree with. In fact, when I worked with him... I was always known as the guy that would tell him what I truly felt. Sometimes it was exactly the opposite. He would take what I would say and do with it as he wished. He was the boss. I can only give him my best advice. Sometimes he would, let's say, water down the poison. Nobody, as I see it, nobody's doing that right now in the White House. And that's again where this... tired majority, not everything that he does is right, but not everything that he does is wrong. So give him credit where credit is due. I'm all for what's going on right now in Iran. I think they need to let him be the president of the United States. Come in with his own agenda. He's the president of the United States. Whether you like his agenda or not, that's not your decision. You have the right within which to opine on it, but... Not every federal judge should be out there stopping every single action that he wants. The president of the United States was elected by the plurality of Americans, and they come in with their own agenda. There were things that Obama did that I liked. There are many things he did that I dislike. Same thing with Bush, same thing with Clinton, same thing with Joe Biden. You know, I talk about it all the time on my various platforms. Ed Koch had a great statement. A great statement. If you agree with me six out of 12 times, you should support me. If you agree with me 12 out of 12 times, you should seek a psychiatrist. These folks that anything Donald Trump says, 100%, he's 100%. No, he's not. No, he's not. It's his opinion. And as president, he's entitled to it. If Donald Trump were to call you today and say, I want you back. What would you say? As his advisor. In 30 seconds. Yeah. What would you say? When you know, you know, come on. Can I have a couple of days? When you know, you know. Can I have a couple of days to think about it? Don't think I haven't thought about. That exact question. You were friends for decades. Close. Close. You spoke at 4.30 in the morning. You spoke at 11. At 11.30 at night. Do you know how close? 1130. Yeah. Do you know how close? We shared our outlook contacts. The only two people in the entire office that I had every one of his contacts in my cell phone and he had all of mine. I still have all of his contacts.

I have his outlook in my phone. Listen, the question was if the president... My wife doesn't have my outlook. Listen, if the president of the United States called Michael Cohen tomorrow and said, Michael, let's get together. I need you. I want you. What would you say? Oh, can I have a couple of days to think about it? No, no, the public doesn't want to wait a few days. One second. I heard a rumor that the president is going to call in on your first show. Well, I don't know if that's true. I know that as part of this incredible massive team that you put together for me here at WABC, that was certainly thrown out there. Let's see if we can't get the president. I'm coming in early. I'm coming in early that day. I am coming in early because no excuses. With Fernando Mateo comes after when you know you know by Michael Cohen on Sunday between five and seven. Michael Cohen, let's stir the pot just a little bit more. Really? You're in a bit. Listen, you talked about how your other platforms are being suppressed. You will not be suppressed here. What is a major piece of information that you have withheld up until now that you want to share now with the WABC listeners here? uh here out here this morning good luck in getting me to say that now tune into when you know you know come on yeah that's not that's not going out i'm not making your ratings oh man listen he's not a paid contributor today Yeah, that's okay. All right. He's here on voluntary basis. Exactly. I see how this works. Yeah. You know, I really need to market myself better like Mike O'Connor does. I just give you what I think in my analysis all the time. I should really withhold more. Listen, I've got to give it to the administration here at WABC. You know, Chad, our general, Chad Lopez, our general manager, our boss here, John Katta Matidis, bringing in a team. on Sunday between 5 and 7 that's going to kill it. Because we're going to kill it, Michael. You're going to be on before me. You keep cutting me up. Jake, you know, I'm sorry. He's up and 8. Jake is on after you. Yeah, between 5 and 8. You know, we have three seat warmers here. Can you imagine if John woke up one morning and that light blew up in his head and he said, Jake, Michael, Mateo. One show after Sid Rosenberg, we will blow this station up. You really should be a lobbyist, Fernandez. Listen, we have the boss here. We have the general manager right behind us. We have Kevin. Kevin in the studio here. Not everybody would be as bold as John. John in many respects is very similar to my old Boston friend Donald Trump in the fact that he's willing to take people. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. The rush of racing, nothing beats it. But Chumba Casino comes close. Chumba's got fast spins, fun games, daily bonuses, and all the action you can handle. Now that's a run. Ready to hit the throttle? Get in the driver's seat and head to chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, 21 plus, terms and conditions apply. To his organization.

that are, we'll call them, controversial. A lot of the stations wouldn't want to do this because, oh my God, you know, maybe some of my listeners are going to be unhappy. Maybe they're going to get angry with me. It happened to me with Midas Touch Network where I was at before. They were like, you know, you cannot talk about Letitia James and so BS. I'm going to talk about whatever the hell I want because when you know, you know, all right? This is like no excuses, this guy. No, when you know, you know, he must have said it 18 times today. I'm going to say one more time. When you know, you know, I love it. Starting on Sunday. And Chad Lopez will tell you some of the decisions we made when we first bought. By the way, nothing, for nothing, Chad's actually texting me. Say when you know, you know more. No, I'm just teasing. Michael Cohen, let's just say, let's try to say this nicely. The real estate market in New York is not for the faint of heart. And so, right? I mean, that's, that's a, and we had, you know, when we've had a couple of stories in the last couple of weeks, listen, if you want to push this if you know, you know, Brian, I'm going to help you, okay? Because we've had some stories in the last 10 days or so with the rent freeze situation, with landlords being squeezed even more. The landlords in New York aren't going to just roll over on this. This is not going to end well for the tenants, is it? Well, Jake, let me share a little bit of my life experience. Not only was I a lawyer, but maybe you didn't know this. I also had one of the largest fleets of yellow cabs in New York City. I 285 yellow cabs prior to, of course, ride sharing and Bloomberg, absolutely destroying it. But I was also a landlord. I had seven properties at over 107 apartments. Some rent, stabilized, rent controlled, and fair market. So let me give you my perspective on what Zohran Mamdani is saying. There is absolutely zero chance that he's going to be able to effectuate this without creating another 1970 situation where people throw their hands up and say, you know what? Mr. Smart guy, here's the keys. You handle it. Very much like what happened in the 70s when the city turned to garbage. Bronx is burning. Damn straight. And why? Well. You want to freeze rent? I'm off for that. Then how about freeze? or lower real estate tax? How about lower sewer, water, insurance? Well, they're raising water right now. Yes. And they're quasi-raising real estate taxes. And they want to freeze the rents, October 1st. And there's going to be a challenge. The challenge is, and I had one of the, who was the big-time real estate litigator? I don't know, I forget his name, Sherwin something? Belkin, was it Belkin? From Belkin Burden. Yes. I think it was him. And you can't have all expenses go up in the year 2025 and then him freezing taxes. So this could be playing the violin. You know what I mean by playing the violin? In other words, he's playing the violin to his supporters. Look, I did it, knowing that he's going to be shot down later on.

Well, I did it, but they shot me down. It wasn't me. I did it for you. If Zohran Mamdani thinks that anything that he sold, especially to the young community, which is what got him elected, is... realistic in any way, he's wrong and they're wrong. And ultimately what will happen is they will find out that promises made are not promises kept. Why? First and foremost, how are they going to compete with folks like yourself who are able to buy, for example, food at bulk pricing? Oh, you can't. So they're going to open up one, two, city run free groceries? Well, he's the expert on that. For it's crazy. Good luck getting quality food. Maybe you'll get like the same garbage that they were serving us in prison, expired old food, right, where they can charge something for it. It's not realistic. When I said in real estate, everything year, real estate tax goes up, water, electric, sewage, insurance, maintenance costs, and so on. That's right. All these folks should own their property, work. It's very difficult operating a building. Work 24-7 to ensure that you're able to provide the service that these... you know, that the tenants deserve, and make not just no money, but lose money. Sure, that's a great business model for anybody. Now, I'm not saying that rent isn't high in New York. It absolutely is. So let's figure out a better way within which to allow people who make a certain amount of money to live. So, for example, there are people who have apartments in the city. that do not live. They sublet it. Take it away from them. Have a process. They don't want a process. He's not, he's not sophisticated enough. The guy doesn't know anything. He's literally, what, what is his background that he's now going to talk? How about consult with somebody like myself? who's been in the real estate industry, who knows what they're talking about. It's not happening. He's got a bunch of geniuses sitting around. Not happening. Oh, absolutely. Oh, Mr. Mayor, Boyd, what a great idea. Michael, what about supply and demand? You want to see prices go down for something that people want. People are going to want to live in dwellings. They're not going to want to live on the street. Sure. So you're never going to reduce demand. You've got to increase supply. Now, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not down with the whole taking away subletted apartments, but I like the idea of telling people all these things that are blocking. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you're not even living in the state. Oh, wait a, that's different. Now, if they're subletting a rent control, the rent stable. That's what's happening. That's what I said. That's exactly what's happening. Now, let me go one step even further. Hold on.

There is so much commercial real estate that is vacant in New York. How about create a fund and start taking some of these vacant commercial buildings and transforming them into housing? Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. Victory Lane? Yeah, it's even better with Chumba by my side. Race to ChumpaCasino.com. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Voidware prohibited by law. CTNCs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino. It's not as difficult as people say. They're doing that. They're starting to do that. You know what the problem? Yeah, but it's only a game. They're doing it to make believe they're doing something. It's a talking point. They're making believe they're doing something. You know what's so dangerous about Zohran Mamdani? Everything. Is his charm. He's likable. People love him. He speaks well. He's energized. But he's never had a real job. But we all know that, but they still elected him as mayor of New York City. Yeah, but Michael Cohen, listen, you told us your background a couple of times here. You've been a hustler from really day one. You've had all these jobs, all these properties. Here's a guy who's the mayor of the greatest city in the world who never had a real job. How does that make you feel? And no money, he's broke. Yeah, how does that make you feel? Worthless. Well, Michael, Michael, I got to tell you something. You said you own 250 cabs. 286. Why are you counting? I made, I made tens of millions of dollars for you. I'll tell you how and when. when we get off the air. Whenever you're having a break. I don't know because there are no breaks. There are no breaks here. Michael's taking up all my time. We can't silence Michael Cohen like his other folks tried to do. Michael Cohen, listen, there's a lot of people listening and they're going to be saying something along these lines. And I want you to respond to it. And I'm not making, and I'll be one of those people sometimes I say this too. Hey. I like to hear from people who really know the inside stuff, and that's important. But why you specifically, not only because of all the experience you had with Donald Trump, but why you specifically? Because you had a life before Donald Trump. You're having a life after you're working from him as well. So is there something specific that you bring to this? Because I had a guess, I'd say it's a New York story. But you tell me. What do I bring to the table? I bring knowledge. I bring facts. I bring information that you cannot have because you were not there behind the curtain. Not only, again, we'll start with Donald Trump, not only do I have knowledge about the initial parts of the campaign all the way through his first victory.

Look at what's happened to me as a direct result of his first victory. People don't seem to understand that... There's real lives behind this. And I understand their need to keep control, to keep power. This is one gigantic power play against one another, right? The Republicans versus Democrats and then the Democrats versus Republicans. But here's the worst part for Trump. It wasn't just Democrats versus the Republicans. It was Republicans against Trump. It was when you have somebody like John McCain going up against Trump and anything that he did, he was trying to knock it down. And there was a whole group of Republicans that feared Trump. Feared him terribly. Why? Because here's an outsider. He's not part of the establishment. He's anti-establishment. He's coming in with his own Donald Trump methodology, which they don't understand. And they didn't want to understand. We like the game just the way it is. We're controlling the game from soup to nuts. Here comes Donald Trump a disruptor. And all of a sudden, whoa, what was supposed to be a joke. as they were describing it, a joke. He's rising in the polls week after week after week after week. And then as week after week after week had, the size of the organization grew. We started bringing in more people, and those people brought him more people. And then next thing you know, you have two full floors worth of people calling and dialing and making and moving and da-da-da-da-da-da. And all of a sudden, it's 50-50 between him and Hillary Clinton. Now, As per my Democratic Party, let me say could have been the stupidest move in the world. Hillary Clinton, very much the opposite of Zohran Mamdani, is not personable. People don't like her. She's competent. She's very smart. I've had very smart lady. You cannot take that. You cannot take anything away from her for that, right? Former, you know, First Lady, Secretary of State. She's a very smart lady, but she is unlikable. One thing anybody who meets Donald Trump will say, he's exceptionally charming. Very, very charming. And you do a same thing about Bill Clinton. And Bill Clinton. Yeah, which is why Hillary has no excuse. And Obama? She literally was married to a guy. And Obama guys. Yeah, but she was literally married to a guy. By the way, Michael Cohen, what you're talking about is encapsulated in something the view of listeners. Why do you use both my names? You just call me Michael like my cousin. Because I want the listeners to know who the heck you are. Well, when you know, you know. Yeah. But there's got to be someone who's letting people know who the heck's talking here. That's going to be me. Michael Cohen. That's my expression. Who the heck is that? Yeah, that's right. There was something that you just said that was encapsulated. And maybe the listeners remember this. There was a picture of Hillary Clinton taking a break on the campaign trail in 2016. And they went to a Chipotle. They went to a Chipotle. Is that how you pronounce it, by the way? Yes, not Chipotle. And she's wearing these big dark glasses. She doesn't want anyone to right now. If that had been Bill.

or Donald Trump, they would have been behind the counter taking selfies. Absolutely. With the workers. This is, so you talk about how people not liking her. I got to say, I'm going to one up you, Michael Cohen. I don't think she likes people. I don't think she, I think the feeling is mutual. And I got the same feeling from Kamala Harris as well. She, you got, you know, you got to at least be able to fake it. Now listen, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton likes some people a little too much, if you know what I mean. But still, he, I literally truly believe. Well, Andrew Cuomo does too. Yeah. I think he really does like people. I don't think that some of these people, and it's like being a surgeon who's afraid of the sight of blood. What the heck are these people doing in politics, Michael Gohn? Don't know, don't care. Because right now, what I want to see is I want to see a United America. I want the... nonsense to stop the divisiveness, the hatred, the vitriol, the conversation. We need to, again, start uniting as a country. And the only way that we do that, again, is through my tired majority. I really truly believe it. I believe that the bulk of America actually wants normalcy. We want to know the truth. We want the facts. What I start seeing when I look at some of these television shows, especially the CNNs of the MS now, It's no longer about reality. It's not about facts. It's opinion news. What happened to the days of Walter Cronkite? What happened to the days of the Barbara Walters when they told you something? You believed it. Today, nobody believes anything anymore. They were a lousy, too, by the way. I'm sorry to be, I'm sorry to say that. Don't bust my bubble, pal. That's some guy living on the Upper East side and Walter Cronkite, and I think as a person, he was a good guy. No, but 92% of the American people trusted him. Trusted him. You know, one thing is what you feel, and one thing is what reality is. And what happened in the last, I think, you know, as we think about it more and more and more, it's post-Obama era that the Democratic Party was being taken over. And the common sense Democrats have to have the courage to stand up. hatred of America. The Democrats aid America. They tell the pollsters, they're not even ashamed of it. Only 26, 27 percent of Democrats say they love America. I mean, I, listen. We can have differences in the opinion. There's something wrong here. There's something wrong here. Because I think the other, the rest of them are scared to say they love America. Yeah. They're scared of their fellow Democrats. You had a president. I'm a Democrat. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. I love America. Yeah. Well, you're in minority. You're a Democrat, Michael. You're a Democrat, Michael? I've been Democrat my whole life. That doesn't mean you can't switch over. Why aren't you a Republican? Wait, wait. Even, even, uh, Carville. Did you see what happened with Carville last week? No. I think he's losing it. He says he can't. Oh, by the way, I did. I did see that. Yes. I saw that in the interview. And the Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat, says I can't be a part of this Democratic Party. You know what, John? When I get home today, I'm actually going to switch. I'm going to join the Independent Party. Michael. Break my news. That's it. That's it. I'm going to do it. Breaking news. I'm doing it. I'm doing it.

This is an official announcement. That's it. Now you've got to do it. This is an official. Michael Cohn. I will bring it in the show you. Former attorney to the President of the United States says he is done. I'm done with the Democratic Party. And he is announcing that he's going to go home and become a registered Republican. I'm watching Richard Blumenthal on your television. And I'm saying to myself, seriously, I know. I don't even have to hear the sound. And I know exactly what he's saying. Everything that he says. If Donald Trump breathes, why is he breathing? What's he breathing for? And in wait, we got Lee Harris here. Lee Harris is in charge of all the news and give us a break. I'm here to keep us legal, John. Okay. W.A.B.C. New York. W. R.C.R. Haverstraw. W. L.I.R. Hampton Bays and W. L.I.D. Patchhog. That's a legal ID. Oh. Hey, Michael Cohen. You said you. What a voice. What a voice. Lee Harris, the official voice of worldwide. What did I do wrong? And am I going to get? By the way, Lee, did you see yesterday's ad? Yeah, we need the tired majority. What Richard Blumenthal is doing right now is exactly why. the tired majority, like me, are going to switch over to the independents or maybe even to Republican. We cannot take this any longer. Maybe. Maybe. That is breaking news. John, that is breaking news. No, you're making your own breaking news. I'm saying I'm going to the independent party. But most people actually should because we're sick and tired every time, for example of someone like a rich, and it could be anybody. But anytime that you start seeing these folks on. Everything Donald Trump is doing is wrong. I want to talk for a quick second. I like that you're speaking nicely about our president. I hope he calls you during your show and that he brings you back to the White House. This way, I have somebody inside. I'm sorry, I'm so, wait, wait, also I get a phone call, who's this? July 12th, my 5 p.m. So all of a sudden, it's like I'm saying to myself, lay, take a look, for example, at this reflection pool. I almost broke my television set because it cost me a lot of money and I don't have the money right now to replace it. So I didn't decide not to break it. But I'm sitting there and I'm talking about, who cares? It is a maintenance issue. It's not an indication of a presidency, but all of a sudden it's become the indices for which Donald Trump is to be evaluated. The reflection pool is a total, total disaster. Donald Trump's presidency is a disaster. He's everything. 1.3 million turns out to 13 million. What kind of an art of a deal is that? It's the art of this deal. I mean, they all think that they're comics now. Clever. They're also freaking clever. And you say to yourself, You're as dumb as they come, and enough already. It's a maintenance issue. Let's stop. America has figured it out. Anything that Donald Trump does. No, I figured out. When you know, you know. When you know, you know. Well, listen, no excuses. No excuses, Michael. Michael, do you feel that you were, do you feel like a broken man? I don't have feelings anymore. No, no. I don't have feelings. I lost my feelings. Do you feel like if you're a broken man? I am a broken man. Are you broke? I am broke.

You are broke. You lost at all. Financially broke. It's been extremely tough. You know, I was very fortunate in my life. At the age of 39, I was semi-retired. And I was after Trump, I was the richest guy in the Trump organization. And then, yeah, I lost it. The government, defending your honor, you lost your court chief. Well, I didn't defend it. I wasn't even indicted. It was I pled to a one page. But you went to jail. I did. But what ended up happening is I had to sell all of my assets. When you sell your assets, you have, you have short-term capital gains and so on, and then they took that. But here's the crazy part to really give it to me. I paid two, they hit me with 5%. I'm sorry, 2% per month. for the five years on the tax violation. It was $1.3 million over a period of five years. I paid over $20 million in taxes over that period of time. These are the fines on top of, yeah, the fines. The fines, which, by the way, I paid the amount. They broke you. By the way, I paid the amount before even sentencing. Got no credit for that, so I have no restitution. Literally, 2% per month compounded over the five years. And then the state came in and the city came in. They all did the same exact thing. I'm saying to myself, oh, my God, right? So everything that I end up selling, either 50% of it plus went to the city, state, and federal government. And then the other went to either legal fees or the expenses. Michael, you know what they didn't take from you? They didn't take your wisdom. They didn't take what you have up in your head. We can go into business together because I like smart minds. Well, let me tell you what they did take. I like smart minds. Let me tell you what they did take. They took, unfortunately, they took my soul. You know what 51 days of solitary confinement does to someone? 51 days, the first three days, they locked me. I was locked into room. There was no movement. It's not like Shawshank Redemption where you get to go to the yard for now in a room. The first three days, they didn't even give me food. No food, no, what, nothing. You know what hunger feels like? You have no control. You have no control over it. Nothing. You have no control over your life. No shower, no nothing. Did you ever consider suicide? Every day. Every single day. Did you know Epstein? I'd never met Jeffrey Epstein, never spoke to him, never emailed, never communicated with him ever. You think you're committed suicide? Yes. Because every, every inmate who's in solitary thinks about it. And I figured out how to do it too. If it wasn't for my children and for my wife, I probably would have done it too. Wow. Those were very dark moments. You know what it's like to have your soul ripped out of your chest? You know what hunger feels like? You know, when I was a kid, my dad used to tell me stories when, you know, during the Holocaust. The Holocaust, what hunger felt like. I never thought in America. where you can get something to eat. Rich or poor, you can always eat something somewhere. There's always some decent person that's out there, you know, that will... There's always a garbage can. There's always... Here there is none. And I never thought I would understand what hunger felt like until 24 hours. Now...

Being Jewish, we have Yom Kippur. You fast for 24 hours. That was easy. 25. Right? It's really, it's actually 25 hours. You can't, well, I think I'm the Yeshiva boy here and I got to bring up. I went to Yashiva too. Yeah. I did a hunger strike for seven days one time. When Giuliani was elected into office, I had done toys for guns in 1993. And that was huge news. So would you trade in a toy for a gun? Yeah, you traded toys for guns. Yeah. And I met Donald Trump during that period. at a Mario Andrew Cuomo birthday party where my wife and I were seated next to the governor and Matilda. Okay, we were his special guests. And Trump came in with, I believe it was Marla Maples. And he said to the governor, I want to sit next to you. Who are these guys? And the governor got up and said, this is Fernando Mateo. Oh, the guy from Toys for Guns, Trump said to me. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. VTW Group. Boyd were prohibited by Maw. CTNC, 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. They sit him next to me, and you know what he tells me? He says, how much money are you making with this shit that you're doing? And I said to him, I'm not making any money with this. I'm doing this because I love New York. He says, yeah, right, right. Can I continue with my story? Well, listen, it's no excuses, so don't give me no way. You know, right? So you'll know, but you were able at least to have water and something, right? Water, yes. Right here, no, there was that second, after that first day, when you start getting into hour 18 and hour 20 and 24, it's not hunger anymore. It's pain in your soul. It's a feeling I never in my life thought I would understand. My father and I still talk about it, you know, because most people don't understand what true hunger feels like, and they did it to punish me. They did it to hurt me. No different than when they remanded me back because I refused to waive my First Amendment constitutional right sitting there waiting to sign papers for a monitor, you know, when I was on home confinement. I refused to waive my First Amendment constitutional right and not publish my first book, this loyal. And you're a lawyer, so you knew your rights. And I brought a friend of one who's a lawyer too. How about poor people that are not lawyers? And that's why I fight so hard for what I do. They went ahead. They brought me downstairs. They put me into a freezer for three hours. It was the coldest I've ever been in my life blowing the air on top of your head where you feel like your teeth are going to fall out of your jaw. And you say to yourself, what country am I living in? This isn't America. We don't do this. You're in control over me and my body, and you're going to put me into a freezer wearing one of those paper jumpsuits, right? And with the ice cold blowing where you're so cold. You don't even know what cold. It's like going into one of those cryo machines where you jump out after 60 seconds. Now imagine three hours. So when you say that, you know,

Did you consider suicide? Well, suicide's a lot better, by the way, than being frozen. We're talking with Michael Cohen right now, who is joining us here at WABC. He has a show that's going to begin on July 12th. Name it. 5 p.m. if you know, you know. When you know, you know. And who comes after that, Jake? Fernando Mateo with no excuses. And who comes after that? Decision, Freedom 250, the decisions that made America with Jake Novak, one of my many programs over the weekend, so I can't be as greedy as you guys about it because I have a lot of time on the air of the weekend. You guys only had the one hour. But Michael Cohen. Well, wait to stick it. Wait to stick it to us. Yeah, me and me and Mattel, you guys only have an hour. You know what? Listen, maybe we can combine the two hours, you know? I mean, I could use some friends. Look, not with, not with conversation like that. No, but Michael Cohen, you're talking about. You know, we brush this off sometimes and we say things like... And tell everybody, you know, a lot of new people, I get it on my computer, a lot of new people have tuned in in the 7 o'clock hour. Tell who is in the studio and what we're talking about and our special guest. Well, first of all, it's another takeover of Sid and Friends in the morning because Sid Rosenberg is off today. I'm Jake Novak. With us is our owner-operator, John Cassimatides, Fernando Mateo, host of No Excuses with Fernando. Thank you, Jake. Thank you. Also, Michael Cohen, the former attorney to President Trump and Donald Trump before that. And also, of course, the host now on starting on July 12th, Sunday, when you know, you know, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. And we're talking about... Everything is on the table. We haven't, we have no, unlike some other folks, we're not going to stop you from talking about any topic. And who is Michael Cohen? Have you told people? Yeah, I said the former, former. Listen, for those of you that don't know if Jake didn't explain it clear enough, Michael Cohen was the. closest man to the president of the United States for over a decade. He's a man that's endured a lot of pain and suffering. He's a man that most people would have thought he would have committed suicide. But no, he's here. And he's in our studio. And he's going to have a show here every Sunday just before my show. But Michael Cohen, it's an honor to have you here, man. It's really, I always said, I've got to meet this man, and here you are sitting next to me, and we're going to be colleagues here at WABC. Yeah, and I'll try not to disappoint you, Mateo. Well, listen, I'm sure that you're not. And by the way, we're going to make money together. Okay. Because if you don't have money right now, when I have money, and you have the brains, because I'm a high school dropout, we can make stuff happen.

You know, every, I keep forgetting I'm on radio and I'm going to say the word shit and I forget. You can't say that. I didn't. I'm sorry. I forget. I'm just telling you. I forget to say it, right? But anyway. Yeah. Michael, you're going to do very well here. This is... Well, I'm so thankful that John gave me this platform. You know, few people would actually have the guts to do it. And not because my stories aren't interesting or I bring a perspective that nobody else brings. It's different. My relationship. Run for mayor, man. Listen, why don't you run for mayor? So I thought about it. I was going to go for Congress. My wife and my children said absolutely not. No, no, forget. No, they've had enough. My children endured so much. How old are my wife? My daughter is 30. My son is 26. Remember, this is eight years now. Yeah, so they were much younger. They were. My daughter was. In college, my son was in high school when this was going on. They've endured so much people. Some have been so kind. I can never thank them enough, but some have been so cruel, so cruel to children for what? Sins of my father, right? Since you like Obama so much? Who likes Obama? Please. So I'm sitting there and I'm saying to myself, how? I'll give you a story. Terrible, it's terrible. My daughter. had a friend, and she has this big party every single year at the home out east. And my daughter wasn't invited. This was a friend of her since I don't even know how many years. My folks said that you can't come. And she was like, okay, why? Well, you know, you know who your father is. Mind you. Yeah. Mind you, I can only tell you some of the stories I know about her father. All right. And where his money came from. Projection. Like I turn around and I say with that adage, you can indict a ham sandwich. This guy who is not even a ham sandwich, right? It would have been an easy indictment. Think about what they went after, for example, the president done. They went after him on his personal financial statement, his statement of financial condition. I want you to think about that. And every listener, think about any time you've ever had to disclose your total net worth. So let's say, hypothetically, you make $90,000. And you need, I don't know, you just write down 100. That's a federal crime. That's a federal crime. Here's the question, though. Who did it hurt? You're paying your bills. You've never been in default. You've never been delinquent. Who's hurt? Isn't that the same with what happened to Trump with the personal financial statement? Did it really matter? Are you now going to have to be the protector, Letitia James, or Alvin Bragg of,

multi-billion dollar national insurance companies who wanted the Trump organization as their client. Is it really? Is that really a reason within which to bring charges against somebody? Now you can because it is. A crime. I mean, the law is the law. So, yeah, you can bring it. But is it really necessary? Is it worth it? Does that mean that every single person who's listening right now who has a personal financial statement that maybe isn't 100% accurate should now have the opportunity to be indicted by an overzealous prosecutor? It's scary, man. It's scary. Scary's not the word for it. It's scary. It really. It sends chills down my body, man, to hear your story and to even, you know, just acknowledging what happened to Donald Trump. If they want to get you, if they want to get you, yeah, they get you. Yeah, they do. I mean, they'll destroy you economically. They will destroy you mentally. They'll destroy your family. And that's. unacceptable. We're in America. We got a lot more from Michael Cohen when we come back. This is Sid and Friends in the morning by the Cats and Company takeover. And for me too. And for Fernando Mateo. Come on. Everything is Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen. How about Fernando? What's up with you guys? Let's talk about Fernando. Yes, please. Sid and Friends in the morning on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

Friends in the Morning. Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network. This is Sid and Friends in the morning. It's another Katz & Company takeover with our special guests in the studio, Michael Cohen. We also have Fernando Mateo. Michael goes before me, right? You have to say Michael Cohen, then Fernando Mateo. It's only because he's doing it alphabetically. That's right. Okay. So, yeah, so I have to say John Katz Matetes first, Michael Cohen, Fernando, and I'm last alphabetically, Jake Novak. Michael Cohen, I want you to take this ball and run with it. The mainstream media's narrative on President Trump has been that he's a vindictive guy, that he doesn't, he doesn't forgive, he holds grudges. You know, I have my own opinion about it, but yours is more valuable. Tell us. Well, I'm going to agree with you. It is more valuable. Let me say to you this way. Donald Trump is not what they're trying to describe him at. Can he be vindictive? Absolutely. Every single person can be vindictive. But he also has the ability to forgive. People may say, what? Oh my God, Michael Cohen's a turncoat. He's now on Trump's team Trump. Let me be crystal clear. Just take a look for yourself exactly who's in his cabinet. Take a look at Marco Rubio, for example. Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio. Yeah. Marco Rubio doesn't talk to me. That's not a bad impression, by the way. Oh, it's great. Wow, that's not a bad impression. That's pretty good. You know you're going to get angry at you now. Greg Kelly, who does the Trump. I think. Yeah, my ears might be better. It's much, much. That was pretty good. Suffice it to say, take Marco Rubio as an example, where he attacked Trump vociferously during the campaign. How about Ted Cruz? when they were going at each other and Ted Cruz called him a sniveling coward. He's now back in the good graces. And you say to yourself, huh, that's just two. There's so many individuals that have come back into Trump's orbit despite the fact that they have had. negative situations with him over the years. So this notion that once you're out, you're always out, once an enemy, always an enemy. Now, people will, of course, take a look at, for example, what's going on with John Bolton. John Bolton is a totally different scenario. John Bolton is getting what John Bolton deserves. John Bolton was not president of the United States. He took classified information and the moron actually wrote about it in his book. By the way, I was in solitary confinement and the only book that I had, because they're not allowed to deprive you of your mail, somebody sent through Amazon the book, whatever it's called, behind the fococt door. So I had to read it.

It was like pulling nose hair because I know the inside story. It's painful. Donald Trump relied solely on me. No, he didn't. No, he didn't, Mr. Monopoly, man. He used to make fun of you behind you back all the time. He didn't rely upon you for anything. So what was the big fact with John Bolton? John Bolton decided afterwards, like so many people do, even like Jeffrey Berman, the former head of the Southern District of New York, how did I find out that he was even engaged in conversation with Bill Barr regarding me? The dope wrote about it in his book. He held onto it in order to write a book instead of sharing the information with my lawyer and with prosecutors or with defense counsel. He didn't. They keep it to themselves. John Bolton did the same exact thing. Plain and simple. Did the same exact thing. What John Bolton did is a crime. He put our national security in harm's way. So, yeah, Trump despises him. John Bolton said some pretty horrific things about Trump after he left. This is what I love too. You have a lot of these negative people right now who stayed till the very last second. They leave and all of a sudden it's like there's a massive transformation. On my way out the door, all of a sudden I have a difference of opinion. Now, I'm an antagonist, right? And Trump, well, he'll do what he wants to do. He will come after you. And if, in fact, that the court system... believes that you committed a crime, which they all did, then you're going to get prosecuted. Michael, do you still own apartments in the Trump buildings? I do. It's my primary. Oh, that's what you, that's, okay, good. The other one is the other one. When you came out of jail and you came back. When you came, when you came out of, okay, federal prison. Remember, I didn't graduate high school, okay? So I'm using, I'm using blue collar language. You're like cab drivers and bodega owners. That's what we use, blue collar language. When you went to Sipriani and you got into some kind of fistfight and they threw you out. I mean, you came back to New York to start trouble here? What's going on there? So the answer to that is no. What ended up having? It's interesting. You got into a fight. I did. Okay. So the answer isn't no. So you brought up earlier about what this cost me, not just emotionally, mentally, physically, financially, but also what it cost me in terms of status. I'll give you the example. I was...

The chairman of the board of trustees at an Upper East Side private school. What's the name of the school? It was called Columbia Prep. Okay. And. Bubba Wallace here from 2311 racing. You know what's slower than a pace car? Waiting at the car wash. That's when I fire up Chumba Casino. It turns those slow minutes into fast fun. With new games every week, you'll never get bored. Next time you're stuck in the slow lane, speed up with Chumba. Play now at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, Ford, where prohibited by law, 21 plus, terms and conditions apply. I had worked with the executive board for a decade, for 10 years. And we had successfully raised money. One guy's name is Neil, who was the initial chairman of the board for a very long time. One of the greatest guys in maybe in history for any school. He raised more money than any human being I've ever met in my entire life. Just an absolute hero for any school. And after he had to resign because of the way the bylaws, after I don't even know how many years he was on, he asked me to take over, and I did. And we put over 1,100 kids through that private school tuition-free by raising money, not to mention rebuilding the school to over 100,000 square feet. A lot of these kids were minorities? Yes. When Donald Trump won the election. There was so much rage and fury about his win that they actually took a mental health day. No, I'm not joking. I remember that. They took a mental health day. And I was called in by the board and asked to step down. And I was like, why? Your affiliation to Donald Trump. And I said, so what? He's the president of the United States. Yeah, but I was like, You've got to be joking me. Well, they sounded constipated. Worse than constipated. Then, a while later, we were members of, it's a social club called Casa Chippriani, which is down by the South Seat Streetport. I've been wanting to be a member there, and I haven't had the opportunity. Well, I was a member, and probably one of the five most. recognized and consistent members. I also had been friends with Giuseppe Chippriani many years earlier when he had his own troubles with taxes and then ended up fleeing to Italy. But he's got his son there, Majro. And I'm there with my wife and friends and we went outside to see other friends who were sitting outside on the terrace. This was after you came out of prison. After I came out, yeah. And there were three elder gentlemen. sitting at a table. One was around my age two, were older, maybe late 70, early 80s. And I walked outside. These were white guys? Yeah, Italian. Italian. And I walked outside. And this is the craziest story. My wife was behind me. And she comes and she goes, these guys at the table.

Just turn around and said something. It's in the New York Post. They said something horrific that you must be a whore to be sleeping with such a rat. So she said something to me. Well, to anybody who really knows me, it's probably not a smart thing to say without. So I had no idea who these people were because I didn't notice them on the way. heading to see friends that's sitting outside. And when I saw them, these three Alta cacas, which means like old pitchers, I started to laugh. And I was like, forget it, hon. I said, you know, you're talking about three, you know, moronic geriatrics. Well, as we're leaving, they decided they want to get up and fight. So I'm like, are you guys really sure? I trained in Muay Thai for about eight, nine years. You know, One, one, I could see, I could see you're buffed. You're buffed. One fight actually put me in the hospital at NYU. I thought they split my kidney. I took a kick to the side. That was horrific. Oh, you have no idea. That was pain. Suffice it to say. I was like, you know, guys, do me a big favor. You? I said, you, I'm going to hit first. He was the one that was around my side. I'm going to put you, I'm going to put you to sleep in a half a second. You're going to have a heart attack watching it happen. And you? Oh, am I going to embarrass you fierce? Then some young kid shows up in his 20s. And I said to him, little boy, do me a favor. Go away because you're going to get hurt, right? Very badly. And when I finish, because I'm going to go crazy, I'm going to throw you over the side of the building. So do me a big favor. Oh, yeah. And then this guy, Carlo comes in. He's holding me back. Carlos is a big dude. He's like, I don't know, six, four, but solid. You know, and he's like, Mr. Cole, Mr. Cohn, please, please. Carla, relax. I'll tell you, we'll do it outside. So kids said, yeah, let's take it outside. Happy to do so. A 20-year-old. Yeah, so in his 20s. Punk. And punk is right. And so, and, you know, sometimes be careful what you wish for because it may come true. Next thing I know, I'm in Italy. I was sent there by Rye Television, Rye 1. They had me there. to speak, speaking engagement. You left Supriani's at that point? Yeah, yeah, we got thrown out. But what happened with the kid? You all got thrown out. No, no, no. So we all left. We finished dinner. And then we just left. Okay, you didn't get thrown out. You all just left. Correct. We just left on our own. So the post story is a little bit exaggerated. No, no, no, no. Where the post continues is we then all left after the, yeah, the post isn't 100% correct. Yeah. It's surprising. So. Next thing, the next day we were leaving for Italy because I had a speaking engagement in Italy by Rye Television, Rai One, with a guy, he has the coolest name of all time, Massimo Gilletti. And I was like, how do I get a name like that? Michael Cohn or Massimo Joletti. It like, it oozes with like sex. It's like sex. It's like sexy. It was, it was great. So we go to Italy, my wife and I, and we have the speaking engagement while I'm sitting there. All of a sudden. She gets an email that says, your membership has been terminated. I was like, what? Next thing, I get the same email. Your membership has been terminated. We've been members there for like four years since the day they opened. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. I can't believe it, right? And I tried to call Carlo. Nobody would take my phone calls. So it's okay, fine, no problem. So.

There's plenty of places to eat. And now I won't go back to a Chipriani. I won't support them anymore, which is interesting because like I said, when Giuseppe had problems with the IRS going back years earlier, I often to help them. Yeah, yeah, I often to help them. Listen, I'll tell you. But then again, kids aren't like their parents. Michael, listen, man. Could you imagine this? Could you imagine? So here, because I was on Trump's side, I got. removed as chairman of the board, and then because it was perceived that I was the anti-Trump, I get thrown out of Casa Chippriani. They should be embarrassed. Let's go one step further. How about all the lawyers that were punished for being on Trump's side? You know, you know, tell us about it because I don't think a lot of the audience knows about that. Many people who were involved in the campaign from 2016 on through his successful first term win were targeted. And interestingly enough, they weren't just targeted. By Democrats, they were targeted. They were targeted as well. The Bar Association. Yeah, by Republicans and mostly the Bar Association. It's amazing to me that... This is how the system works. And it's why most people want to be like an ostrich. Stick your head in the sand and come up and hope that nobody sees you. Vindication, Michael. You know what's gratifying is when you have gone through what you've gone through and you come out bigger and stronger. You need to consider a run for New York City mayor. I'm serious when I tell you this. I believe that you have people on both sides of the aisle. I think that you would be a great leader. You have the experience. And we're announcing it here on WABC. I would like to see you run for mayor in the next three and a half years. Because I think that you would make a great man in New York City. You want to hear something that Trump used to say to people all the time? There's nobody who's got a better, sharper pencil than Michael when it comes to a budget. There you go. It's honestly what he used to turn around and say. Because when he would have something going on, we would turn around, we would look at it. Trump is amazing when it comes to this. He doesn't even put it on paper. It's all in his head. And he's generally off within maybe, you know. plus or minus that 2, 3%, which is, of course, any realistic margin of error. But when I used to be the treasurer for multiple boards, imagine this, Jon Ossoff a real estate guy, which you are, every board that I sat on.

either was flat for increases in common charge or we had a reduction. And I did that for 10 years straight. No common charge increase. Now all of a sudden with building, you know, you start taking a look. And all of a sudden it's like you're up 4%, 3%, 6.5%, because these folks, they don't have the qualification and neither does Zohran Mamdani when it comes to, when it comes to understanding. The budget. You know, where you have expense increase, you need to find a decrease. You need to offset it. And generally, if you put out proper bids and you evaluate it and you evaluate the people you're putting the bid to, you should be able to have a reduction. And I don't see every year Trump would put out a letter congratulating the board for another fine year of Trump management. We're now having a half of percent common charge decrease. Now, half percent doesn't sound like something, but you know what? It's a whole lot better than 6% increase. It's a decrease. Right. It's a decrease. I have to tell you, the biggest response you're getting from your appearance here this morning on Sidd and Friends in the morning, the Katz & Company takeover here at WBC, are people who were really affected by your description of your conditions in prison. So I have to ask you because this reminds me of some of the stories we heard about the J-Sixers and how they were treated really, really poorly. Are you for large-scale prison reform now that you've been through this? You have no idea. In fact, Jesse Jackson Jr. and I, Jesse is a very good friend of mine. I was very close to his father. God rest his soul. And we created. something called TEPO, TEPO. It's actually right now in the hands of the president. It's, I know it for a fact. I know that he has received it. It's called TIPO, TEPO, Trump, Emancipation Proclamation Order. In fact, Jesse and I even wrote the executive order onto it, whereby, after you complete your sentence, Assuming that you have no additional violation, this is only, by the way, for nonviolent offenders. This is not for violent offenders in any way, shape, or form. As long as you have absolutely completed what the judge sentenced you, so if you have restitution, you have to pay that, if you had supervised release, you have to be finished with that. This is not a commutation at all. You're already finished. You are given a pardon so that the felony conviction comes off. You know the 70 million Americans that are affected by this? 70 million. I couldn't believe it either. But we have all the information that validates that number. 70 million. I think it would be one of the most important things that the president can actually do. Because imagine, imagine this. My folks called me on this one. If hypothetically I moved to a community like when my parents live in Florida that has a country club attached to the facility and I want to become a member of that country club, I cannot. As a felon, you can't become a member. Michael, so I'm saying to myself, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what about conditions on the inside? What about conditions on it? Because you describe some, some Eighth Amendment violations. Oh, yeah. Well, I brought a lawsuit under the fourth, the eighth and also my first amendment. It went all the way to the Supreme Court.

They rejected. My lawyers were 100% certain we were going to at least get an opportunity to tell the story. No? No, Supreme Court. rejected. They rejected our rid of Sir Shiarari. Michael, do you have friends in the Trump administration? Do I have friends? There are people who I still know it's hard to turn around. It's hard to call me a friend. No. They were your friend at one time. Well, I understand. Let's just say that we were very well acquainted. At the time that they knew me, I was. With a man. I was at the top of the chain. Right. And so when I would come down to the floor, they weren't all that happy because it generally meant somebody was going to get a kick right in the backside, right? And so on. I didn't normally go down there. So people feared you? More so than... People fear power. Right. And also, I was never the one coming down there just to turn around and slap you on the back and say, great job. It was more, hey, this is a problem. I mean, I'll give you an example. I showed up to one guy's office. I won't mention who because there was a complaint that he was harassing. I don't like secrets. Who's the guy? I won't say it. But there was a complaint that there was some sexual harassment going on. And I knew the young girl's mom. And I walked into his office. I took my cell phone, and I said to him, I'm going to be very clear. I want you to turn your cell phone on right now, and I want you to record this. I want you to record this conversation. And he turned around and he was like, well, I'm just, just do it. So he turns it on. And I start to outline to him what took place. And I said, let me be clear. Not only if I hear that you reach out to her one more time, literally one more time, not only am I going to personally grab you by your ear and walk you and throw you right out the door, I'm going to crack you across the mouth too, because what you're saying to this young girl is inappropriate. And he was like, I had too much to drink. I was like, I know, I know. I know you as a person. And I'm shocked that this is happening. Just make sure it never happens again. And by the way, it's coming from above. Michael, you've climbed the mountain, man. I also fell down the mountain. You fell down the mountain, but that doesn't mean you can't climb the mountain again. I don't know. Have you given up on yourself? I have a bad hip now. No, have you given up on yourself? I'm serious. No. Clearly not. He wants to make a big comeback, and we're going to help him make a big comeback. That's it. That's what I want to hear. And you know what? You've got the best team here behind you, man. You know, I know John a very long time. I remember when John was going to run from mayor. And I remember sitting there. We had breakfast at Pierre Hotel in 2013. Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday. You know, John, John's a guy that gives opportunities to people that don't deserve it.

You know, there was one guy here. I don't know. I don't know if I deserve it. Listen. Do you do? Do you think so? I think you do. I don't know. Michael, I think you deserve it. You've been through a lot. You, you know, you fell down from the mountain. You broke the hip. You're going to come back. But there was a guy here. John, let me finish. Tell us. There was a guy here that was a lifelong liar, a discredited human being, a rat. A subway stinker? Okay. His name was, I'm not afraid to say names. His name is Curtis Sliwa. Yeah, and I told John many years ago, I said, John, why do you have a guy that all he does is lie and talk bad about people? See, I can't speak bad about people. I love people. I love my city. I'm going to bring topics to the table. Like this Sunday on no excuses, I had a warden. from Rikers Island that's going to be on. How to have fun. Anytime, anywhere. Step one, go to chumbacasino.com. Chumbacasino. Got it. Step two. Collect your welcome bonus. Come to Papa, welcome bonus. Step three, play hundreds of casino style games for free. That's a lot of games. All for free? Step four. Unleash your excitement. Woo-hoo! Chit-chumba! Chamba! Chimba! Chimba! Chimba casino has been delivering thrills for over a decade. So claim your free welcome bonus now and live the chumba life. Visit chambacino.com.

I have a former prisoner that's going to be on. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I never finished my whole thing with the TIPO with the Trump Emancipation proposition. We need that, but go ahead. He's the special guest to that. So Curtis Sliwa is a guy that John gave an opportunity to for decades. Yep. And this guy. And this guy. You know what? And when I ran for mayor. I went to John. His daughter supported me as a Republican. He did not. John did not. And I went to John and I said, John, you know the character of Curtis Sliwa. You know he's a liar. You know he makes stories up. Why are you supporting him? Why are we throwing this election away? Because if I win the primary, I will beat Eric Adams. Because I had the Latino and the black support to beat Eric Adams. But no. You know, John is a loyal guy, and he stuck with Curtis. He stood with him. And guess what? Curtis has been an embarrassment. Now he's working for another station that is a women's station, a woman's something, something. But Curtis is a discredited human being that John gave an opportunity to. You know, so I'm sure a bunch of the listeners saying, yeah, but you're speaking to a convicted liar as well. And you know what? I'm so thankful, John, again. No, no. You're not a convicted liar. Wait, no, I am. I am because I actually pled to lying to Congress under what's called a thousand and one violation. I own that. I did. I pled to it. I want people to know, though, because I could not be more thankful today to be here at this table, in this station. With me. With you and with Jake, but mostly with John. And to be starting here with, when you know, you know, when most people don't even know what the conviction of my lie was even about. Tell us about. Do you know what it is, Jake? No clue. Mateo? You know, well, I can, I have some thought. I want you to tell this story. And I'm going to tell you because most people have no idea. Oh, Cohen, you're a convicted liar. You know, and so, okay, my conviction, you're not going to believe me when I tell you, the number of times that I had stated to the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I submitted a letter that I had read into the record. On the number of times that I claim to have spoken to Donald Trump about the failed Trump Tower Moscow real estate project. In my letter, I stated three. that I spoke to Trump three times about it when in fact I spoke to him about it 10 times. That is the lie that I had to plead guilty to. And I already see John's face like, stop. No, that's exactly what the lie was. Three versus 10 times. As if it matters, it was a failed project. I never went to Russia. I never went to Moscow. The deal started and ended with a letter of intent, plain and simple.

All of a sudden, this is something that the federal government needed to have. They desperately needed to have it for whatever the reason may be. And I was burnt out. It was post already what had taken place with the Southern District of New York. Totally different case. So yes, I pled to a... lying to Congress a 1,001 violation based upon three versus 10 times. And if that makes me into a liar, okay, I'll accept that. See, my family stayed together. A lot of people say, well, you know, you have a great wife, I do, and you have great kids, everybody stayed together because they know the truth. Yes, there was a mistake in my tax return. I acknowledge that, but I never received like everybody else, never ever received a letter. that said, Mr. Cohen, that there's a problem. And so on, please contact your tax advisor or your lawyer. Come in. Here's the agent. No, no, no. 48 hours from a Friday at 5.30 p.m., either you go in and you plead guilty to what we tell you to on Monday at 9 a.m. or finally a native page indictment, that includes your wife. And people saying, oh, come over. What were they going after your wife for? Ready for this one? Yes. This makes it even crazier. This is how corrupt. The system is, so when you ask me, John, that incredible question of whether or not that I intend to continue for reform, 100%. That is my commitment to America. I want to say, I don't want anybody. So what did they want to go after your wife for? Oh, well, I don't want any other Americans to have to experience what I've experienced. They were going after my wife. I was the subject of identity theft. There was a guy with his picture on a New York State driver's license. going to my banks, Capital One, and taking money out of my account. This I remember. Yes, I remember. Not once, but it happened to me twice. When I was receiving the $35,000 checks from Trump, I had already taken my name off the accounts so that they couldn't do it. It was to protect Capital One and the accounts. When I got the checks, my wife signed the checks and deposited into her bank account simply, right, to deposit. They knew me because the bank was located the base of the building I live in. So they knew me very well. They knew my wife. They were going to charge my wife as being a co-conspirator to the hush money payment. She's your wife. She owns 50% of everything you own. No, she owns 100%. Hold on. Hold on. Lee Harris is here for a break. Lee Harris is here. Part of my job, John, is to keep us legal, and so here is our legal ID. W.A.B.C. New York. WR.C.R. Avers straw. W. L.I.R. Hampton Bays. And W. L.I.D. Patchock. Wow. That was Lee, but I'll tell you, Ted Cappell imitated Lee. Ted Cappell's got nothing on Lee. No, no. Listen, Lee is the voice, man. If I had that voice, my God. I'd be talking to myself all day. You have no idea what you'd be doing to you. You talked about a lot of your concerns for the whole country. You talked about the divisions of the country. I want to tell you a little story and get your reaction to it.

Many years, I was an executive producer at CNBC, and we would get these very private meetings, the executive producer, maybe five of us with big newsmakers, Tim Cook, and once we had one with Ken Griffin. It was about 10 years ago. And I asked Ken Griffin, what's the biggest thing holding the economic growth of America behind? And I was expecting him to say regulations, taxes, and he got really serious. And he said at the time he was still in Chicago, Citadel. And he said, here's the biggest reason. Not one person who graduates from the Chicago public school system graduates, not dropped out. Can I hire? Not even to be a receptionist. Not even to hold the door open. They don't even have those skills. That's what's holding back the great economic engine of this country. The fact that we have so many millions of kids who are being completely not served by the educational system. So Michael Cohen, what's your take on what's holding us back? I mean, we've gone through a lot of the legal system abuses that you went through and so many other people go through. We've gone through the divisiveness. I mean, what's your take on that? What's the thing that's holding us back? We've had a great country, a great 250 years, but we're not going to get to 350 if we keep somebody. Well, I'm not so sure I agree with that. I think America is still great. I think America has always been great. Think about if you had to leave today, I'm so disgusted with America. Where are you going? Name another country that even comes close to America. Now, yeah, there are places I would go for a week, for two weeks, right? Maybe even a month. Sure. Who wouldn't want to hang out on the beaches of like St. Bartz? Greece. Right? Or Greece or the Italian, somewhere on the Malfi Coast. Dominican Republic. I've been to the Dominican. They let you in? They did. Oh, they did. They welcomed you. By the way. They said this is one of our guys. Just so you know, because as a felon, you can't go to England. You can't go to Australia, New Zealand. You have to get a special. visa within which has a felon to get in. So we can't hang out and travel, Michael. Not true because I got my Canadian citizenship as well. My father was Canadian, so I was technically born a Canadian. I was able to get... We can get you an Albanian citizenship, too, if you want. Then I'll become violent. Oh, okay. Yeah. So let me just say, there is no country like America. But that doesn't mean that we can't even be better. When Trump talks about our economy, he's not wrong. We are the strongest economy in the history of mankind by at least two and a half times. Nobody even comes close. China, where our GDP is $30 trillion. This is like 17. Think about that. And they're number two. Nobody even comes close to us. Militarily. Oil is down. Hold on. Hold on.

We're going to have a dynamite year. Oil was down to 67 or 68. I predicted it on Maria Botteramo show a few weeks ago. Did you buy any futures? We're in the oil business. I know you are. So we know what we're doing because we protect ourselves and through hedges. And oil is down and previous people in the administration. What which is it today? 68 63. The market, the stock markets are closed, but the oil futures are trading. Okay. And in somebody, oil executives in the administration were saying, oh, it's going to stay up until 2027. And, you know, it pissed off me and the president. And because we talked about it. And then. Everybody's saying is interest rates are going to go up, and Waltz is going to lower rates. Well, I think rates are going to go down. The 10-year bill was going down a couple days ago. Now, the other big thing, our economy, our economy is the strongest it's ever been, and the trillions of dollars of new... money that's coming into America to build new factories and is not even factored in yet. Yep, it's not. By the way, and what I predicted, in the middle of 2025, I predicted a $50,000 Dow Jay Jones average in the middle of 25, and it happened. Yep. I predicted before 2026, I predicted a $60,000 for 2026 December. And yesterday just about hit 53,000. Yep. Did you see the story? I remember when John made that prediction. Can I just jump in for one more quick seconds? So here's something interesting. When you asked me if Trump would call me when I take the call after listening to John and said, yeah, and you know what role that I would love to play? I'd like to be the guy who deploys the trillions of dollars into manufacturing into building. No, no, no. That was my forte for him. And then we need more immigration because there's nobody who run those new factories. By the way, 100% and make them legal. Immigration. You know, now I'm getting excited. Immigration. Jump back. Don't forget. Me and Bill Fagasy went Ellis Island. By the way, why didn't he change that name? Why would you not change that name? Which is going through Fagasy. Why not? You know? Isn't that from the movie Donnie Bresco? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And Lee Ikoe was on the very chairman, and we ran Ellis Island. But the immigrants coming through Ellis Island had to pledge allegiance to the American people and to the American Constitution, right? Mm-hmm. My father. My wife. My grandmother. My grandfather's. Okay. My grandmother was from Argentina. My grandmother was from Argentina. My father's from Poland, right? Then via Canada. My wife is from Ukraine. Do you? No me digas. No, no, no. Yeah. Okay. Oh, my God. I also speak some Russian, too. And so what happens? These migrants, whether Obama or Biden lend them and let them in.

They have no pledge allegiance to the flag. They have no pledge allegiance to working hard in America. It's what they want to take away from America, take away from our citizens. So there's a big difference between migrants and immigrants. That's correct. Absolutely. And as we're hitting the 4th of July, right, our independence and so on, 100%. We need, and this country is a country of immigrants. But we want immigrants that are going to benefit the country. And by the way, imagine. Jake Novak is five generations here already. I mean, he's almost like, he's almost like coming over to Mayflower. 1840. Really? Yeah, yeah, sixth generation. I know I didn't like him. There's something about him I totally didn't like. We have a special guest calling in. Yeah, Peter King. We have Peter King, the chair of Homeland Security in Congress, 28 to 30 years in Congress, one of the staunchest supporters of a Constitution, and a friend, I guess, you know, he's a friend, a common-sense Republican. Peter King. Happy Fourth of July, happy 250 years. I don't know if you've heard of all our conversations. How are you doing today? Well, happy for us to everybody there, and to all Americans and to everyone at WABC. And I've been listening in for the most part. It's good to hear Michael Cohen's voice again. It's been a while. So, Michael, good to... Hello, my friend Peter. How are you? I'm doing fine. Also, let me just say, is a parenthetical remark before we go off on tangents. A test of someone, Michael, is I've known to talk to several people who are in prison with you, and they say you're a good guy up there. And to me, that means a lot. There you go. Well, thank you. You know, I tried. In fact, you know, I know if they told you the story, I was so repulsed by how dirty like the place was and the walls. I took it upon myself to paint the entire place. And then I ended up by requisitioned white and gray paint, you know, because the base has to be gray and then the top of is white. And I put together a little crew. And we just painted the whole place. Just to. They gave you the paint? Yeah, yeah, they gave me the paint, the paintbrush, the rollers, the whole bit. You know, if you're going to improve the place, then free of labor. You know, I was one of the higher paid actually inmates. I got, I think it was 16 cents an hour. Did you report that in your taxes? I did. You had to, right? I did. Peter, this is Fernando Mateo. I'm sorry that you didn't, you know, say hello to me and that you've been listening to me, but it's okay. I still love you. You know that.

Um, Peter, you love me. I'm happy. Hey, Peter, do you remember when we, I was at, I was telling you. Michael, do you remember? Michael, let me finish with Peter. Why are you interrupting you? Sorry, sorry. We got everybody's a host in this place. Everybody takes command. Listen, Peter, um, I, I want, I want you to be witness to this. Michael, if you get a call from the White House and you're bought back up there, I want to hold on to your coattail. Are you going to allow me to do that? Will you bring me along? Peter, do I want him? Probably not. Peter, oh my God, Peter. Well, let's see what you. You're my favorite congressman. By the way, he's everybody's favorite congressman. I'll never forget. I was at the hearing, and Peter was there, and they were questioning me about hacking. Do you remember that, Peter? Hey, it's Ryan Sechrest here. And if you're looking for some serious fun, head over to chumbacasino.com. At Chumba Casino, you can play all your favorite social casino style games for free anytime, anywhere. It's the most fun you can have on your phone or computer. No purchase necessary. VGW. Boy, we're prohibited by loss. See terms and conditions. 21 plus. I remember that hearing. Well, that's the one way you ended up pleading guilty for that hearing. I remember that. Correct, sir. And it was crazy. So they said to me, Mr. Cohen. And I was like, yeah, I think it was Devin Nunes, by the way, who was doing it. And he says, Mr. Cohen. He goes, I understand that you're a hacker. And I said, no, no, I'm not. And he goes, well, take a look at Exhibit 3. And he opened it up, and it's a massive, massive book. And he goes, read the first line. And it says, Michael Hacking Co. So he turns around, he goes, you're so bold that you were hacking. Or maybe it was a Democrat who did it to me. And I turned around and I said, yeah, that's actually not the correct name of the company. It was Sir Michael Hacking Corp. So he turns around and he goes, and I'm like, that's a yellow cab corporation. You do know that hacking means to drive, like some called a hack license. The old term for drivers is called a hack. I think, Peter, you fell off your chair. You're like, how did you not know that? Right. It was so. That was probably not Devin Nunes. That sounds more like Eric Swalwell or Hap. You know what? It could have been. Yeah. Peter King, we were talking about how great the economy is. You know, so many people miss this story because media's bias came out this week that we learned America, the United States of America is producing 1,200 new millionaires every day. in this country. Minus one. So it's 1199. Oh, no. Now we got that's great. There's debits and credits. Yeah, right. That's true. But 1,200 new millionaires every day. I mean, listen, there are always some people who are left out and sometimes unfairly left out. No one is saying everything is perfect. But boy, we're missing a story. Now, as a politician, you're not running for office anymore.

I would always advise a politician. Never talk about how great the economy is because they'll just find the one person who's not doing well. You got to talk about it in a more granular way. You say not in a macro way, say, hey, this guy Fernando Mateo did some great things with his businesses. But, you know, tell us what your impression of the economy, especially from your perspective out on Long Island. I mean, it seems good to me. Overall, the economy is doing well, and there's no doubt that people are really making a move. But also, you know, there are people who are being left behind or not moving as quickly. And there's different reasons for that. And so not everybody has a great, but on the other hand, it's still the greatest economy of the world. There's still more opportunity here than any other country in the world. So I think we have to be much more positive. But we can't, again, ignore or forget those who are hardworking and just having a hard time making ends meet right now. There's a lot of them, whether it's college education, whether it's people who just, again, have a lot of bills that have accumulated over the years, for whatever reason. Some people get hurt by trade deals. So again, it's important to keep everything in perspective. We should not be doomsayers. We have to emphasize what's positive, and there is much more positive than negative. On the other hand, we can't just be living a good life and forget those. hardworking people who could be left behind. So that's all. And I'm going to say we should be coming out with more welfare, but make sure we have more opportunity, make sure we keep the economy open. And my point is we have to go in after people like Zohran Mamdani. is to show that his policies are going to hurt people. That's going to hurt the small business people. That's going to hurt, you know, the guy who's right on the margins trying to get ahead, maybe working overtime, whatever. They're the guys going to get hit. So we have to make sure that we, to me, our arguments against Zohran Mamdani are not that he's giving too much, but the fact that he's hurting so many people, whether it's intended or unintended, that's what's going to happen, whether it's rent control or whatever. This whole socialist concept that you're helping people, and that situation, it hurt a lot more than you help. Well, Peter King, you're a lot smarter than all the political consultants. I'll tell you this right now because I refuse as a conservative to surrender the compassion card to the left. I'm a conservative because I'm compassionate. I hated when President Bush said compassionate conservatism, because in my opinion, that was redundant. I care about it. The reason why I want... these programs to be changed is because I think they will be better for most people, people who really need it. And the surrendering of the compassion card, I hear so many conservatives are like, oh, the bleeding hearts. No, I'm the bleeding heart. You know who created the term bleeding hard conservative? Jack Brian Kemp, who was truly a bleeding hard conservative. He walked the neighborhoods. Okay, you took it right out of my mouth. Go for it. Go for it, Peter. First role model in politics, I knew Jack Brian Kemp going back into the 1970s. Everything I did economically as far as politics, the Brian Kemp brought up, everything was based on Jack Brian Kemp's philosophy. He did a number of events for me. I was proud to call him a friend. My wife was in love with him. Jack Brian Kemp was just a great guy. And to me, he was the heart and soul of the Republican Party. He was Reagan with a blue collar. And to me, that to me made him in many ways the unofficial spokesman.

for my concept of the Republican Party, going back to the 80s and 90s, and it's really unfortunate that he never made it to the Oval Office, because he was a great guy. And again, I always consider myself a blue-collar conservative. People say I'm a moderate. No, I'm not a moderate at all. I have really strong principles, but I also believe that you've got to look out there for the working guy, the guy that works in the docks, the guy that drives the cabs. To me, in my father, he was a cop, he always had two or three jobs on the side. That's the way I grew up in that environment. And when I was in college, I worked over in the freight yards, west side of Manhattan. Those are the people that I identify with. And they, to me, are the true conservatives. That's what conservatism is all about. Peter, how's your relationship with President Trump? For the most part, it's good. I mean, I don't agree with him and everything. But I tell you, I would sometimes be critical of him and see him the next day. I think we understood each other. He always said we were two guys from Queens. Now, he was from Jamaica State, so I was Sunnyside. Not exactly the same type neighborhood. But the fact is, we seem to understand each other. I mean, you have to ask him. But I've never heard him, even sometimes, and I'd be critical. He'd take a shot. I mean, but he's always with a smile. I hope he got along, but when I think he's right, I always, and listen, nobody supported him more during the whole Russian hoax collusion investigation than I did. I went down the line for him on that. Obviously, I voted against impeachment with Ukraine, and I stand with Donald Trump and all key issues. I have some differences with him and some foreign policy issues, but he was important for the country to him to be elected presidents. And Peter, what is your relationship with Bill Clinton? I got on fine with Bill Clinton. I mean, I always did. I saw him. I guess it was about a year ago. Both of us were the speakers at a wake ceremony or memorial ceremony for former congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy. We had a great meeting at night. We both spoke. We correspond. To me, Bill Clinton, I was one of the only, I think the only Republican. who voted against every article of impeachment that was up against Bill Clinton. I stood with him. He was no saint, but none of us is. And I just thought that what he did, again, I supported his opponents. I supported Bob Dole. I supported George Bush when they ran against him. Having said that, I was proud to work with Bill Clinton. I was proud to stand with him. And to me, he, again, that's the type of guy you want. He was a... In some ways, more liberal than I would be on issues, but he was always totally pro-American. And also, he's worried it was his bond. I found him a very, again, an excellent president. I think the more history goes along, the higher his rating is going to go. So I'm proud to call Bill Clinton a friend. And I don't think either of us has ever said a bad word about the other. Something happened to the Democratic Party. Something happened in America. And lately, we're all analyzing it. And it seems like after Obama, President Obama took office in 2008, and moving on, there started to be a major change in America. I don't know. You are Homeland Security. Tell us what you know.

Yeah, first of all, to me, the Democratic Party should be Joel Lieberman, Ed Koch. They, to me, symbolize what the Democratic Party should be. And to me, any American can rally behind that type of Democrat, just like Jack Temple, it's a type of Republican. Homeland Security, actually I first started seeing cracks, John. I guess it was during the Obama administration, when I was doing the investigation into the... radicalization in the Muslim community and the overwhelming majority of Muslims are good Americans but there was definitely a force in that community which was working actually refusing to cooperate at all with law enforcement which had ties to overseas organizations and when I try to investigate them and I did but I get such a knee-jerk reaction from so many Democrats And I'm saying, what is this? I mean, we should be working together on this. And fortunately, I had more support from some people in the Muslim community, a lot of behind the scenes that I did from some prominent Democrats. And what it was is, it seemed to me they just wanted to always believe the United States was wrong. If there was an incident, if there was something that occurred, and you had to decide who was right and who was wrong, they invariably come down on the side of the United States was wrong. It was a... I guess going back to what Gene Kirkpatrick said years ago, but it really amplified itself during the Obama years of blame America first. And that was it. And they just couldn't bring themselves to, again, to wave the flag, to be proud Americans. And now we see what, only 29% of Democrats say they're proud to be Americans. And you were, like I said, you were Homeland Security for a long time. And Joe Biden, me and you knew Joe Biden 30 years ago. Who was really running the White House when Joe Biden was president? Yeah, obviously it wasn't Joe Biden. I mean, I knew him. I didn't know him well, but I mainly knew him to out of the motto and I would see Joe Biden. And he always was like a little funny. But having said that, he was sharp. He knew what was going on. And the last four years, he was in office. It was like a different person. See him on television and, you know, the look in his eye, the look in his eye that people saw in the debate with Donald Trump in 2024. That was more and more becoming his look of previous years, that absent mind. I would say, to some extent, maybe his wife, maybe, again, a liberal element. Was it Obama's third term? There's no doubt that the Obama administration had tentacles in, and it was definitely, I would say, it was as much Obama people in the Biden administration as Biden people. It was Obama, many cases, his people, definitely calling the shots, certainly slanting the policy. And was that a period of time where we invaded by migrants versus immigrants that we had checks and balances on? Yeah, first of all, you know, this big migrant push began under the Obama years. That's when it really began. And then when Biden was in, whether it was Obama's people calling the shots or whatever, the fact that you can let in, basically advertise the fact you have an open border and have 10, 12 million people coming in at a time. And there's so many different threats that come from that. When you had the drug deal was coming across from the South, then you had from South America, from Latin America.

And then you also had the criminal element coming across, and not just the drug deals, you know, the rapists and, you know, child molasses, sex traffickers coming across, but also there was the fact that they were coming from overseas, from the Islamists were coming in. I mean, of all the precautions we put in after 9-11 to keep terrorists out of the country, and now we were basically welcoming them in. So this is such a national security threat from so many different levels, from the terror threat, the narcotic threat, the sex trafficking threat, and just the overall breakdown of our society. So that to me, and yet if you even brought that up, you'll consider a racist or a bigot. Well, I get that all the time, Peter, and I'm so thankful that we have somebody on that actually has the ability to play. balls and strikes. This strikes on either side. It just doesn't work. You really do call it the way that you see it. It's amazing because whether you're Republican, Democrat, or independent, I believe everybody should agree with one fundamental principle that a country without born. This is Donald Trump's words. A country without borders, quite frankly, isn't a country. We need to protect our borders. We need to have a system where people who we want in our country should be permitted. And as John was talking about, as far as labor is going to be needed for the construction in the upcoming manufacturing with the trillions of dollars that are supposedly coming in. I 100% agree with you. There are individuals under the Biden administration, starting with the Obama administration, that just flooded through the country. Now, does that mean every single one of them are bad? Absolutely not. I would never be that callous to make that comment. However, I remember when my father, I remember when my wife, you know, they tell the stories about when they wanted to come. There has to be a process. So let's sit down, and you would know this better than anybody is Homeland Security. Let's sit down, come up with real sensible. immigration policy. They haven't done this in a very long time. We're going to need immigrants to operate all those new factories that President Trump is going to bring back to America. So absolutely. And that's where Peter can actually, you know, help. So maybe, I don't know, maybe you're not going to be retiring too quickly. Maybe we need a commission. to have immigration of legitimate working people that want to come to America. You know, we used to have an immigration in Ellis Island. We need 10,000 plumbers. Bring them in. Targeting immigration policies. Yeah, we need 10,000 electricians. Bring them in. Sensible immigration policy. Sensible immigration of people that want to work.

not come in to America for a handout, and we leave the homeless in the streets, American homeless in the streets. Our veterans. On 4th of July, does that not break your heart, America, that there are, that these people fought for our constitutional right, for us to be able to sit here right now. And we're putting in these migrants in the Roosevelt Hotel for $400 a night. Well, listen, there's a lot to be said about migrants and immigrants. John, I'm glad you brought that all up. But, Peter, one last thing that I'd like to ask you is, would you write a letter to President Trump asking him to pardon Michael Cohen? Would you do that? Would you do that for me? For Fernando Mateo. Michael Cohen can speak for himself more than anyone. He's a very articulate guy. But if I can go back to the immigration thing, listen, I'm a grandson of immigrants, all my grandparents are immigrants. The fact is that immigrants are the lifeblood of our country if it's done the right way. Amen. So yes, we needed them. We need them for. certain labor, we need them for certain skills, but also anyone who comes to this country, when you think of it, you come over here and you basically don't know that many people, you don't have that much money, and you're willing to give up your own country to start over here in America. That's the type of spirit you need. Not the guy who's coming in to go on welfare, not the guy who's coming in to take advantage of it, but that hardworking immigrant population, to me, they make America great. I always felt the hardest workers are the immigrants themselves. Their sons and daughters are almost as good. And each generation after that gets more lazy. But to me, they are the lifeblood of society. I remember seeing communities in New York where the Koreans would move in and revitalize the community totally. But it has to be done legally. It has to be done that way it's basically a, we have absolute no nose. surrender. If a person is over here as an immigrant and they commit a crime, they get deported. There's no second chance of you're an immigrant coming in here. But other than that, they can add so much if it's done the right way. And unfortunately, that all collapsed during the Biden years. Peter King, Homeland Security is also now, of course, in recent years, the Secret Services come under the auspices of Homeland Security. So we have to protect our borders. We also need to protect our president. We need to protect our candidates. I don't know if you've seen. any of this Inspector General report that's come out in the last couple of days about the Butler assassination attempt. And how, for example, ready to put a little spin on your day? Then check out Chumba Casino's new online social casino game, Ryan Sechrest, 10K ways. It's free and packed with 10,000 ways to play. Only at Chamba Casino. No purchase necessary. VigW Group, void, where prohibited by law, CTs and Cs, and Cs, 21 plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino. There were, um, No use of any kind of obstruction between the line of fire on that rooftop between that rooftop and the president.

And we now that the counter drone Secret Service agent was frantically Googling in Google Maps, the location of that rooftop when the shooting was occurring. We've got to get to the bottom of this. And I submit to you, Peter King, and I don't know what your position was when Secret Service moved from the auspices of Treasury to Homeland Security. But I have to say, when that happened, I was extremely, extremely worried. Because I felt that the Secret Service would become more politicized by that. So I'd love to have your thoughts on those things. Yeah, I think we have to look at that. And again, it made sense at the time, though, because we wanted to coordinate all of our federal law enforcement, all of our federal intelligence, get it as united as possible. Because before 9-11, all of them were in separate silos. One wasn't communicating with the other. Now, whether or not the Secret Service should be kept separate, again, from the others, that could well be. But I think that a lot of what would wrong with the Secret Service was the administration. during the Biden years, and at some extent during Obama years, to me, any police department, any law enforcement can fall to the side if it's not properly managed. And I think they got, whether it was lazy or whatever, like what happened in Butler, I remember that at the time. It seems, there's various mistakes for me. Like I know, for instance, when the president or any top official comes to New York with a coordination between the Secret Service and SO police, obviously the NYPD. Suffolk County Police, all of them come together, and they stop planning days and weeks in advance. And just that whole idea of having that access from the rooftop. We had just earlier that year had the cricket, international cricket tournament, was here in Nessau County. And I remember Pat Ryder, we had every building within... The game's being played in Eisenhower Park, any building of any level at all. There were cops there, there were people monitoring it. And that was the fact that you would have the President and you would have a rooftop within just a couple hundred feet of the President, and nobody securing that, to me, is absolutely unbelievable. Now, I don't believe there's any conspiracy. I'm not into that. You're not going to have a conspiracy with some guy who is a mental case. But the fact is that it was to me, somebody dropped the ball. We have to find out who and why and whether or not it was a one-off or whether or not there was just a, I mean, I understand at that time, for instance, there were more secret service agents securing Joe Biden than they were Donald Trump. I mean, it was not getting the level of security he needed. Yeah. Yeah. I will tell you, I've been told by a lot of people. You know, and don't forget, George Venezuelos, our chief of staff, it runs the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. I'm chairman of the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation. I've been told by many and many people that during the Biden administration, a lot of woke people that are really not capable, I came into the Secret Service.

I can see that happening. There's no doubt. I don't know what level that was at. There's no doubt that people at an administrative level, people taking their signals from the White House were much more woke than they should have been. Federal law enforcement, any law enforcement cannot afford to be woke. They're not social workers. And the same thing happened, Peter. The same thing happened. And me and General Blaine Hall talk about it because we both know aviation. I've been in the aviation business for 50 years. And that a lot of these accidents, a lot of woke people were brought into the aviation business that had no business being pilots. I'm glad Sean Duffy is in there now as, again, in charge of transportation. He is a solid guy. No, you're right. I think the woke element pervaded all elements of our government. If you're talking about aviation, you're talking about law enforcement, those are areas where you cannot afford to be woke. Maybe some social issues somewhere, but not at that level. Absolutely not. But there's something that bothered me terribly. When you're talking about the woke community, after Butler, after the individual who was hiding out on the golf course, what bothered me the most is some of the commentary that I was receiving on my social media platforms. In my entire life, I don't care if you like the president. I don't care if you dislike the president. Some of the commentary that was coming out, including on some of the networks, the cable news networks, were so despicable. Imagine, and I would say this to them, imagine if that was Joe Biden, the outrage that you would be demonstrating instead, the commentary that... They missed by an inch. Things like that. Wanting to see an assassination of a present, I don't care which side of the aisle you ascribed to. It is to me the most disgusting thing that people can say that you want to see the execution of another individual. There's something mentally wrong with these individuals. And I don't, I'm not a sociologist. I'm not a psychologist. I have no idea. Who could think like that or why that your hatred for a man who wants to do right? And by the way, you don't have to agree. And I say this all the time. You don't have to agree as you do not, as I do not, with every single thing that Donald Trump says. I just don't where we have differences of opinion. And that's healthy for a democracy. But to want to see the execution of your president, there's something mentally wrong with these people. It really is. And I think there were people in society who showed more empathy and sympathy for George Floyd than they did for Donald Trump. I mean, that's just how perverted so many elements of society became. Peter King, you know, this is something that reminds me now. I assume you went to Catholic school for some years in your life. Is that correct?

Yeah, it certainly did. Okay. Great school, high school, college, and that means you probably were forced to see, and it's not really a burden because it's one of the greatest films of all time. You probably saw a man for all seasons with Paul Scott. Okay. St. Thomas Moy. That's right. An incredible film and the most powerful scene, I think, in the movie is really something that teaches us something about the way people have treated Donald Trump. These people who have abandoned their decency. who have destroyed the legal system like they did in Michael Cohen's case to get out President Trump. There's a scene where the young man sitting before Thomas Moore says, to get after the devil himself, I'd cut down every law in England. And Thomas Moore stands up, played by Paul Schofield and says, oh yeah, if you cut down all the laws in England and the devil turns around on you, where will you hide now that all the laws have been cut down? And that's the point. These people destroyed the law, destroyed the rules of protecting the president, destroyed the rules of decency in the comments that Michael Cohen saw at the time of the assassination attempts. They think this isn't going to have blowback on them. They've burned down the house. And then when they're guys in control or when they're in power, they're going to wonder where their protections have gone. I mean, that is something people need to understand. You can't do that to the Constitution of this country. No, you really can't. And that's why to me it was always ironic that the people who were saying that the police should be taken out or they should be cut back in minority areas. And that's where the crime was being rampant. That's where good, innocent people were being attacked and assaulted. And somehow by taking the police out of those neighborhoods, you're going to make their life better? No, it made it much, much worse. And that's why, you know, people talk about the cops that in New York, and Ray Kelly left office. In the African-American community, he had popularity ratings over 70%. And yet somehow that was considered to be the dark ages of police brutality in New York. Well, that's when crime was so much under control. That's when people in all communities could walk the streets. So, no, this whole idea that you can somehow cut back on the laws, cut back on law enforcement, it ends up, you're knowing that it to protect you in the end. You know, the problem that they have also is that Republicans and Democrats... Just refuse or are incapable of working with one another. They're just incapable. The Democrat do not want to work. Do you remember this, Peter? And I, you know, again, it's why when you know you know the show that I'm going to be starting on Sunday on the 12th. I was going to announce it. Well, I appreciate. But the reason I bring it up is because there are things that have happened in the past that obviously are unique to myself. Do you remember Peter during the hearing? What took so long to get started is the fact that I think Adam Schiff was the chair at the time. He was the top Democrat. He was a top Democrat. And he refused to give to the Republicans the documents, the evidence that we were going to be going through at the time of the hearing. So I had a book. All the Democrats had a book, but no Republicans had a book. And I remember everybody sitting there and be like, well, well, where's ours? Don't you think we have a right to be able to say? Well, we'll give it to you as we call. And he goes, no, I want to see. And I think at the time, maybe it was David, Devin Nunes, who was representing the Republican side. And he's like, no.

I need to see the book. We all should have a copy of the book. In fact, I gave him my book. I said, here, you know, take this and so on. This is the problem, and I bring it up because it's petty. And that's why Trump has a problem with Shifty Shiff. He's petty. No, no, I'm serious here. It's petty. And the nonsense that's going on right now. is so petty that what it does is it distracts us from the bigger picture, whether it's affordability, whether it's health care, whether it's, you know, immigration or, you know, manufacturing. It takes away from the... When you start talking about the stupidity of the reflecting pool, when you start talking about all of the other nonsense, oh, you know, Trump wants to build an arc to Trump, so what? So what? Who cares? I'm more worried about the cost of gas. I'm more worried about affordability and the fact that our veterans are sleeping on the street, that the suicide, remember we talked about that too, the suicide rate is insane as it relates to these people who put their lives on the line for our freedom. No, I got a problem with that. What's up, fools? Main of it Jay Uso here from the WWE. When it's just me between matches, it's day one-ish. And that means it's Chumba Time. With hundreds of casino-style games and new titles arriving weekly, there's always something fresh to try at Chumba Casino. The daily boots make it even more fun. And have me, about to get them, all during my downtime. Ready for a fun way to chill out and enjoy a few minutes for yourself. Let's Chamba! No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CTs and Cs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino. No, I agree. There's also people on our side who don't want to take a good compromise when it comes along. But no, listen, to me, Donald Trump's greatest skill should be as a negotiator. So we have to find Democrats you can work with, and then Republicans know when a deal is work, we go with it. You're never going to get 100% of what you want. Right. And I've said, you know, if you can get 50%, that's great. I think Trump is in position where when he negotiates, he can get 70 or 80%. Let's take that and run and go on to the next issue. If you keep waiting and get 100%, end up going nowhere. And then it just feeds into social media, it feeds into both sides, going to their bases, and we get nothing done. It's feeding into this whole democratic socialism concept. Yeah. And that's where you end up getting a Zohran Mamdani here in New York. I mean, we have to, and by the way, we just can't, we can't pass this as a one-off. This is happening all over the country. So we have to come up with intelligent arguments. We have to fight them at the street level. We have to get people on the ground working. But we also have to have coherent arguments and stand together and know what we're talking about, not just be going off in, you know, in different directions. Peter, Fernando Mateo here again, I have to cut into this because. You guys are forgetting that I'm in the studio here. And, you know, this is a week. This is, this is a holiday weekend. And, you know, we decided to make sure that we- It's a holiday weekend. I want to know why are all the banks open.

I just talk to my financial people. Bank America is open. Only half day. Only half day. But why are they open? It's like a Saturday. Because it's not the Fourth of July. It's the third. Yeah, but people are calling it a national holiday. But if the bank's open, who are they reporting to? John, it's still a... Ah, okay. Good point. Guys, can I just get my point across here? Okay. I'm sorry. What your name again is? Fernando Mateo, no excuses. I'm coming on. Mayor against me in 2013. I'm coming on, on air right after you, you know. On Sunday nights. On Sunday nights between six and seven. And after that is Jake Novak, my partner in crime. But listen, for the first time in a half a century, the Goodyear Blimp is back home in New York City. The last time that happened was in 1976 when America turned 200, and now 50 years later, we got them back. You shirt's not a UFO? You know, listen, Michael, I know that you mentioned that you can't travel to certain countries because you're a felon. Not on my American passport. Oh, but you can travel with your Canadian passport. With my Canadian passport. Okay, so you found the loophole. That's how you got to do. That's what I do. Okay. So why should you do it? Listen, I want to ask you something, Michael. There are certain jobs that you can't apply for. There are certain companies that you can't own because of the felony conviction. But here you're welcome that WABC. With felony conviction or not, you're welcomed here, right? That's correct. Okay. So, so my question to you is, whether Donald Trump pardoned? Would that felony charge go away? It goes away. It goes away. And I'm able to restart my life, which is why myself and Jesse Jackson, now Jesse Jackson Jr.'s son has taken over and we created that Trump Emancipation Proclamation, it would give like 70 million Americans. I think this would be the greatest move within which to increase his favorabilities because nobody's thinking about those individuals. Do you realize you can't even get a job, for example, at Costco? with a felony conviction. You can't become a member, for example, of a social club with a felony conviction. You can't... You can't restart your business. By the way, you can't own a New York City taxi medallion as a felon. I couldn't own. I had to sell all those corporations. You can't get a gun permit in New York City. You can't get anything. It ruins your Second Amendment constitutional right. For what? Because I talked about, or I said three versus ten, as far as the number of times I spoke to Donald Trump or campaign finance violation, even assuming, all right? And I acknowledge that there was a.

tax issue. I acknowledge it. Do I... Most Americans have tax issues that they want to go after you. But I was never given an opportunity within which to correct it. It was first time offender in my entire life. First time I had paid enormous amounts of money. Over $20 million in taxes on $1.3 million over five years. What are you talking about? They never sent me a letter and said, hey, there's a problem. I wasn't treated the same as everyone. And now that should interfere with my Second Amendment rights. I couldn't get a job at Costco. Think about that. Listen, we're starting here a campaign at WABC Radio. Hopefully we will get your pardon. Once you get your pardoned done, we're going to go into business together and we're going to make a lot of money. Could you imagine if I'm one of the 250 that Trump pardons? Well, listen, we will celebrate it. If he partings it for Fourth of July? Well, we got a guy here with good connections. I mean, John speaks to him every other day. So, you know, plant the seat in his ear. Peter King, last word to you. I'd love to make it about the 250th anniversary and your message and basically what you've learned. Let's finish on that good note with Peter King. Peter. Yeah, absolutely. And I say this profoundly. There's no country in the world like the United States. I'm a grandson of immigrants. As a member of Congress, I've traveled all over the world. When you go to other countries and you see what they, they'd be willing to do anything to be able to speak out the way we do, to be able to vote the way we do, to be able to express themselves, to be able to know that they can move up. It doesn't matter what class you're born into, you can advance. I mean, you get a place like England. Yeah, they're close to us. But if you're not in the right social class, you're going to be ground your whole life. You're at a certain level. You go from anywhere. Take John Casmetidis, an immigrant coming over here with Greek family, and now we own half of New York City. And I'm saying that seriously. I mean, there's so many cases like that. It's only in America. Jon Ossoff smart as he is, couldn't have done that in any other country in the world. I never would have made it to Congress. The fact is that when you think of where you come from, where your grandparents were, your parents were, and what you can achieve here in the United States, there's nothing like it. It's a beacon of liberty. It's a symbol for the world. And we always have to, whatever differences we have, keep that in mind. God bless America. Thank you so much, Peter. You're so great to hear your voice, my friend. I hope to see you soon. All right. We're going to take a break, but stick with us this next hour. We still have Michael Cohen with us. We have Fernando Mateo. Of course, John Katzmatis. I'm Jake Novak. We have Joe Concha coming up in the next hour. Congresswoman Claudia Tenney. Please stay with us. We are live. We're not taking the day off. And we're running out of time. Sid and Friends in the morning on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

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God bless America. And going on tour is my home sweet home. Kate Smith and friends here. And we have a new guest. And we have a new person joining us here on the cast and company takeover, sit and friends in the morning in studio, Staten Island Borough President Vito Fasela. This is a really special weekend. You know, for those of us, I think everyone in this room, we all remember the 1976 bicentennial celebration. I couldn't have imagined another 50 years as a six-year-old back then. But if there's a borough to go to really experience 250 and really know that this is this celebration, it's got to be Staten Island, right? No doubt. And thank you. Happy Fourth, everybody. As I was driving in and listening to our great friend, Peter King and you all, just... Peter's a dear friend, and nobody embodies this country more so than he. But as we're coming over the Verrazano Bridge and you're watching New York Harbor starting to fill with Navy ships, aircraft carriers, think of the power and the might of this great country, but also the humility of always standing up for freedom and liberty, regardless of where the people are. And that's the arc of history. And tonight, for example, we're hosting a concert in Fort Wadsworth, overlooking New York Harbor with the Marie Corps Band. Tomorrow we're hosting an event at the Alice Austin House right on the water to watch the parade of tall ships as they come to the harbor. So yes, Staten Island is full of patriotism, loves this country, supports our police and law enforcement, but also understands the magic. And I heard all of you talking about the immigration and we're all a nation of immigrants. But when they come here, they work hard, they respect the flag. And somebody very close to me said, and they live in another borough. But he said when he comes to Staten Island, the one thing that stands out first and foremost is the number of American flags that are across the borough. And that's what not just this weekend's all about, but every day is all about. So I'm very lucky to represent the great people of Staten Island. What were they doing in California the other day? There was an objection of some people that had American flags out on their front lawn? They made him take them down.

They made them take them down. Why? I think it might have been their HOA, but we'll have to find out. You know, I'm going to, I'm going to remind everybody. I remember when Trump tasked myself and a few other people in regard to flying the American flag. And my specific one had to deal with his property in Palos Verdes, California, very similar to what happened in Mar-a-Lago, where... They thought he went excessive. Imagine, imagine this. He went excessive in terms of the size of the American flag. They thought it was too big. He created and bought a flag which you could see from virtually anywhere in Palm Beach or on the Pacific Coast. I saw it from Fort Lauderdale. You could see it from New York. And here's the crazy thing. Imagine that somebody has the gall to tell you. The size of the American flag that you want to fly on your own property. And so, of course, he won that, but he won it at a tremendous expense. It was not a freebie where they just said, hey, yeah, you know, you can fly this large American flag. When they talk about Trump's patriotism, you may not like, and that's okay, like Peter King was saying you don't have to agree with someone 100% of the time. But at least acknowledge that the man is patriotic. Again, you may not like some of his policies. That's your prerogative. But don't question the man's patriotism because he has proven it. Many, many times before. President Trump is the most patriotic guy I've ever met in my life. And there's another story to the height. Wasn't it the height of the flag in Mar-a-Lago? It was the height, and it was mostly the size of the flag. So tell, like, a little inside baseball as to what ultimately he did to sort of circumvent what they wanted to punish him in a way. Well, and they did, and they started to fine him, and they started to really just bust his chops, to which point he just filed a lawsuit. based upon his right to fly the flag. I mean, imagine that somebody has to bring a lawsuit in order to fly the flag. By the way, the size of the flag. should never be a question that anybody should have the right to tell you how big the flags. We're going to have one of the largest flags in the world be hanging from the Arizona Bridge over this weekend. Well, you know, the CEO of Camping World, Marcus Limonis, the same thing happened to him. He was ordered to take down the flag because it was too big. You know, so this isn't something new. I mean, we could talk about it. To me, it's...

dumbfounding. I just, I cannot imagine that somebody can turn around and say, you're too patriotic, or, you know, the size of your flag is too big. I mean, this isn't a 1970s porno. This is the American flag you're talking about. Nobody should tell you the size of the flag that you want to fly on your property. To me, it's just stupid. Vita Fasela. We were talking about the strength of the U.S. economy. And, of course, it's not perfect. And, you know, you're the one elected official in this room. So I understand the third rail that talking about how great the economy can be because even if it's 100% true, there are always some people who are left out. And it makes you feel like, it makes you seem like you're out of touch. But let's just, I just want to fixate on one specific statistic that we didn't get a chance to talk about in the last hour. And I think you'd be a good person to talk about it. We learned last week that the U.S. economy is creating 1,200 new millionaires every day. Now, we talked about the net loss. Obviously, it's not a net, but it's 1,200 new millionaires a day. Something's going right here. I'm sorry if that's the case. Our best days are ahead. I think to use stock market lingo, I'm going along on the United States of America. I spend a lot of time in schools. spend a lot of time with business owners across Staten Island. I am bullish on this country. As long as we allow them to fulfill their American spirit, provide incentives for them to do well, don't punish success, don't punish those who just want to achieve the American dream. And if we allow those incentives to remain in place without crushing them, this country will forever be the greatest in the history of the world. And then you say, compared to what? You compare it to other economies. Other economies across Western Europe are flat. If you start going into some parts of Asia, yeah, sure, the Chinese, China's China, whatever you want to say. But the American economy is rooted in the American individual, and the American individual still believes the sky is the limit. And as long as we push that and allow it to flourish, America will forever be the land of opportunity. You know, you need to respect capitalism. That's what this country... is about, you know, my parents immigrated here from the Dominican Republic in 1950. I grew up in the Lower East Side of New York. All I had was an opportunity to succeed, and I took it. You know, I dropped out of school when I was 14. I started my own little carpet company at the age of 17, and I got married at the age of 17, and I had my first son before I was 20. So, you know, today I am who I am, but I know who I owe it to. I owe it to being in this country. If I had to give everything up, my biggest asset I've always said is being in the United States of America and being an immigrant coming here and working for it and respecting the flag because I swore to respect the flag of the United States, you know, I would fight for this country before I would fight for the country I was born. Why? Because it's made me who I am today.

So I wish that every migrant and anyone welcoming migrants would understand this. And by the way, you know what I keep saying? Immigration, yes. Migration, no. Migration, no. Hold on. Lee Harris here to keep us legal to make an announcement of all the stations we're on this morning. Gentlemen, it's that time again. This is W.A.B.C. New York. WR.C. Haverstraw. W. L.I.R. Hampton Bays. And W. L.I.D. Patchhog. Thank you. And I must say that W.A.B.C. New York is worldwide, 178 countries right now and 50 states. And Lee Harris is also in charge of the Worldwide News Network that was a big ad yesterday in the New York Post in the special edition. And it's going to, we're CBS. close down their operation, the syndication worldwide. We, W.A.B.C. and Worldwide News Network is taking over. And Lee Harris, you're doing a great job. That's breaking news. Congratulations. Thank you, John. And there's a lot more to do, and we'll keep doing it. I am honored because Lee uses my mic when he walks into the studio. And listen, big shoes to fill. Guys, have you realized that the 4th of July weekend? is the day that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelts decided to get married. That's an honor. Yeah, I mean. It's an honor to New York. It's an honor to the nation that this is the weekend date. 250th anniversary of the United States is when they're getting married. That's great. National holidays were common for weddings in this country. I think they still are a little bit because people could get to them for Jewish people, especially in the New York area. Christmas Day was a very common day to get married. That's because you get a discount. You get a discount. People were off work. And then until 1959, they would go to Havana for their honeymoon. Vita Vesela is with us in the studio right now, the borough president of Staten Island. And the largest flag ever in the Arizona Bridge, Vito? That's right. We petitioned to get it done, and it's going to be flying this weekend. So as the ships are coming into New York Harbor from around the world, and they approach and they see Staten Island on the left, they will know that we truly love our country. In fact, what we tried to do a couple of years ago, in fact, we did. Fort Wadsworth is, as you coming to the Staten Island is the first thing you see. And there's an old fort, one of the oldest in the United States, if not when it was active. And we wanted the highest flag and the biggest flags. When people come to Staten Island coming over to Arizona, we want them to know that Staten Island loves this country by waving that flag. And we got the largest one possible to be flown in Fort Wadsworth. Do you know what the dimensions are? I'm curious. I don't know offhand, but believe it or not, we wanted to get a bigger one. But the...

Park Service said we can't get a bigger one there because we need a number of people to fold it and remove it. So we said get the biggest one that's practical. So I don't know the dimensions offhand, but I could probably get them. I mean, it's curious because. What's up, fools? Main of it, Jay Uso here from the WWE. When it's just me between matches, it's day one-ish. And that means it's Chumba Time. With hundreds of casino-style games and new titles arriving weekly, there's always something fresh to try at Chumba Casino. The daily boots make it even more fun. And have me, about to get them, all during my downtime. Ready for a fun way to chill out and enjoy a few minutes for yourself. Let's Chamba! No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CTs and Cs, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chumba Casino. When you start arguing about how big the American flag can be, it's those individuals that are more concerned about with their anti-patriotism. It's almost as stupid, to be honest with you, as the negativity about, for example, what's taking place, the 250th. Fair that Trump and the administration created there in the Great Mall in Washington. Oh, there's nobody going. The Ferris wheel isn't working. Look at the reflecting pool. Everything is a indication of his presidency because it's failing that there's a problem with it. First of all, Donald Trump didn't build the Ferris wheel. Let's be serious about that. If Coney Island has a problem with the Ferris wheel, is it mean that it's the borough president of Brooklyn? Does it mean that? Coney Island isn't a fun place to go. He created a place for people to go to share their moment, the 250th. We're so fortunate to be alive and to be able to celebrate this. So why is this now an issue? Just like the reflecting pool. I mean, I know J.J. Kafaro, the guy that was hired within which to put down the pool. He's done thousands of pools. Thousands. Why did Trump use him? Because Trump used him for dozens of pools over the years. There's a mistake in the material that was used. Okay, whatever it might be. Fix it. Fix it. It's a maintenance issue. It is not in indices of what's going on with the presidency. Let's stop with the nonsense. Let's focus on the real issues. There's... I look at it a little differently, and that is most of the people, the vast majority of people this country love it. They love the fact that they're... parents and grandparents and great-grandparents sacrificed to give them a better life, which is why you have a so-called immigration problem because people still want to come here. But there's a handful that hate this country. They hate capitalism. They hate what the country stands for. They hate the flag. They hate the fact that they can't control every aspect of people's lives. So to those people who just want to find evil and everything,

and find the problem and everything. I think it's our responsibility. I credit John Katz-Matidis and Margo for giving us a voice to crowd them out and simply say, what you want to do is destroy this country. What you want to do is bring the people down, and we're not going to allow what to happen. So how's the different than what I just said? Oh, excuse me. No, only because the approach is, let's focus, my opinion, focus on the 98% of the people that truly love this country. And we're always going to find the guy in the back who's going to stand up and say, I don't like you, I don't like this country. But then there's 98 people who are going to stand there and say, sit down. You have every right to stand up and voice your opinion in this country because people died to give you that right. People died to give you the ability to walk freely, speak freely. You could be a total idiot. But at the same time, the most people I know, when tomorrow comes, they will be waving that flag, loving this country. Some will have tears in their eyes because they know the sacrifice that was made to give all of us a better life. That's how I said. I used to hear stories from my father. You know, thank God I still have. He's still alive, 91. Holocaust survivor was fortunate enough to survive. Ended up not being able to come to America because they had malaria. So ended up in Toronto, Canada. Came to the United States to practice head and neck reconstructive surgery after becoming a doctor in Canada. Met my mom the whole bit. I was 11 years old. It was 1976 on a bicentennial that my father became a U.S. citizen. And I remember him constantly throughout my entire life talking about there is no country greater than the United States of America. At one point, he almost had to leave. They were throwing him out of the country because his visa had expired. It was actually, what you would call it? It was... the mayor at the time who gave him an indefinite visa to stay, Jacob Javits. Wow. He was a senator. Senator Jacob Javits is the one who actually gave him the ability to stay and ultimately, again, took him almost 11 years. 12 years. 1976 was the year I opened my first carpet store on Avenue A between Houston and 2nd Street. That was a wild time. Yeah, it was way back then. And, you know, the city was different back then. You know, the city was hungry. You know, it was destroyed. I mean, there was a lot of burnt out buildings everywhere. Landlords turned their keys over because, you know, they couldn't afford it, right? We have a mayor today, Vito, that said to everyone, bring your thermostat up to 78 degrees, but yet City Hall was at 63 degrees. I'm sure Gracie Mansion is probably at 63 degrees, right? So it's the whole socialist, communist mentality. They're going to eat well. They're going to eat great steaks, but the people should eat affordable food. Sure. But how about even on top of that, Mayor Zohran Mamdani?

refuse to march, for example, and if this doesn't tell you everything about his character, refuse to participate in the Israeli Day parade. Now, you don't have to agree with Israel's policies. But you're the mayor of all the people. You're the mayor. You're supposed to show up for all people. Yes, I agree. The same way, if you're shown up for the LGBTQ plus community, you show up as the mayor. The same if it's the Greek parade or the Palestinian. I don't care. You've heard of show up. You've heard of revenge, that word revenge, right? It's my book. Okay, it's your right. Revenge. Revenge. I would tell you something. Shame on him. Today is the 4th of July, 3rd of July, tomorrow's the 4th, and all the ships are coming in. And I won't mention which specifics. I got a call from the White House a few months ago. And it was not the president. It was, but I won't mention names. And that somebody in the mayor's office, and I won't mention names, would not allow to. police to cooperate with the Coast Guard and with the ships coming in. Hey guys, it's Ryan. I want to tell you about my new pastime, Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has been around for over a decade delivering the most fun you can have online. Play social casino style games for free, anytime, anywhere. So sign up at chumbac casino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW. Boy, prohibited by law. See terms of conditions, 21 plus. And I did make the phone call. And we, like I said, with the mayor's office, we had the mayor at the police athletic league. I said we might not agree on everything we say. And the same thing that Ed Koch is to say. You might not agree with everything you say. But we got to keep communications open and we have to be civilized as much as we can. And the mayor's office took care of the ships. You know, Michael, I look out of my window every day and I feel so privileged to have an amazing view. I also live in a Trump building. And I'm proud to say that. It's probably the best maintained building in New York where I live. And I look out, and I see the ships out of my window. And I get goosebumps because I see the power of the United States. You see, it's like amazing to be here. For those people that don't live and have never been to the U.S., You know, they don't know what they're missing. You know, we all take it for granted. We do because we're here. Because, you know, we're here and we get to enjoy the freedoms of this great country of ours. Again, and I want to be crystal clear. You haven't enjoyed the freedoms all the time. Well, I have not. Yeah. But here's the crazy thing that we all have to just acknowledge and understand. We're all different. be Italian, you could be Spanish, Dominican, Dominican, Irish, Greek, right? And so we're all different. We come from different neighborhoods. We come from different walks of life. We're never going to agree on everything 100% of the time. If you agree with somebody 100% of time, you're in a cult, plain and simple. You're in, you're in a, or right, as Ed Koch said, you should see a psychiatrist.

Here's the thing. That doesn't mean that anything you disagree on is poison, that everything that you disagree on should be smashed and pounded down, especially when you're talking about the president of the United States and a policy. You have every right. The Constitution grants it to you, every single right within which to disagree. But that doesn't mean that that disagreement has to turn to hatred and to... A lynch mob. And that's what this far left, I know I've experienced it. I refuse to acknowledge something which wasn't true about Trump and the Epstein file. I refused because it's not true. And that cost me about 50,000 subscribers on my substack. Wow. 50,000. Literally people walked away because the far left attacked me vociferously. Like I couldn't understand. It's just not true. And if you want me to dopamine rage, hate, bait... this crowd. Don't follow you. You've got the wrong person. And they ended up leaving and they went someplace else to go listen to somebody else that was willing to do it. That's one of the big problems that we have too. Media rewards people financially with dopamine hate. It just does. Their whole goal is to rage bait you for clicks. and for profit. And they put words in your mouth. They most certainly do. There's not enough of just a respectful disagreement in the public sphere. You like the Mets. I like the Yankees. Okay, let's move on and have a beer, whatever it is. And that doesn't happen as much as it should. But we also have, and this is the beauty that comes together and the assimilation, this country doesn't exist but for, and you, Fernando, you mentioned it. The men and women who wear our nation's uniform, they are the ones who are on the front lines every single minute of every single day, preserving our freedom, and those who gave their life, the ultimate sacrifice to preserve it. And we just, when possible, reinforce that message of... yearning for that as opposed to it's easy when things are going cool and you grow up and you never got into a street fight and you went to the best colleges and you never and then you're 25 years old and you think you know the world and I guarantee you when you opened your first carpet store and you had a grit and grime every single day and you had to learn the rules of the world on the streets. that when you come across folks who think they know it all, you probably look at them and say, you have no clue what you're talking about. You have no clue how the world works. And you have no clue how evil some people can be, which is why we get sort of roped up in some of this dope. You talk about dopamine. Don't be foreign policy because we think that everybody's good.

And no, there are some evil people in this world and we need to crush them when possible. You know what? I believe always that competition is good. I've never looked at a competitor as being an enemy. I've never looked at a challenger as being an enemy. I look at situations and I like to address issues, right? I'm not going to go after you personally. when we are discussing an issue. It doesn't matter whether you're running for office or not, but the most hateful people in the world are those that when they see you as a challenge, automatically see you as an enemy and start making stories up about you. Okay? I experienced it with this guy by the name of Curtis Sliwa. This guy and I, I carpeted his first apartment when he moved in with Lisa Curtis Sliwa on the Lower East Side. He should carpeted his head. I should, yeah, yeah. With a shmata. Yeah, you know what? I should have put a red permanent rug on his head, right? So, you know, this guy, we had been friends for 40 years. All of a sudden, I'm running for mayor. He's running for mayor. The guy accused me of things that I hadn't even heard about, right? And those are the kinds of, that's the hatred that kills certain people. That's why they can't get out of the hole because they're full of hate. You know, it's not about issues. It's about hate. Somebody I respect dearly, one of the most, my dearest friends put it succinctly. Wait, you're calling me friends now? What happened? Oh, no. He said, he's a private business guy. He said, in business, we have competitors. Yes. In politics, you have enemies. Yep. And they want to see you dead. I didn't know that, but you know. I didn't know that. No, he said it many, many years ago, and it resonates to this day. In business, you have competitors, in politics, you have enemies, and they want to see you dead. And that unfortunately carries through. And to the extent that exists, unless it's, again, unless it's crushed, it's going to fester for it. Why is it? By the way, sometimes, we need a whole other show. That's for sure. But sometimes you can't get to the individual himself, like what happened with Trump in 2017, 2018. So what do you do? You go after those people who are around you. You go after the closest. And if it's not family, you go after to the surrogates. You know, we saw that happen, for example, and he was with me in Otisville, Joe Pericoco, right? Joe Pericoco, who was Andrew Cuomo's chief of staff. Wow, he was there. Yeah, with me. He's one of the funniest, nicest guys you could ever meet. He really is. I enjoyed every second hanging out with him, and we hung out a lot. Joe's case was actually overturned because the allegations raised against him were false. They went after him because they clearly couldn't get injured. No different than many of the Democrats and some Republicans went after me, actually many Republicans too, went after me in order to try to get to Trump. And I understand Trump's animus as it relates to the system.

And the fact that they were constantly attacking him and trying to knock him down every single day starting with that Russia hoax, which it was, I understand it because I lived it. And to be honest with you, I don't blame him. I really don't. Now, Sure. He's the president of the United States. Should he be bigger than life in order to say, I can forgive, I can let it go. I couldn't. I still can't let it go the fact that their goal was to take him out of office even before he was inaugurated the first time. And the fact that an ordinary person doesn't see that. And when they create this illusion, they create it, they know the facts are wrong, they manufacture things, then they create a narrative that some of them really believe it. And then when they repudiated and say it's absolutely false and they still carry the message to this day, even though it's been thrown out in the trash bin, it shows you what they really all. all about. Well, you know that old expression, right? You repeat the lie. This is Stalin. Until you believe it. It was Stalin who said, repeat the lie as many times you need to, that the lie becomes the truth. And they've done that. And it happens. It does happen. It happens. If you tell a lie enough times, people believe it. Well, Curtis, Curtis Lee was, he believes his own lies. But I am living proof, which is why when you know, you know, is going to be so important for people to hear because there are more lies. then there are facts and truths. It's amazing. They have learned how to weaponize lies. Vito, Vito, you were a congressman. To me, you were probably one of the finest congressmen up on the hill along with Peter King. And what's the life of a congressman like? You know, you guys get to travel. You get to go to great dinners. You get to meet the president. You get to do big things. You know, what's life like as a congressman? And what do you think these socialist congressmen that have just been elected? What are their lives going to be like? Because they don't like exuberance, right? I would, in any public life, but especially member of Congress, it's a privilege. You know, my hometown in Staten Island, born and raised in South Beach, was a kid from South Beach. I still have a kid from South Beach of Staten Island. You still look like a kid. Yeah, you do look often. Yeah. I don't know what Staten Island is doing to this. It's the water. It's the Raritan Bay. It's South Beach. It's good. Not the South Beach in Miami, the real South Beach. When people entrust you to say, Vito, we're hiring you for the next two years to go out and exercise the best judgment to represent us in the United States House of Representatives, there's no greater honor. So it was a privilege and an honor. And you go out and you work hard. You be straight with people. You have to cast, I think, probably over 10,000 votes. And you have to be able to explain it. But the key point is know what you're talking about. Know that you're...

The people you represent come first. I found that in Congress. A lot of guys and gals drifted away from that. It became more of a function of D.C. They'd be more concerned about their party, more concerned about other things other than fundamentally, you work for the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn. That's your job. And sometimes you have to stand up to people in your own party. Sometimes you have to stand up to the president of the United States. And as long as you can look yourself in the mirror and say, I'm doing my job for the people I represent. That was my standard. Not everybody has it. But what can you say? What can you say? So it was a privilege. Yeah, you get to do some cool stuff. You can hang around with the Air Force One. Peter and I. Did you fly on Air Force One? Yes. In fact, Peter King and I were with President Bush a number of times. We went to Ireland. I know Peter was very, very involved with the Irish peace process, and to his credit, Bill Clinton was too. And we traveled to Ireland prior to resolving those things once and for all. And you brought Irish to. Yes, I'm a proud Irish son of an Irish mother. My mother is probably listening right now. My mom. She does. She still, she worked. She just retired at the age of 85. She just retired. I want to let everyone know who was talking. Vito Ficella, the borough president of Staten Island. You're listening to the Cats and Company takeover. Mrs. Fissela. Hello, Mrs. Fislella. She's in O'Leary. Lucy and O'Leary. My great grandfather was a member of Congress from Staten Island in 1930s and 40s. Wow. We believe. in public service, we believe in doing what's best, and focusing on the good and the good in people, and we keep trying to make it sat down a better place to look. Michael Cohen, did you ever travel on Air Force One? I did not. You didn't have, I thought you were so close to Trump. I was, I just didn't want to go. Oh, I mean, I was, I was invited. I just had other things that I was involved with and, you know. It's easy and it's fun to hang around with the president, to travel and so on. But that was never my thing with him, right? It was always 4.30 a.m. and 11.30 at night. The man's got the most incredible stamina that I really have ever met. But I would... handle the base. He was doing what he needed to do. And I didn't want to be that guy that's hanging over his shoulder camera right for the, you know, hey, look at me on TV. Look at me on TV. I have 4.4 billion articles written about me. I don't need any more, you know, any more fame or notoriety or infamy more like it. But. So many people have so many things to say about Donald Trump and his character. And the funny thing is, I say to them all the time, how much time have you spent with him? And the answer is generally zero. Correct. I, on the other hand, have spent a decade and a half by the man's side.

20 hours a day. So do the math yourself. It's incalculable. And now you're going to spend it with us here at WADC. But I bring that point up because I'll give you an example. The first time I showed up, it was about a month and a half, two months after Trump was inaugurated to the Oval Office. He wanted me to come in and to see it. He wanted to experience the whole White House. And so when I got there, they give you a little visitor's badge. He had to wear it around your neck and was sitting in, Trump looks me right in the face. And he goes, take that thing off. I'm like, what? He goes, you're not a visitor. He goes, this is your house. He goes, you come, you go whenever you want. Wow. It was very, it was meaningful to me. So I take it off. And then Amorosa, who was a friend, started walking me through the White House to see and to go say hello to some of the people who obviously, you know, I knew through the campaign. And one of the Secret Service agents turned a, sir, you need to put on your visitor pass. I said, President told me I'm not allowed to wear it. Like, sir, you have to put it on. Amrosa said, I'm telling you, the President said he's not to put that on around his neck. He's not a visitor. This is his house. We then went upstairs. We had dinner, the whole nine yards. He gave me a complete and total tour. That stayed with me as it does today. And that is a description of his character to people who he cares about. Let me just let me add one thing about President Trump. And when I ran for a borough president, I was in a primary, it was June 22nd of 2021, Saturdays was three days before, out of the blue. I get a call. I was with my wife, Mary Patton, Grasmere, on the car and looking for an address for something. Out of the blue, I get a call from somebody, and it wasn't somebody I thought it was. It was President Trump. Never asked for anything. And all he said was veto. I heard you were running. I want to do what I can to help. How come in to tell me? Within five hours, President Trump came out to support me publicly the next day, and he was the first person to call me on Tuesday night when I won. That is the Donald Trump, the President Trump, that many people who want to hate him don't understand. He is one loyal... guy, and I'm a loyal guy as well, but he didn't have to do any of that, and he stepped up to do it, never asked for anything in return, and I was grateful for it. Peter Ficella, the Borough President of Staten Island is sticking around with us. We've got to take one last break here on the Katzen Company takeover. I get you got your bathroom? Yes, you do. You don't need the hall pass. You also, just like Michael Cohen, you don't need a pass. You can go ahead and use the bathroom. We'll be right back. Oh, we were still live. Sid and Friends in the Morning on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chumbac casino.com. That's chumbac casino.com. Sid and Friends in the Morning. Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network. Welcome back to the Sid and Friends in the Morning Show. I'm Jake Novak. It's the Katzen Company takeover as Sid takes a well-deserved day off with us as John Katz Matidis. Staten Island Borough President Vita Fisela. Michael Cohen, who is about to embark on a career here at WABC Radio July 12 at 5 p.m. We will have the first episode of When You Know You Know with Michael Cohen. So make sure you tune in for that. And he's been joining us in the studio all morning. Fernando Mateo, we finally got him out of the studio for a moment. He'll be back in just a moment. Off the air, I was talking about something. Michael Cohen said something interesting during our last segment. Shocker. He said the word cult. And, you know, I guess it was the old joke that, you know, if you grieve me all the time, it's a cult. As a member of the oldest cult surviving cult in the world, I can tell you I gave it the office. I don't need to join another one. I see so many people, however, though, folks. everybody here in the studio, I see so many people who have made politics their religion. There's no such thing, my friends, as a non-religious person. You may not be a Jew, you may not be an active Jew or an active Christian or even an active Muslim, but maybe you follow fish around the country. Maybe you're one of those people who paints his face blue and goes shirtless at a negative 15 degree football game. These are all religious behaviors. These are cultish behaviors. And there's not one person I've ever met who isn't religious, doesn't believe in something in a faith-based way, in other words, not a scientific way. And politics, sadly, in my opinion, has become a religion for so many people. And that beat of a cell and Michael Cohen, Fernando, and John, is why we are in this divide now in America. Because it's no longer just a disagreement of politics. It's now heresy. Heresy. You've come into my temple and desecrated it. And that is why it's because it's the lack of real meaning, of deeper meaning in the lives of the people who are taking it so personally. That's what I'm seeing. Well, Jake, I'm back. I ran. I heard you down the hallway saying Fernando just stepped out. I ran back. You ran back. You were using a baseball game. I must say something today. And I don't know if the rest of you knew of. Today, I just came up on my computer and it brings back great memories. One of my best friends, one of my good friends, birthday today, Lolly Weymouth.

She, a family owned the Washington Post, and she was one great lady, and we were together in her birthday last July 4th. And then she passed away in, I think, in September or October, with pancreatic cancer, I thought it was. I'm not sure. One great lady, I just want her. You know, people. Always had a big party. I always had the big party. But people are alive if you mention their name. And I wanted to make sure I mention her name. Happy birthday, Lolly Waymuth, wherever you are. Amen. Amen. Hey, John, have you ever thrown a white party in the Hamptons? You know, you have all these guys. This is a true story. I had some friends over, and my friend Ted Nicholas is married to a black girl. And I said I got invited to a white party. And the black girl didn't know what we're talking about. And it says. Does that mean I'm not invited? Are you serious? I am serious. I mean, you know, everybody knows the language of the Hamptons. There's a white party going on this weekend, I believe, where Arod was kissing, making out with a beautiful brunette, and he had just left his other girlfriend a few months ago. I'm shocked. And Rod used to be married to a Greek girl, and that's how I know Arod. down in uh in miami and uh her uh her um father was a priest and uh and uh and uh look a rod is a rod let's just pay right he used to we he used to live in my building i know him very well and so and we used to see women coming and going all the time. Arod is A-Rod. I mean, he is who he is, and he's a phenomenal... Is that why his second part of his name is Rod? Oh, no. Oh, boy, here we go. Okay, it's 9.39 a. We can easily devolve this conversation. But you were giving us a baseball metaphor before that I thought was pretty... By the way, our ratings tonight or today are in the moon? So thank you all for all of us being here. I mean, I can't believe four hours is going by so fast. It's going by very fast. It's all the catering, John. The food is just overwhelmed. I've been nursing this cup of water for five hours. I'm on a sugar high from the Pop-Tart. I think, again, I go back to the vast majority of people. They just want to go back their lives with their families. They appreciate this country. That's my observation, and I live it every single day. But there are those who don't, right? And I use the analogy of if you're a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fan, you hate everything. If you're a Yankees fan, you hate everything the Red Sox do. The guy can pitch a perfect game. He's a bum, right? If the umpire misses a call in the favor of the Yankees, they're good for him.

If the umpire misses a call in favor of the Red Sox, he's on the take. You know, so you just, there's no love for the Red Sox anyway, say, perform. I'm just using this as an example. And vice versa. The Red Sox, if the, whatever the Yankees who score 400 runs, they're all a bunch of losers, right? And unfortunately, there are those who look at politics the same way. They have a feeling about one party and they can't stand the other. And then there are those in another party can't stand the other. And no matter what they do. If you're trying to do a good thing, it doesn't matter. They will do everything they do to crush it in the cradle. There's a way around it. The trend on the other party right now, and Fernando took issue with me the other day when they said the other party. But socialism does not work. On the 250th anniversary of this country, the 25th anniversary of 9-11 coming up where this city was rocked, this country was rocked, but we stood tall and came back strong, socialism doesn't work. And wherever it has taken root, it has destroyed people, it has destroyed freedom, it has destroyed economies, destroyed everything it touches. There's a trend, it's a disturbing trend in the other party where socialism is taking root. it's up to the good people, the vast majority, to say, no, we're not going to let these weeds grow, and we're going to put it to bed. And sometimes you have to experience it in real time and in reality to say, no, we don't want it. And that's my prayer for the city and the others was, and the last week we saw a bunch of socialist winning the Democratic primary. Not good. So I'm confused because. We're not a socialist country. We're not Canada. We're not, say, New Zealand. We're a Democratic Republic. I don't even understand the whole concept of this democratic socialism. It just does it. It is so antithetical. And to do it, and for it to be antithetical, as you're saying, on our 200th semi-quincentennial, makes no sense at all. It makes as little sense as listening to people from my own party, from the Democratic Party, turning around and say, Trump is hijacking America's 250th. No, he's not. How's he hijacking? You're not going to hijack my party. You're not going to hijack what's going on in America. Look at you. You're hanging a massive, massive flag there in Staten Island on the Verrazano. Donald Trump involved in that? No. Okay. Why is everything? By the way, why not? Who wouldn't, right? I don't care who the president is. It's always an honor to have the president there with you. Not according to, you know, the far left. Absolutely not. If Donald Trump is there. He's ruining the party. If Donald Trump decides that he wants to create something for people on the fair over there at the Great Mall, no freaking good. The stupid thing isn't working. There's no food. Some of the states decided not to show up. Shame on the state that doesn't show up.

You're not showing up. It's not Donald Trump's 250th anniversary. It's the United States of Americas. And we have to understand, we are all Americans. We should be celebrating this together, hand in hand, across the country, not turning out, trying to chop off the other guys. Michael, it's a movement that's going on right now, a movement. And the people that are coming out to vote are 10% of the population. in those districts, which means that no one came out to vote other than white, crazy, young people. You're right. By the way, did you see in the Colorado one, the Democratic Socialists who won? 59,000 votes? Seriously, that's like the number of people I have in my LinkedIn. Because you know why? You know what, Mattel? When you know, you know. And there's no excuses for people that go with that. There's no excuses for people that don't come out to vote. You know, there's so many. I think the Jewish community needs to learn a huge lesson with the socialist uprising here in New York City. They did not come out to vote. And that was the problem. But some of it is you got to explain the policy. What happened? Are you talking about the vote with the slash mayoral vote? Yeah, no, the congressional elections. Well, nobody's going to. No one came out to vote. Where is it? Australia, New Zealand, where people get penalized if they don't vote. And in ancient Greece, in Athens. Yeah. And what did Plato say about voting? Vote early and often. No, no, that was Chicago. No, no, that was Chicago. And I think if I remember what he said is that if you don't vote, you're going to end up with bad candidates or something. No, that's why I said. No, it was very, it was very eloquent. And it was told me the other day. And you know who told me? Oh, my God. Curtis Sliwa? No way. No way. Let's not mention this guy here again. We're advertising for him. President Trump's mission to me was to get Curtis Sliwa out of the race. And I've said this publicly already. And his mission was he was going to get Eric Adams out in the race, and he accomplished his mission. I failed the president. Here's the quote. Here's the quote by Plato. Want to know why? One of the penalty, I do want to know why. Zohran Mamdani's people were also giving money to Curtis. Yeah, the guy doesn't know which way to roll. He was in the gay parade doing the booty dance. The great playtos. Here's the quote. One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics and not to vote is that you end up being governed by your inferior. Yeah. And we're in that position. But you also have to call out what these policies are. People are.

One of the candidates who won, I was watching an interview, and she was asked the question about she was upset with Precheck when it comes to flying. Yeah. And her response was, let's nationalize the airlines. This is like insane, right? You're upset with one little thing with a private company, and their response is, well, we should nationalize the airline industry. And as long as people, when they're told those things, when they're told what they truly stand for, most people will be rejected and perhaps they will begin engaged and will come out and vote. And it's up to the 90% who don't show up. Some of them just, you know, they get up in the morning, they go to work, they're working all day, they got families, they got kids, they got Little League, they got dance or whatever. By the time, eight o'clock rolls around, all they want to do is sit in the couch. Yeah, but nothing. Every single American should have, should have it in them. I agree. Literally, it's your one obligation to do. You know, 70 million Americans didn't vote. You can't vote anymore, right? I can. New York. They allow felon to vote? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I voted. 70 million Americans chose not to vote in the general election. They could not stand Donald Trump, and they would not vote for a black woman. And you say to yourself, huh. Interesting. You really can't figure out which candidate you think would be better for this country? I've encountered people on the street. Well, they don't even register the vote, let alone. And I actually take a position. I said, you know, people died. Men and women died in the Army, the Navy, Marines, whatever they were for. They died for that right. Just do something to participate. There's somebody who's doing something. I got on the phone, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney. From the 24th District of New York, Congresswoman Tenney, we've been talking about the... And that's right on the border of Canada. Yeah, right on the border of Canada. My home and native land. I stand, thank God we stand. And I take credit for putting Doug Band from Ontario together with Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, who her territory borders Ontario. Yeah, well, good morning. I had a great conversation with Doug Ford, and he is all for improving relations with U.S. and Canada, New York, and Canada. And funny, we're both in the same business. We're both in the printing business. But anyway, that's the future. Congresswoman, we've been talking about America 250. Obviously, that's the big topic as we get into the July 4th weekend, and today is the federal holiday. You know, I think, unfortunately, for a lot of people living in the five boroughs, Staten Island being the exception, they're not even paying attention to this. That's really, really, really disturbing. I mean, or they think that the time of the birthday is the time to air all their grievances. That's like, you know, you have a child, is not doing well in school, not doing so well. The party is not the time to say all the bad things about your kid, right? I mean, what are you seeing up in your district? Are there a lot of events planned and are people excited about it? Yeah, actually my district is full of excitement. People are really into it. There's all kinds of events going on. But look, I was there for 1976, you know, with the bicentennial. I remember how exciting and fun that was and people were really into it. And I mean, there's a lot going on. I'm actually in Washington and there's a lot going on here. There's people all over the place in spite of the really, really hot weather. But I think what's happened is over time, and I hate to blame our education system, but we've lost.

the ability to teach our children, you know, how lucky and grateful we should be for having this country. And, you know, you always have to, I think, remember. You know, what Ronald Reagan said, you know, freedom is only one generation from being extinct. And it doesn't come in our blood veins, our blood. We have to fight for it every generation. And I feel like we maybe, you know, sort of drop the ball on that. So many kids do not really understand the greatness of this country. And they don't understand that people are coming here from all over the world because they want to, they're escaping tyranny and other systems that don't work as well as this one. And we know this one is imperfect. We're always trying to improve it. But that was the vision of our founders. And I worry that people just, you know, have decided that, you know, they're grievance-based. They complain that, you know, everything isn't perfect. They're not willing to fight and strive. And I have to tell you, I remember, you know, stories listening to my dad who his parents came in and met on Ellis Island, one from Scotland, one from Germany. And they, you know, they couldn't wait, number one, to get to work. Their brothers would go to work and they wanted to get to work and they were only 11 years old. They couldn't wait to join the Navy or join the Army and get excited about it. It was like it was a complete honor and a privilege to have this opportunity. And I think that there are a lot of people that do feel that way, but I feel like some of the people, especially in some of the, I hate to say, bluer areas. you know, really have this grievance mentality, and they really don't realize that, you know, you've got to take advantage of it. You can't be a victim. And my dad, who has always, you know, came from poverty, would say never be a victim, always feel grateful for what you have and what you could have if you only work a little harder and try a little harder. And I just, I'm grateful for him. I'm glad I had those values passed down to me, but I don't think a lot of these young people are getting those values passed to them. Because Congresswoman, I hate to say it, but grievance sells. People have learned how to not just weaponize grievance, but to monetize grievance. And that, I think, is one of the biggest problems that's out there. It's always easy to find a scapegoat. It's always easy to turn around and to, I don't know, to promote this hate, especially when by doing so, you're actually profiting financially from it. Hey, it's Ryan Sechrest here, and I have discovered a fun to escape from the daily grind. Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has hundreds of social casino style games. It's all free to play anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So get to Chumba Casino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW. Boy, we're prohibited by loss. In terms of conditions, 21 plus. I listened to a guy the other day on TikTok. I listened to this guy the other day on TikTok. I was blown away talking about he's a complete anti-Trumper. to the nth degree, literally turning around and saying that he himself is saving democracy. He had about 600 people on with him. He's saving democracy with his 600 people, right, by sitting there and trashing the president of the United States. Look, we have lost those days of Tip O'Neill where you can have a disagreement with somebody.

And yet afterwards, you go out and you have a bite to eat or a beer. You know, you can have a different point of view. I actually believe that that's healthy for a democracy. But when you start attacking the other side for having that difference of opinion, that's when you lose your democracy and you end up with this nonsense like what we have here in New York of this democratic socialism. Congresswoman. Well, I think it's Marxism, but I'll tell you, I'll give you a just. An anecdote from my life, I used to spend a lot of time overseas, and I spent a lot of time in the former Yugoslavia, which was a communist country. You know, some people like to say socialist, but it was communist. If you disagreed with the leadership of the Communist Party, you ended up in a barren island in the Adriatic Sea or in a work camp at the same place. But here's the interesting. I remember my friends used to say to me, you know, you guys are arguing, you Republicans and Democrats, you're basically arguing over how to get. you know, to the same goal. You know, we all care about helping people are truly needy. We care about helping our small businesses. We want to give people opportunities. All those things are what we used to all believe in generally. But the question was how we get there. And my friends from Yugoslavia used to say, we don't, you know, we disagree, especially here and in Europe. We have a communist versus a capitalist versus these are our parties are taking down the entire system. And then. You know, we don't believe in the system you're in, but the problem we have in America is that we have this system, which I think is not perfect, but it's the best that we've ever had. And we have people that have now come in and these democratic socialists who I think are Marxist, communists, people who are very ignorant, they can't make a plausible argument of why they want what they want. But they're talking about tearing down the Constitution of the United States, which those of us and the majority mostly are celebrating this idea of freedom and individual rights and self-governance. They're talking about those things that would destroy this country. and this Constitution that believe in those things. And I don't think they really understand what democracy means. I don't think they understand a constitutional Republican self-governance. I don't think they have the statesmanship and the fourth and the thought that went into this and the yes, the political battles that our founders went through to come up with this Constitution. This didn't just, they didn't just put a bunch of things on paper. They fought and argued every nuance of our Constitution. and every nuance, by the way, the Bill of Rights, which is very nuanced. And they did this because they wanted to get as close as they could to preserving freedom and also recognizing we created a federal government for security against our enemies, for national defense, for border security, because you can't live in this experiment that we have without having secure borders and people that believe in the same thing. And that's what the communists are doing. On our 250th anniversary, what a terrible, you know, I say omen to see all these communists coming in who want to destroy our country after only 250 years. Congresswoman Claudia. We want to destroy the Constitution. Congressman Claudia Tenney, and, you know, I'll do you, unfortunately, one better on that.

I think these people, and it's been shown with this Act Blue scandal and some of the other follow-the-money operations, that they are being funded by our foreign enemies. And I want to let everyone know listening that you have a son whose active duty Marine Corps officer, the United States Marine Corps, the very people that your son is protecting us from in the Marines. are funding these candidates. This is not an opinion. This is objectively true now. This has to be frightening you. Yeah, well, of course. It's a great day. I'm actually going to spend some time with my son who lives in Virginia. He actually works in an intelligence agency as a major in the Marine Corps. He works on AI, of all things, artificial intelligence, and he's getting a master's in it as well. But, boy, does he know what the threats are, and the threats are. Look, we have become so porous and allowed our foreign entities to get in. And they're in, look, the Chinese are here. They're gaining ground on us in so many ways. You know, whether it's through TikTok, social media, buying up farmland, there's so many things they're doing. And we're sort of asleep at the switch in many ways that we fight it. You know, a lot of people don't seem to care. But that monetizing things and the new media, the social media we didn't have before is really a device. for making money. And I think people need to understand all this fraud abuse and waste you're saying is a lot of these things, for example, in LA, we had a whistleblower come to us. We broke this out. I was just talking to Medmanaz, you know, the other day about this issue where these, a Russian actually, a Russian. cartel, a Russian organized crime company, came in and took advantage of our system because in California they weren't paying attention. They weren't giving oversight between 21 and 24 while everybody was home instead of going to work. They literally took tens of billions of dollars away from us in just one county in the United States. And that is what has been happening. And they're monetizing everything. They can monetize, as you say, this grievance and hate. And it's sad. I mean, I don't, I think we have to find, you know, inspirational people who are out there showing there is a better way because this doesn't end well. I lived in Yugoslavia. It didn't end well. People were, you know, nice and hospitable and everything, but they waited in line. They didn't have access to good services and products. And look today, I've been watching this, look at Zohran Mamdani and the Democrats who have actually deliberately. cut down our ability to have abundant resources when it comes to energy, which we have and are rationing now. This is the rationing of collectivism that you're seeing under Zohran Mamdani. And this is what it ends up being. There isn't enough of everybody else's money to give to people unless they're adding to their society and their community and the economics of it. Congresswoman, it's so enlightening to hear you. This is Fernando Mateo. I have a show here on WABC called No Excuses. Michael Cohen is here with us. He has a program that will start next week just before mine. It's when you know, you know. When you know, you know. And then we have Jake Novak. You like that, huh, Congressman?

She likes no excuses better, actually. I actually like both of them. I will tell you, I remember, I'll tell my father, who was just a wonderful guy, grew up in a little northern New Jersey and then ended up in upstate New York. I always thought one of the greatest things he ever said to me was as a lawyer as well, and he was a judge. He was Supreme Court justice. Actually, he was in New York City all the time and loved it. He always said, no, what you don't know. And that'll help you a lot in life. And I see so many people, every time I see these members of Congress, you know, getting out there and saying silly, stupid things, and then they make money on it, you know, everyone should like know what you don't know. But then after me is Jake Novak. Jake, what's the name of your show? Freedom 250, the decisions that made America, a special show we're doing throughout the rest of the year. It's like a paragraph. Well, Vito, listen, you may be called in. You never know. I would love Zeldia. I'll sound greedy. I'm by myself at 5 o'clock show. I'm on the 5 o'clock show this afternoon. I hope you call in, Claudia. Well, yeah, well, hopefully it's going to be about 100 degrees here. By the way, please tell your son we thank him for his service to this country. You know, it's one thing I constantly remind everyone, starting with my children, to friends. And then even when I'm on my my substacks or my other platforms, I always say. When you see a police officer, just thank them for their service. When you see someone in uniform, just thank them for their service. It's so easy and you'd be shocked how memorable it is to them. Because thanks to them are Constitution. exists. Thanks to them, we're able to celebrate the 250th anniversary of this great country. And you're right, there is no country that even comes close. So let's just stop all beating up on each other and sort of unify. Michael, let's let Vito say a few words. I just have a question for the Congresswoman. I'm just curious. I was privileged to serve back in the 90s in 2000s. And I noticed a trend from when I first got there to what I left. There was a lot of collaboration. There was a willingness to work together across the aisles. Granted, the media always focused on the negative and people hated each other. But most members of Congress truly had a desire to work with each other, to your point about a goal, a shared goal, and how do we get there? And I saw it drift. I'm curious, Congresswoman, what is the mood in Congress these days of working together across the aisle to achieve common goals? I think it's very prevalent. I mean, I serve on the Ways and Means Committee, which I think is a very bipartisan committee. I think this is where the issue is that we work on many bipartisan bills. We do a lot together. There's a lot of Democrats who, and quite honestly, the Democrats are terrified of what's happened with these communist-Marxist types getting in. I mean, they're very worried about it. But, you know, none of them are standing up to them. They're all endorsing and moving on and just looking at them as sort of an aberration.

I think the problem comes down to, if I have a bunch of bipartisan bills, it's hard to get them to vote for them on the floor when they ultimately get there because there's someone on the far left. We have narrow majorities in someone that does that. And I will say, you know, it's also, you know, Nancy Pelosi was very partisan. The partisan, I did, I actually use Claude AI. I admit that, but it's kind of interesting. I always say the, the female version is Claudia. It was named after me. But, you know, I did, I had Claude do a search on partisanship, and it actually showed that the Democrats are more partisan that we are, that we tend to reach across the aisle more than they do. We want to compromise. We want to have goodwill. And like, for example, the one big, beautiful bill, there are so many provisions that were incorporated. Those are, you know, bills that we are bipartisan. I had four or five myself that were incorporated into that HR1, you know, the president's big tax cut bill last year. that were bipartisan and they got passed and Democrats were thrilled. But did they vote for it? No, because it was perceived as Donald Trump's bill. So they're not going to vote for it. And this is where the issue is. And I think, you know, the Republicans certainly, we have our divides and we're always more diverse than the Democrats. But they even in spite of their diversity, they tend to stick together. We don't. You know, we have a lot of people that won't stick together and, you know, bring us over the finish line with a lot of bills, which this week proved. But I do think there's a lot of bipartisanship. I do think I don't know what it was like in the past. I think people worked together maybe a little more, but we do have a lot of that bipartisanship going on. And I was, you know, one of the things that I started, well, like, I was happy to join. It wasn't started by actually Speaker Mike Johnson in my freshman year. It was a commitment to civility with Republicans and Democrats in our freshman class. And it was about working together, bringing the temperature down. you know, doing things together, getting to know each other. And you mentioned Tip O'Neill. We had a group that we've sort of lost a few members, but we have to, because they've left for whatever reason. But we also had a group called the Reagan O'Neill Club, and it was a chance for Republicans and Democrats in equal numbers. We'd get together and just purely social means. It wasn't some fundraising gimmick like a lot of these groups are. It was just to get to know each other, to know that, you know, we have families that. We have similar missions. We just have to get back to where, you know, that. And it was a great club to be part of, and we got to really, you know, get some more meetings going on it. It's been kind of a strange year, to be perfectly honest. I want to talk about some good news, Congressman Claudia Tenney from the 24th District in New York, Western New York, I believe is the best way to generally describe it. Central, it's northern, central, and western. So you got a lot of regions. And southern tier. You know, Southern T, I mean, you know, we've known about the economic challenges that that part of New York State have faced for a long time, but I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. You know, these regions now, because of the cheaper electric power, when Kathy Hochul isn't ruining it, we should have abundant energy resources from there because of Niagara Falls and things like that.

We're seeing investment in that part of the state in some ways, in big ways. And I, you know, we've been talking about the statistic. There are 1,200 new millionaires created in this country every single day. Last year, that was the stat. You know, give us, give us, you know, we're talking about our great history and our great past, but I'd love to hear your optimistic thoughts about the future. Yeah, well, actually, my district is historically incredible. I mean, just when you look at the region of upstate New York, as we go to the 250th anniversary, I mean, we have just so much that was part of our history and our founding from all these great, great leaders. We also have the Erie Canal. We have, you know, great history when it comes to the civil rights movement. The Abolitionist Hall of Fame is up in my region. You know, Frederick Douglass wrote his star. These are all, you know, Harriet Tubman's home is up in my region. I mean, these are all amazing parts of our history that come a little later than 250. But when it comes to what's happening, I think. People have recognized. We have abundant resources. We have beautiful, abundant water that's clean. We have the Great Lakes. We have Erie and Ontario. We also have the Finger Lakes. We have a lot of opportunities. We don't, we get harsh, cold weather, but we typically don't get the other kind of, you know, major weather events that others get, like, you know, hurricanes and major droughts. And we have a great working force. and people that love the communities, and we have beautiful places to live. And I think what's happened, though, a lot of people have come out of the cities, whether it's Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and those areas, and have moved kind of into the rural areas, which is what I represent. And that's where you're seeing all this opportunity. And I do see a lot of people really, in spite of the New York State legislature and the terrible economic policies coming out of the legislature and, by the way, energy policies. Remember something, we have Niagara Falls, as you cited, all of the operational nuclear power plants which, you know, provide emissions-free baseload power are in my district in New York 24. So they're all here, you know, they shut down Indian Point down, down in the city, which actually, you know, near the city, which brought the baseload power to New York City. And we have all kinds of resources and things that we can use to use for those power to the power grid. You know, New York City is dependent on natural gas to operate its power grid. We aren't. We only are about 30% dependent on fossil fuels because of our nuclear and our solar and also because of the hydro power coming from Niagara Falls. But, you know, this is one of those things where we have great opportunities. Micron is actually growing there. They just, we broke around earlier this year. That's going to be a really important for our security. We have a lot of other companies up there. And by the way, why don't people talk about Micron? Why don't they talk about the groundbreaking? It's only up at 12,000 percent or something 200 percent this year. But why don't they talk about it? Most people, if you speak to them, they do not know that they broke ground. People turn around and say, well, Trump's got these trillions of dollars that is supposed to be going into the development of new business and so on. And they're like, well, where is it? What's going on?

I didn't know that they're breaking ground. Why not? Why don't? Oh, well, look, it was a big event. We had it at Syracuse University, and they're building. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. VTW Group. Boyd were prohibited by law. CTNC, 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. It should have been done three years ago, but of course. You know, we worked really hard in the one big, beautiful bill, the Basic Act, which was my bill, was enabled them to get the tax credits they needed to build it. And we needed the tax credits because we wanted the incentives for them. They only could get it. They had to build it in New York, which is critically important. We have the water, but remember, the day that we broke around. The day after, you know, the environmentalist sued because they don't think we should be. They think we should be composting and living in huts, you know. Right. Well, sadly, most people don't know about micron, you know, and the construction. It's the biggest development in up saying you're going to think about this. We need. To have the edge in China, we need to have the memory. We need these kinds of chips that are there. And it's really important. And, you know, people are fighting the data centers. When you guys talk about China and overseas influence, these data centers are going to be critically important for AI and our infrastructure and our security. And there's better ways that we can even make them more efficient, use less energy, but there's all kinds of lies being perpetrated. And I guarantee you they're coming from overseas, much like... the kind of propaganda that was coming via, you know, to via Russia and others that wanted to shut down our natural gas industry in upstate New York. The Petroleum Institute proved that there was outside influences, not American, talking the Democrats into shutting down natural gas exploration in 2014, which really hurt New York. Congressman went to even worse than that. And I talk to Bonnie Brady all the time who's a... Those windmills that the Democrats signed off on that is part of the Norwegian government that outsmarted the Democrats in signing that's going to cause the New Yorkers 2 to 300% more for electricity. Yeah, well, this is, and we are seeing these. And destroying our environment besides. Right. By the way, the biggest gift that we have in New York is we have natural gas. Nothing has brought down emissions more effectively and more quickly than advent of natural gas. Yet we're prohibited from exploring and taking advantage of the Marcellus and Utica Shell that we have all over, you know, the southern tier and into parts of upstate New York. It's a tragedy really because, I mean, even Obama's EPA administrator said. you know, natural gas was safe, you know, but now because of these hardliners in the Democrats in Albany, they continue to not allow us to get natural gas, which would be an incredible opportunity for New York, for businesses. I mean, we would actually have an opportunity to reassert ourselves as the empire state. And, you know, we're not doing that because of these crazy, you know, far left environmentalists and the influence.

Coming, I think that, and I think you guys are right, I think it's coming from foreign governments because they don't want us to compete. They don't want us to not stop buying, you know, solar panels and wind components from China. And it's all a big con. Dependent on Russian, you know, gas and oil. It's all a big con. And the whole environmental thing, and well, it would take hours to discuss the environmental stuff. I mean, we should all be careful and take care of the planet Earth. But there are reasons for everything happening. And I'll just tell you, well, Michael, what do you think? No, I mean, look. I'm with you on that. If you're unhappy in New York, you have the ability to pick yourself and move to New Jersey. You can move to Florida. You can move to out of the country, Italy, France makes no difference. You can't leave Earth. So we have an obligation to future generations to provide them with at least an earth that can sustain human life. Clean water, clean air, and so on. But we have technology today that can actually help. So, yeah, I'm hearing from people that many of these data centers are extremely noisy and loud in a certain area. Fine. Let's use technology. Let's use our capabilities to ensure that people who live in the area are not living in areas that they can't sleep because of the humming noise. I get it. I totally get their frustration. But to stop progress simply because you're not willing to, I don't know, invest in the technology to... Have the data centers or whatever else is necessary in order for us to become more independent? I'm with you. We should be building solar panels here in America. We should have our own data centers. We should be manufacturing this stuff here in America as opposed to these cheap imitations that we're constantly buying. And it just puts our national security, by the way, in jeopardy. The fact that all of our chips are... technically coming from Taiwan. This is a problematic. Michael, can I say a word? Always. Thank you. Thank you, Michael. Michael. Welcome to Michael Coach. Earth is 4.54 billion years old. What's going to change the earth? Nothing. Nothing. So, you know, when people talk about Earth is going to change. I mean, when I was a kid, we used to get 18 inches of snow. I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you two cents. Two cents of a thing of the environment. People says the CO2 went up.

But the planet Earth is a living being, the planet Earth. Yes. And why did CO2 go up? When you have 7 billion people, now you have 8 billion people, the planet Earth makes more CO2. You know why? Because you have to flush the toilet more. No, no, no. Another billion flush. Messing from cows. Would you listen for a second? I'm listening. I'm listening. Okay. To be able to grow more plants to feed the people. And the planet Earth has made that decision to do that. And all the people that say about, we're going to run out of oil. The planet Earth makes the crude. And the purpose of the crude oil is to move the plaques among the planet Earth. The tectonic plates. And what fracking in Oklahoma. If they're taking out too much crude at one time, that's what causes the earthquakes. So everything in moderation. You know, by the way, the interesting thing, too, is you don't have to worry about Earth running out or humanity running out of oil. Because here's the funny thing. Technology. has replaced the necessity for oil. We can actually go ahead, not 100%, but you can go electric and soon they'll have hydrogen. I mean, there's always a genius out there that's going to come up with some other alternative source. I would say, I think what the congresswoman has to deal with on a regular basis is this notion that you're either for the environment or against it. You're either or. And the fact is it's a balance. You know, you've got to balance the reality of life, economics, making progress versus this. How do we protect the environment, if you will, in the right sort of way? And I'm guessing Congresswoman that you come across people who don't want to hear that there's a balance to anything. It's you can't do this. You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do this. And I'm curious, do you see that on a regular basis when we're talking about the political nature of the world. I think the biggest problem we have is people. have access to, they're bombarded with media, social media of every kind, decentralized media. There's no one source. It's not like you have three channels and everybody watches the TV or whatever. They're just getting all this information at them and they don't know what is true and what isn't. And people, like, you know, you can be dragged down by propaganda down a rabbit hole and say, well, you know, this is what's happening. instead of looking at really what the science is or the counter argument to some of these things. And that's what we don't have. We don't have a counter argument or, you know, a sensible view of these things, which is what we really need because that's what we find where, you know, people, when they find out the truth and they find out the facts and find out that this is just some, even an AI generated, you know, piece of our document they see and it's very compelling or it meets, it meets them in some emotional way and they're like, oh.

You know, that's how people are making decisions, not based on science and critical thinking, which is what I think we've lost a lot in our schools, is that we've become this, everybody's got their faces and their phones and their computers, and we're not out, you know, experiencing the world and really, you know, I just feel like that's big, I owned a newspaper, so I think people aren't thinking, you know, I'm very suspicious of everything. I get things all the time, and a lot of times I just send them to over to my son. I go, is this real? What is this? Where is this from? And because he's just so good on computers. He was a computer science major at the Naval Academy. He's, you know, works at the Naval Research Lab. He's like AI. Can I have his number because I'm technologically challenged? Yeah. Well, sometimes he does stuff to me. You know, this is what we deal with with our children. He'll say, just turn it off and turn it on. The old reboot method. We need, by the way, that's what we need in this country, a reboot method. You know, Congresswoman, we have a situation up in New York here, Vito, and this is something I'd like to hear your comments on is Rikers Island. Okay, the shutting down of Rikers Island. My show is going to be focused on that this Sunday. Between 6 and 7 p.m. I have a warden coming in. I have a former inmate coming in. And we're discussing Rikers Island because I think it's in a city that has billions of dollars in deficits. These jails are going to cost, the new jails are going to cost probably $20 billion by the time they're built. And we don't have 20 billion. We don't have it. And they want to put the jails in a neighborhood near you. Yeah, exactly. So this is my observation. Somebody spent half my adult life in the private sector and half my adult life in the public sector. Those on the left create these notions of utopia. knowing that the goals are unrealistic. So they'll pass legislation that says we're going to meet these carbon CO2 measures and these carbon net neutrality, all this junk, knowing that they can't attain it. And they jam it down people's throats and business owners, and they know they're unattainable. And likewise, at Rikers Island, if you want to improve the conditions of prison or jail, then so be it. Have that discussion. But why would you shut something down and then embark? And Fernando, I guarantee if they say $20 billion, it's $60 billion. That's the way this world works. And it's foolish. They grab some concept, they grab some idea, and they won't let go of it. They will not step back and say, you know what? Maybe we overreached it. Maybe we overreached here. Maybe we went too far. I see it all the time in local government.

Some folks in an agency make a decision, and they're unwilling to take a step back and say, you know what, maybe you make a good point here. Let's reevaluate that. In the private sector, you go out of business. John would know better than anyone. If he ran that, his business is like that. He'd be out of business because John is an amazing man and an amazing businessman. He won't do it. You know what's his name said, the guy who owns Amazon? He says, if I ran my business. If I ran my business like the city is running theirs, you'll get your delivery in three weeks instead of 24 hours. No, no, he said get deliveries in six months. Michael, did you spend any time at Rikers Island? No, no. And I've actually never even been there, but I can only turn around and tell you, I understand the point that's being made about Rikers Island. You can't build something in 1960 and expect 60 years later that in capital improvements are not needed. There are definite capital improvements that are needed, shutting it down. That may not be the answer either. And I can only again use my firsthand experience. When I was in Otisville in upstate New York, that property was built, I believe, in 1980. They didn't put three freaking cents into the place. The doors didn't close during the winters. It was 40 degrees inside. We froze. I tried with this guy, Mr. Diamond, who was the head of the... construction and he was just a wonderful guy. We tried to fix the heating system. We got it to a trickle where our beds would be during the winter, the cold, because we're 3,000 feet up in the air, 40 degrees inside. It's not human. We'd sleep with two pairs of socks. You would sleep with thermals, sweatpants, your outdoor pants, a thermal t-shirt, a shirt, a sweater, your ski jacket, a hat. and gloves. That's how everybody slept because it was, you could not keep that place. But that's not the case at Rikers Island. My point is, my point is. Capital improvements are needed. Yes, we know that. And that's it. So use the concept. The problem is you don't have somebody who's competent to go around and to say, listen, you don't need to tear the place down. This is what you need to do. Here's the budget for it. Put a billion dollars in it. Be like I am or what I used to be for Trump where I had a very sharp pencil. You were the fixer. Right. And I would go in and I would say, listen. All you need to do is to fix it. Fix the problem. You need to straighten out the doors. You need to make sure everything is sealed. You need to make sure that the heating system works. Instead of spending $20 billion. Exactly. A heating system to do it there. Let's say it's $5 million. It ain't a billion and it ain't $20 billion. The problem is the fraud, waste, the abuse that goes on, the Department of Corrections, the Bureau of Prisons. But it's the people. It's not the place. It's the people.

It's not the place. Listen, I encourage you to please listen to No Excuses this Sunday between 6 and 7 so that you can hear it from the warden, from one of the guys that used to run the prisons there at Rikers Island. I have a question for the Congresswoman. Do you think the House will remain in the Republican hands in November? Yes. I'm not so certain about the Senate, but I think the House will... Really? That's an opposite take. That's an opposite take for most people. A little bit of breaking news here. I mean, look, we've got... I think we're going to gain some seats and we're going to lose a couple of income income likely. A little bit of breaking news here. While we were just talking, Zohran Mamdani delivered his address, America 250 address. And there was a particular paragraph in there that I think was written by someone who thinks that the movie Stripes is American history. There's a funny scene in movie Stripes where Bill Murray says, you know why we're Americans? Because our ancestors were the losers who got kicked out of every other country in the world, which is a joke. That's not the truth. He almost basically immediately parrots that, exactly parrots that nonsense. This is what Mayor Zohran Mamdani said. For generation after generation, we have been told, I guess maybe by Bill Murray, that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it is not sent its best. I never heard that. I never heard that only the losers came here. I heard that the smart people came here. The risk takers came here. The ones who didn't want to live. in the dead end world of Europe or other parts of the world. I mean, I think that his speechwriter watch stripes and thinks that's American history. You know, it's amazing the fact that he could even say something like that, because at the end of the day, after 250 years and we're a relatively new country. Hey, it's Ryan Sechrest here, and I have discovered a fun to escape from the daily grind Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has hundreds of social casino-style games. It's all free to play anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So get to chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW, voidware prohibited by law, see terms and conditions, 21 plus. We are economically the strongest country in the history of mankind. Technologically, militarily, we are the strongest and the best country in the history. So if a bunch of losers managed to accomplish such an incredible thing in such a short period of time, I'm happy to be called a loser. But I'm happy to be called the losers. He's not saying they're losers. He's saying that America was told they were losers. That's not true. America was told, hey. These people are going to do the work for us. These people are, you know, for example, during the Civil War, they would come off the boat and they signed them up for the union right there, right then and there. I don't know what he's talking about here. Unless he's trying to take a shot at President Trump for saying that some of the illegal immigrants that came, like the ones when he spoke about in 2015, were criminals. But he was talking about illegal immigrants, and he wasn't saying that that was most of the immigrants.

But, of course, again, we all know that, but this has been the twist, right? Right, Vita Vassella of Satina-Eyla-Sat and Ileber, president? They've been twisting his words from the beginning. They twist his words. Trump in the end. And they hate, sadly and tragically, they just hate the guy. Actually, he obviously isn't talking about all these people that came in for the World Cup and were, you know, amazed by barbecue. They were wondering, like everyone, if you've ever been to a Bucky's, I mean, you've got to be like, wow, this is incredible. The irony there, Congresswoman, is. The people have been apologizing for their perception of what America has been all about. So it tells you how much they're being brainwashed in their own countries by their media or by how they're taught that America is bad. And they come here and they see for themselves what all our ancestors did. This is the land of freedom and opportunity if you want it. There are those who come here and say, give me, give me, give me. It's mine. You guys are evil. I have the grievance. I'm a victim. Or you come here and say, I can't count my blessings enough in the number of opportunities. And they came from places in southern Italy, in Ireland after the famine. But when they had nothing there and they said, there's one place where we can grow and make a family and be better off than we are here. And they took a risk. Some of them didn't see their families again. and there are a handful of people who have everything in the world in their pocket, in their home, in their mansion, and they hate this country. On the 250 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, when the people back then said, enough is enough, and we are willing to stake our whole honor and our fortunes to break away from those who are doing us harm. Thank God for them, and thank God for this country. I agree. I'm reading Washington could have been a king. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, by the way, that's going to be one of the major decisions. No kings, by the way. By the way, and kudos to Lynn Manuel Miranda and the Hamilton musical for making a special song and point about President George Washington's decision to walk away from power. You know, I've talked to people from political scientists all the way down to psychiatrists or all the way up to psychiatrists, whichever way you want to rank them. And they all say the same thing, that walking away from power is harder than giving up money. That that is actually the hardest thing to walk away from. And he did that. You know what's amazing, truly? The fact that you can no longer have just a conversation with the other side. It's literally on both sides of the aisle, the far far left and the far from, you cannot have a conversation. It's... Either I win and you lose or you lose and I win. I've never seen anything like it in the history of this kind of divisiveness. I don't think it has ever been. But I would say this, to Jake's point too, and to your point, Michael, you know, the original concept was limited government. Somebody was elected to the House of Representatives. Maybe they served two years. They were a farmer. They spent a few times, a few weeks maybe in the nation's capital, limited.

The government is so powerful and so huge that many people who've been elected don't want to give that up. So they'll do anything they can to remain in power to control those power. The trillions of dollars that flow through the federal government that find its way into every inch of this country, people don't want to give that up. So as a result, they will do everything they can to destroy the other side to stay in power so they can control those purse. Just to piggyback on the power thing here. Guys, I must tell you, I've had the most amazing four and a half hours. Okay, I feel like if I need to be velcroed onto this chair because I don't want to leave, but I've got to leave. We are intruding in Brian Kilmeade's hour. I will, you know that. I am. We went a half hour overtime on our show. John, I got to give it to you, man. You put together an amazing team here today. Jake is always the brain here. This guy knows everything, and he's lived in every state, okay? Every state, every city, every college, he knows it. Michael, it was an honor to meet you. I am so happy that you're going to be part of our family at WACC. And thank you, John Katzumatidis. Yes, and don't worry, we are going to have a full press on President Trump to get you your pardon. Okay? And once that happens and you get close to the president again, if you leave me behind, I will find you and I will take you down. I promise. But listen, I'm leaving. I'm leaving the power, the power, Mike. All right, Vito? The seat hot for Lee Harrison. Hey, listen, I'm leaving the seat hot for Lee. And let's thank Congresswoman Claudia Taney for joining us. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And by the way, Michael, you're replacing Sleepy Andrew. So I'm happy you're here, my man. He's talking about the Antio Andrew Cuomo on the Sunday 5 p.m. show. Yes. When you know, you know. You know, you know. And no excuses. Have a great. Happy 4th of July. And now the dulcet tones of Lee Harris. And we have Lee Harris here in the C. Legal ID. Just here to keep you legal, gentlemen, because shows running a little over time. A little over time. This is W.A.B.C. New York, W.R.C.R. C.R. Straw. W. L.I.R. Haptan. Patchhog. Well, thank you. And we have Chad Lopez here. It's Congress. Have a seat. Keep the seat warm. And Chad Lopez, the president of W.A.B.C. is here with us. And we are running overtime. We are in Brian Kilmain's Hour right now. Sorry, Brian. I love you, brother.

That's right. Brian. Sorry, not sorry. He lives two towns over for me in Massapequa. I'll go over. I'll get him. Mata pizza. Mata pizza is an interesting area. Everybody there is half Jewish, half Italian. Not anymore. The Jewish community is gone. I can tell you that right now. The Jewish community is left. It's no longer Mata Pizza. No, it's just Mata. It's just pizza. It's just pizza. Wait a minute. That's someone else's. I want to hear. We have Claudia Tenney, a congresswoman on right now. Oh, okay. Hello. And Claudia, what do you think? She's still here. She's still here. Thank God. I have a question for the Congresswoman. I mentioned, and feel free to disagree about the whole concept of power and what folks are willing to do to retain it in D.C. and this is the federal government as a whole. You know, I think that's true in a lot of cases. I think people get used to the, you know, the, I don't know how much they feel or, I mean, I don't sit here and think, oh, geez, I'm in power. I sit there and think, what can I do to help my constituents? as a small business owner, and what can I do to help them against the onslaught from Albany? It's just how every day I'm like, oh, here's another problem to solve or a person. It's almost like a practice of law for me where you, you know, all these problems come in every day and you've got to figure out how to solve them and you try to put the pieces together and you try to do what you can for them. So I don't sit there and think I'm lording over somebody. I mean, it's just not that way, but I think other members, you know, they become... staff driven, you know, some of these people that stay forever, you know, they get like their staff just, they keep jobs for their staff and their staff just kind of go on and they go in and they, you know, they don't really, you know, they, it's become a way of life as opposed to what do you do after? And I think that tends to happen, you know, I'm, I don't understand why, how anyone can do this job for as long as some people do, to be honest. Well, you know the reason why they do it. Leadership. Well, if you're in leadership, I guess you, you know, you are, you know, getting power and everyone's like walking around. I know it with my dad, you know, every time he walked in a room, everybody stood up, you know, and, you know, I think that it never went to his head, but I think that that can get to your head. But for me, I just look at it as all my constituents. I give them my cell phone. They call me. They text me. And my staff is phenomenal. And I love, as long as I can still do those good things for them. I mean, I'll still do this, but. I mean, I'm always looking at what I could do, what else I could do, because, you know, there's other people that would come up through the ranks, and we need to turn that over. But I don't know. You tell me, why do you, I just don't think it's a lot of people leave. And by the way, the Republicans. And people don't realize this in the House have term limits on leadership. And did you know that two-thirds of the Republicans that are serving today in the House of Representatives were not here in 2017 to vote on the original Trump tax cuts? Wow. Wow. So when you ask why, when you ask over term limits on leadership. Yeah. So when you asked why, it's very simple. We were talking about power before. The power is intoxicating. But it's also money in politics.

When you start talking about, for example, Nancy Pelosi, and I'm a guy who worked very, very hard for many years in multiple industries. I had yellow cabs. I worked seven days a week from four in the morning to 11 at night for seven years straight without a day off. I had my own law practice going at the same time. I had real estate going. I understand. I understand everyone's desire to make money. I truly do. But explain to me, because I can't figure it out financially, economically, how somebody who makes, as a member of Congress, say, $300,000 a year manages to, in X number of years, put away off to the side over $150 million. I just don't understand it. And I do understand the concept of insider trading. If it were for the economy going up, I would have a lot less money because we make $174,000 first. Secondly, I have a home in upstate New York, and I have to also pay for an apartment down here in one of the most expensive cities, which, by the way, only recently do we get a little bit of a credit for that. We get some reimbursement, but they add it. It's a strange thing. They add it to our income, so we pay more in taxes. So, you know, you really don't get much of a benefit. In my first couple of terms, there was no benefit. So the only way I can think of how people get rich is they have, first of all, I don't have a spouse. They can run things through their spouse or they can eventually when they get out, they can make money. Or in most cases, most of the people that are in Congress are rich already by the time they get here. And some don't even take their pay. So this whole thing where I watch it online, Congress members don't contribute to Social Security and Congress members get their pay for life, you know, once they retire. Not true. Not true at all. Actually, the New York State retirement system is much more. generous and much better. Well, I'm talking specifically, for example, like about Nancy Pelosi, who's just trying to figure out how somebody manages. Well, she still, her husband makes, I mean, her husband makes a lot of money. It's off of stock trades. It's off of this ridiculous nonsense that you could, that you could insider trade, which, yeah, Nancy whispered to her husband at 3 o'clock in the morning. Right. She was doing it while she's sleeping. By the way, by the way, $150 million. Can she get some teeth that fit her mouth? I'm sorry to be so petty. But to me, when you're very wealthy, you are being petty. Don't be personal. Don't be personal. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, though. When you're very wealthy and that's a sign of mental illness when you're not taking care of yourself in that way. I'm sorry. Don't be personal. I'm right, though. I mean, but it's wrong, that insider trading nonsense. Insider trading is wrong. To be honest with you, I think that there must be members that are taking advantage of things. I don't, the insider trading thing, you know, they went after Dan Crenshaw, for example, who is trading, you know, $500 or $1,000 and they said he got rich off insider trading. He did not. But there's, we're very, we're prohibited from doing a lot of things. You know, you'll see members that'll raise a lot of money in their campaign accounts.

But you can't really translate that into something until you're out of Congress. And even when you get out of Congress, I was reading in the New York Times, Congresswoman, I was reading in New York Times, for example, like Dan Goldman, one of the Congress members here in New York. I think he was top. Already rich. He's one of the heirs to Levi's. But he was like top five in terms of stock enrichment while he was. in this um in his position but what kind of insider trading did he get i'm not i'm not well you sit on a committee and you know who's getting a contract I know I don't have access because, boy, if I could have bought Micron three years ago, after all the work I did to get them. There's tax credit and everything. I would have love to have that, but I mean, I don't have any of that. So, and I've never, I have a person who's my lifelong friend who basically is my, I don't have a lot of money, but he's, you know, my financial guy. I've scratched and clogged for everything I have and trying to save. And by the way, it costs me money. I have to spend. you know close to $3,000 a month just on my apartment, which is more than my mortgage in upstate New York. Now, Jake, Jake sitting here bought Micron at 100, and it went to 1,200. Yeah, yeah. Who told you? Who whispered in your ear, Jake? Well, that's the thing. Nancy Pelosi. While they were sent together, Nancy listed to him too. I'm not a financial advisor, but I'll tell you something. If you think AI is going away, you're wrong. If you think AI is going to be the same thing like the dot-com bomb in 2000, you're wrong. Let me tell you something. As everyone, and I can say this without worrying about conflicts of interest because I'm not going to mention any individual stuff. Folks. This AI thing needs chips. They need tremendous chip capacity. And it's one thing if you were talking about some fly-by-night company like cosmo.com back in the dot com. These are established chip companies that are meeting this massive demand. I don't think it's over-bought. I don't. I understand there's going to be some bubbles here and there, but I don't think they're massive. I think this is a clear supply and demand issue. And if it's an established company, so I'll name all the micron technology, Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, these are established chip companies. This isn't some ramshackle thing that just started at someone's garage. So to me, that was why it was an obvious investment. That's why.

No, it's really, it's really, and I don't, I mean, I don't know enough to trade in the stock world. I just, I have a guy who just like grew up with me and he, he probably, I mostly looks like I have mutual funds and things like that. I don't, I really don't have any aggressive investments of any kind. And I do think I don't, like I guess some people might have an inside track on what could work, but, you know, that's hard to prove. But, you know, the other thing is we have laws in place for that. Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chumbac casino.com. That's chumbac casino.com. if you're insider trading. So, I mean, you can bring a case for that. I mean, a lot of people love to, it's like an easy thing to say, oh, well, you know, these members of Congress, you know, I mean, I just, I think. I don't know if we really get that much information that maybe some people do, maybe in leadership and in unique positions. I serve on the Intelligence Committee. I can tell you I don't get any insider track on any of this kind of stuff. And I'm sitting there looking at all the secret squirrel stuff, you know, every day. So I agree with opportunities. I just see us. We got to get, we got to get our act together and come together. We're going to get buried by China and Russia and all of the. You know, Asia is, they're striving and emerging nations that, you know, see our weakness. And I think we have to wake up. And this is a great opportunity to do that. We're in our 250th anniversary. Let's wake up. Let's like work together and move on to be bigger and better and positive. You know, this negativity and communism is not the answer to us, you know, striving and winning the future. I have some breaking news here because I'm now looking at the transcript of the speech that Mayor Zohran Mamdani just gave. Oh, my God. I'm looking at some of the... Breaking your mother mother, that's your breaking news. And he really... Breaking news. Okay. Now I feel at home. I'm going to read some quotes because they haven't turned around the sound bites yet, and that's because some people are actually taking this break of a day of a holiday, of a federal holiday. But first of all, the headline to me is exactly what we've been talking about for four hours. There are plenty of things to criticize about America. But this is inappropriate time. The July 4th holiday is inappropriate time to make a speech where you do a laundry list of not only criticism of America, but slander. There's a number of slander. So here we go. First, he says, we see a lot of contradictions. We see a country where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more. We see monopolies that dominate every industry and oligarchs who buy elections. I guess his election was bought. He won, didn't he?

We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans. I see in America in a health insurance industry that exploits the sick. I guess this is for Luigi Mangione. But that is not all that I see when I look for America. Then he also said something nice then. I see in America in corporate landlords, corporate landlords, for whom negligence is a business model. I see in America where we spend our tax dollars on bombs and bailouts where we sell our elections to the highest bidder. Strange thing for someone who just won an election to say. No, it's not appropriate to list those things today. This is like, again, like you have a five-year-old son who maybe doesn't clean up his room. Maybe he was slow in toilet training. His birthday party in front of grandma and grandpa and all his friends is not the time to mention those grievances. Right, it's at the wedding. Yeah, I mean, or the funeral. I mean, honestly, this is incredible. These people cannot spend a day where they say something nice about America and only something. It's not even, I think it's not even about nice. It's all about race, gender class, and divisiveness. That's the rules for Olinsky. I mean, our country was about unification. It's about, you know, individual rights. and about bringing us together, what brings us together, the concept of freedom, the concept of inspiring work, and being able to pursue happiness, not guarantee it. I just like everything they stand for, I don't know how some of these communists are going to come in and actually do the oath of office and put their hand on the Bible or whatever they want to put it on. By the way, they're getting ready for the air show here in D.C. That's what all that sounds is out there. The jets are flying all over the place. I had it yesterday, and I live near Jay Jones Beach, and there was a supersonic jet that flew right over my house while I was on the air, too. I know how you feel, Congressman. I remember those days when the SST used to fly over us. Yes. that's uh five sounds they're over there by the virus operate this is this is how they dividing you know they divide their devices they get you all upset and worked up over you know somebody it's all this politics of envy it's everything resentment I lived in a resentment I lived in a communist country I felt you know it's very once you go down this path it's very hard to get out I still work with all these former countries of Yugoslavia and they you know whether it's Serbia Croatia Bosnia Montenegro Macedonia It's very hard to emerge, be live in communism, you know, and be occupied and then live in communism and then to get out of it. But the key word. It's very hard. It, it, it. It really, really damages the soul and they drive and the people just expect government to do everything for them. And the ultimate recourse is fear, right? In a republic that we have, it's built on virtue and goodness and working hard and giving back. And that should be the goal. And a monarchy, it's about just doing an honor. But in tyranny and in communism, it's built on fear.

They want to scare the heck out of people. And then they want to intimidate you. Unless you do it their way, they'll throw you in the gulag. They'll throw you in jail. They'll be, you know, they'll do whatever to punish you. And these speeches that focus on the negative, it's all rooted in fear and scaring people that the world is going to come to an end tomorrow unless you do exactly what these communists want to do. How many years left? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said we had 12 years left in 2018. What do we have left now? That's four. I guess four more years. Let me get it's amazing to me. I sold security right now before the world ends, right? Look, I think it's very fair to turn around and to say, yes, there's a guy who's on his way to becoming the first trillionaire. We are the richest nation in the history of the world. No American should go hungry. No American should have to sleep on the street. No veteran should ever go hungry and have to sleep on the street. And I understand that. And I acknowledge that that's certainly a commentary that rings strong. And I believe with all American people. However, when you start turning around and then, you know, vilifying an individual because they become successful. Isn't that antithetical to America? Isn't that antithetical to what our nation was built on going back into the earliest of days? I just don't, again, understand the mentality. And I certainly understand the younger generation now where they can't afford to live. to buy their own home. It's been very different. They say now the average age of the new home buyer is 40. Interest rates. That's why. I think it's more than interest rates. I think the cost of construction has gone up. The cost of land has gone up. Everything has gone up. And I get that. But what Zohran Mamdani is saying, it's just unrealistic. It's also un-American. And I have a problem with that as well. So, yeah, like what Vito was saying, You can have, both can be right at the same time, right? But to put America down for the purpose of elevating your... sort of demented ideology, America should never be and will never be a socialist country. I don't care how many Zohran Mamdani's tried to run. Ultimately, they will fail as all socialist countries are technically failing. The Democratic Party has to go through soul searching. They got to, you know, because the Democratic Socialist Party, the Socialist Party, if they ran on their own, would get 2% of the vote. But they stole away, or they're trying to steal away to Democratic Party. They're trying to do like what the Tea Party did and the Tea Party failed as well. Yes. You know, Congresswoman, one of the things I'm getting as I read through the transcript of the speech is that it's just so obvious.

That Zohran Mamdani, and it's not surprising, a 34-year-old who never had a real job. It's so obvious he doesn't understand America. And if you were listening to me now, I would say this. Maybe he'll understand this more from someone who wasn't in a, talking about someone who wasn't an American. Mahatma Gandhi. Mahandis Gandhi. was a lawyer in South Africa. He had won some civil rights battles for the people of South Africa, and then he decided to go back home to India. And they welcomed him back to India, and they wanted him to immediately be a political leader there. They wanted to immediately take over the whole movement there for independence. And he said, no, it's been a while since I've been here. I grew up here, but I spent my entire adult life so far in South Africa. And he spent years. traveling the country, riding the the ceilings of the trains there, which is dangerous to do. Don't do that. And learning the country again, even though he was born there, before he started to speak up. You know, Zohran Mamdani, he might be 34 years old. I think from an intellectual standpoint, an understanding of America, he might as well be four years old. He should, he does not understand this country. You know, they joke about, they joke at, they tease me here in the studio because of all the different states of this country that I lived in. I wouldn't trade that for the world. I lived in many different parts of this country, and it taught, it's humbling, it teaches you something. This man doesn't understand this country, and he should follow the example of Gandhi. And take 10, 11 years and ride the rails in this country or ride in a car and learn what America is about. I just don't think he genuinely cares. I think this is, you know, an opportunity for power. I heard when he was in the state assembly. He hardly ever showed up to vote. And they said he would say whatever he had to say to get the, you know, the smile and get the attention. And, you know, he's another performance artist like so many of these politicians on the rise because, you know, I's a one of my good friends used to say, you scratch the surface and you get more surface. There's no depth to them. They're not. statesmen and leaders, they're people living off, you know, the grift that is what has become a lot of our political life here. You know, it's hard to know who's real, who cares, and all that. So it's, you're so right, Congress. You're so, you're so right, Congressman. Because think about every single thing today has a commentary to it. So the other day, I was watching television. Ready to put a little spin on your day? Then check out Chumba Casino's new online social casino game, Ryan Seacrest 10K Ways. It's free and packed with 10,000 ways to play. Only at ChambaCasino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group, voidware prohibited by law. CTs and Cs and Cs 21 plus sponsored by Chumpa Casino. And they're showing the outside, the south, you know, the south view of the White House. And President Trump put up.

The American bald eagle. A wooden version of it attached it. And they started to make the claim that it's visually very reminiscent of Nazi Germany of the third right. And again, as the son of a Holocaust survivor, I am. deeply disgusted by the action. That's why in the first part of this show, nine and a half hours ago, I turned around and I said that I'm done with this Democratic Party. I'm done. The second I get home today, I'm going, I'm switching to the independent party. Just like more than 54% of this country, I'm done. It is beyond ridiculous. The fact that he put up the American bald eagle, which is the symbol of America into the back. You may not like it aesthetically. The next president may not like it. Good for you. Take it down. All right? Just take it down. Personally, I don't care. But to turn around and to make the claim that Trump is acting like Adolf Hitler, that he's turned the White House into the Third Reich, the commander's center for the Third Reich. I'm so insulted by the insinuation from these people that I don't even know how to express myself anymore. Everything that's done... doesn't need a comment. That's just my opinion. Yeah, it's really, you know, it's tough because really what these people need to do is actually travel to, you know, to Poland and go see one of the very first concentration camps and walk through that sobering experience. And then now to blithely and easily compare everything to Nazism. I went to one of the very first, sorry, we got. They're practicing here. We hear you. We hear you fine. Yeah. So, you know, I went there and, you know, it was just one of the most, you know, you just walk in and you're just, your whole body just like. Or go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Yep. You can't even believe that you can have this. They could do this. And this is the camp where they invented the ability to have portable gas chambers or they could put them in the truck so they wouldn't have to drive people to a site. I mean, I'm like, what? I mean, like, how is this happening? And here we are today. looking at these people, calling everyone a Nazi, and yet, you know, advocating, you know, for anti-Semitism and calling people out because it's just I've never, I don't remember this ever in my life. And now I've never seen it quite like this. And I think because social media exacerbates a lot of these things and gives people immediate access and immediate access to propaganda, I think it almost makes it worse and makes it scarier. And we are in the monetization.

And please don't ever forget that. They monetize this anger, this rage, and this hate. Yeah. You know, Congressman Claudia Tenney, I often tell people that the most important Bible story, and I don't know a Bible thumper, I understand it's not for everyone. But the most important Bible story for America over the last 20 years has been the story of Cain and Abel, which is very often misrepresented as envy and jealousy. It's not. Kane isn't interested in any of the things that Abel wants. He's resentful. Abel works. Abel's the first capitalist. He makes an investment. He gets good return on his investment from Cod, and Cain looks at it and says, you made me look bad. I didn't want to do anything. I just wanted to be on subsistence. He was a communist. I just wanted to get my ration and move on and not. You made me look bad by working hard, so he kills him. Resentment, jealousy actually can sometimes lead to great things. Oh, my buddy across the street's got a great car. I'm going to work harder to get one too. That's jealousy in some ways. Resentment is, I'm going to trash his car. And that's where we are in America. I think this is the politics. I think socialism and communism has always been the politics of resentment, not the politics of people. I would have one thing. Warren Buffett's longtime partner, a late Charlie Munger, actually said greed doesn't rule the world. Envy rules the world. Yeah. And I can live with that. I can live with envy. It's resentment I can't live with. I can't live with the resentment. Envy I can live with. Sometimes think great things come from that. Well, guys, we've been sitting here for. For five hours. Six for me. Not me. Six for you. And we're supposed to be here to only to 10. We took over an hour of Brian Kilmeade show. The Congresswoman was nice enough to be with us for over an hour. Thank you. It's now four minutes to 11. I think we have to give the show back to Brian Kilmeade. at 11 o'clock at least on contract. I'm happy to do that. I don't want to have to go to his house in Massapeque with a peace offering. Congressman, thank you so much for being on for an hour with us. Well, thank you so much. It was fun to be on with you all. And happy 4th of July. It's going to be an exciting day down here. Many of us are celebrating. Here we go. All right. They're pretty cool. These are the Air Force jets and the Blue Angels will be on Staten Island tomorrow, 10 o'clock. Wow. E. Pluribus, E. Pluribus, Unum. Let's not have division in America for many. Amen. That's our motto and our conclusion for our 250-year anniversary this weekend. I will be back at 5 o'clock to do the 5 o'clock show. I'll be back at 10 p.m. And you'll be back at 10 p.m. You know what, John? You know what? Because when you know you know, you know. He's on message. Vito Fasela, thank you for stopping by today. Thank you, John. Make sure you take care of the great borough of Staten Island. It's a great borough. And by the way, we had a sell-out crowd with the soccer in the stadium in Staten Island. We had like 12,000 or 14,000 visitors in a couple of days. We were there for the opening day. And one thing about the World Cup, I'm going to say two positive things. I'm not a negative guy.

The World Cup has brought people together. They realize they have much more in common than we don't. Good for them. And that's one. And number two, I'll go back to what I said. I read the outset. I spend a lot of times visiting schools, young kids, middle school. I was in an elementary school graduation just a couple of weeks ago. And the kids were belting out the national anthem like you couldn't believe, singing God bless America like you couldn't believe. Doing the Pledge of Allegiance, loud and clear, their parents were there, proud of them, taking photos. There is a lot of good across Staten Island, across this country. And a lot of good people in Staten Island. A lot of great people in Staten Island that love this country and will die for it, and they have died for it. And we've got to continue to highlight them and not focus on the negative, resentful. envious people who want to destroy this country that is the greatest in the history of the world, and we will win and we will prevail. The determination is going to have to be the migrants that came here that don't love America. Why should they have a green card? Why should they have a green card? Let them go back. I mean, if they don't love America, don't try to change our way of life. Michael, thank you for being here for five hours. And tell us, what do you think? The migrants versus immigrants. Well, I like your, you know, I like your comparison because it's actually correct. You know, there is a big difference. I've never been, and I never will be, opposed to immigration. And I think all Americans agree with the same thing. As I said earlier. Immigration, yes. Every country has the right to borders, as Trump would say, a country without borders, quite frankly, isn't a country. I absolutely believe that. I don't believe people should have the right within which to just come to the country and stay. I don't think that I believe we need immigration reform. It's been needed for a long time. There is, and I love your comparison. There is a big difference and a distinction between immigrants and migrants. And I'm in total favor of that. I just don't particularly agree with some of the tactics that are being used by ICE agents. Now, I'm not talking about all of ICE agents. I'm talking about specific. So I'm not going to call ICE as a whole. But that's the part where you can have an intelligent conversation on disagreement. We all agree that we need immigration reform. So let's just agree on what we agree with and then work from there. If people come to this country and they hate this country. Let them go back to their own wherever they come from or any place else. It's free. If I would have go, if we would have, four of us would go to France tomorrow. 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...

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