Speaker 1: So, as I mentioned earlier, I had the fortunate opportunity
Speaker 1: a you Jehnor to drop the ceremonial first puck at
Speaker 1: the UBS Arena before the game before Tel Aviv and
Speaker 1: Jerusalem yesterday, something that the National County Executive Bruce Blakeman
Speaker 1: did last year. Bruce, as I said, I saw him
Speaker 1: again yesterday, him and Mazi Pillip Long Island. Well we
Speaker 1: represented out there at the UBS Arena. Bruce look great,
Speaker 1: but of course not a great day for a love
Speaker 1: Long Islanders yesterday. If you look at the stands yesterday,
Speaker 1: they were about handfull of thousands of people that expected
Speaker 1: to come to UBS on Sunday to go to the
Speaker 1: game couldn't make it in because of the Long Island
Speaker 1: railroad strike. Now it's a Monday morning even worse, three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people trying to get to work in New
Speaker 1: York City.
Speaker 2: They got no way in.
Speaker 1: So there was Bruce talking over the weekend, of course,
Speaker 1: running for governor against the wretched, evil witch that is
Speaker 1: Kathy Hokeel, talking about what a terrible job she's done.
Speaker 1: He's exactly right, and we are this morning to have
Speaker 1: him on the biggest story in the city today, the
Speaker 1: Long Island Railroad is on strike. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: And here's my friend Bruce Blakeman. Bruce, good Monday morning, Buddy,
Speaker 1: how are you good morning?
Speaker 3: Said, doing well? Thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you are.
Speaker 1: You talked about it over the weekend, This strike that
Speaker 1: Kathy Hokeel has allowed to happen, She's blaming you, She's
Speaker 1: blaming President Trump. She'll probably blame me. Any Republicans gets
Speaker 1: blamed for this mess. Why is Long Island Railroad even
Speaker 1: on strike?
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, the MTA is part of state government,
Speaker 3: not county government, so Kathy Hockel is in control of
Speaker 3: the MTA. This is a failure of leadership by Kathy Hockel.
Speaker 3: These negotiations have been going on for months, and I'm
Speaker 3: told she hasn't taken part in any of the negotiations.
Speaker 3: Union leaders have told me that she's been distant, that
Speaker 3: she's been aloof that she hasn't paid attention to it.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't blame the union leaders when
Speaker 3: they say to me, Look, she's saying she doesn't have
Speaker 3: the money for our workers. But she gave out eight
Speaker 3: billion dollars over the last three years to illegal migrants.
Speaker 3: Who aren't New Yorkers. They're not even Americans. They've been
Speaker 3: here for fifteen minutes, and they get all the money
Speaker 3: and she's not giving it to New Yorkers. So that's
Speaker 3: why they're on strikers because they're saying, hey, look, if
Speaker 3: you can't pay us a little more, why are you
Speaker 3: paying all the money to people who aren't New Yorkers.
Speaker 3: It's not right and they have a good argument there.
Speaker 3: I feel that, you know, the workers, they want to
Speaker 3: go back to work. But again, Kathy Hopel has been AOL.
Speaker 1: Can you explain to me again this is an ASOL
Speaker 1: county executive. He'll be our next govenor here, Bruce Blakeman,
Speaker 1: she's blaming Trump. I'm trying to figure out, I guess,
Speaker 1: in terms of the mediation process, how does President Trump
Speaker 1: get blamed for this obvious Kathy Hochal New York blunder Well.
Speaker 3: I don't know how she can do it. I think
Speaker 3: she probably would blame him for the bubonic plague if
Speaker 3: she thought she could get away with it. But he
Speaker 3: has nothing to do with the negotiations with the union.
Speaker 3: There are federal panels that make recommendations. They made recommendations
Speaker 3: to Kathy Hokeel, and she didn't follow those recommendations. So,
Speaker 3: if anything, she's the one that's not following the recommendations
Speaker 3: of a federal railroad panel. She is somebody who is
Speaker 3: completely out of touch, and that's why we're at this
Speaker 3: point right now. I really feel bad for the commuters.
Speaker 3: I feel bad for the small business people who are
Speaker 3: going to lose business today. I've already heard from people
Speaker 3: over the weekend that have been stuck at the airport
Speaker 3: couldn't get a railroad ride home. This is going to
Speaker 3: be tough, and it's all because of Kathy Hockel.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 1: And as far as I know, Bruce, you know better
Speaker 1: than me. I've been told that they're not miles apart.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like there's no way they can
Speaker 1: do this. I've been told that it's actually very close
Speaker 1: what the two sides want. So why would you put
Speaker 1: New York Ankers do this pain if it really.
Speaker 2: Is that close?
Speaker 3: Well, again, she had five and a half billion dollars
Speaker 3: for Zorn Montdamie to close his budget gap without any controls,
Speaker 3: with any strings attached to it. I mean, New York City,
Speaker 3: they don't have a revenue problem. They have a spending problem.
Speaker 3: So does New York State. And again, when you give
Speaker 3: eight billion dollars away to legal migrants, it's hard for
Speaker 3: uniony leaders to go back to their members and say, well,
Speaker 3: the state doesn't have the money. The members say, hey,
Speaker 3: if they don't have the money, it's because they gave
Speaker 3: it away to legal migrants. That's not right. And they've
Speaker 3: got a good argument there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, legal migrants, like you said, and yeah, eight billion
Speaker 1: dollars she found for Zora on Mom Donnie last week.
Speaker 1: Four billion a year for the next two years. I
Speaker 1: was talking to Brian kill Meat. I'm a mutual friend
Speaker 1: over at Fox News. He's on my show every day
Speaker 1: here as you know, Bruce, and he said, this may
Speaker 1: be a great opportunity for Bruce Blakeman. He also loves you.
Speaker 1: He lives in Nassau County. He said, sid, first time
Speaker 1: in thirty years, I'm not being able to get home
Speaker 1: later this afternoon. He said, maybe this is a good
Speaker 1: opportunity for Bruce Blakeman to actually mediate this.
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3: Well, if I were governor, there would be no strike
Speaker 3: because I would have been negotiating all along. I would
Speaker 3: have gotten actively involved, and they wouldn't be able to
Speaker 3: make the argument about me about the illegal migrants, because
Speaker 3: I would never make this a sanctuary state. I would
Speaker 3: never elect I would never allow billions of dollars to
Speaker 3: be spent on people that weren't New Yorkers. That's our
Speaker 3: taxpayer dollars. There'd be spent on people. All they have
Speaker 3: to do is arrive. They get free housing, free food,
Speaker 3: free transportations, a free cell phone. That wouldn't happen with
Speaker 3: Bruce Blakeman as governor. I would spend the money on
Speaker 3: the people. I would cut taxes, cut your utility costs
Speaker 3: in half, and create jobs in economic development, better jobs
Speaker 3: for people with higher weights and better benefits.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at the last couple of weeks, Bruce,
Speaker 1: and you've been gaining on horror quite a bit the
Speaker 1: last couple of months. You know, you started out nearly
Speaker 1: thirty points behind. Now a lot of the polls that
Speaker 1: actually count, right, not these bull crop liberal polls, have
Speaker 1: you single digits back. And you look at again a
Speaker 1: couple of days ago, herre giving all that money to
Speaker 1: mom Donnie. New Yorkers don't like that. The Long Island
Speaker 1: Railroad on strike, New Yorkers don't like that her constant
Speaker 1: bitching about President Trump has nothing to do. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got to think that the last couple of weeks
Speaker 1: have been great weeks for you.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, we have a lot of momentum. Said, with
Speaker 3: the utility costs seventy percent higher than the national average,
Speaker 3: and she's directly responsible for that, with economic development number
Speaker 3: forty one out of fifty states, which is a national
Speaker 3: embarrassment for the former Great Empire state with the highest
Speaker 3: tax state in the United States. People are miserable, and
Speaker 3: now they're miserable about the safety and security. Throw on
Speaker 3: top of that the strike, Throw on top of that,
Speaker 3: the corrections officers strike, Throw on top of that the
Speaker 3: nurses strike. She's not in control of government, and government
Speaker 3: is now out of control. They're spending money at crazy levels.
Speaker 3: People have had enough.
Speaker 2: Bruce.
Speaker 1: I thought you said a really smart thing over the weekend, too, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, another thing that she did to this city,
Speaker 1: which she boasted about for a while, but now everyone
Speaker 1: knows it's not working. Everyone that's congestion pricing. You said, Hey, Kathy, sweetheart,
Speaker 1: if you're already screwing New Yorkers that can't get to
Speaker 1: work if they have to drive in. Now they have
Speaker 1: to drive in, you would have a lot of balls
Speaker 1: to charge them nine plus dollars for congestion pricing. The
Speaker 1: least you can do is to spend that tax, that
Speaker 1: punitive charge until you fix the strike. I thought that
Speaker 1: was brilliant. I don't think she'll do it, but I
Speaker 1: thought that was a great idea.
Speaker 3: Bruce, Well, you know, that's the least she could do
Speaker 3: because now you know, not only do people have to
Speaker 3: get up two hours earlier to drive into the city,
Speaker 3: but they have to pay that nine dollars to drive downtown.
Speaker 3: And she has the ability to waive that, and she
Speaker 3: should because it's you know, you talk about this state
Speaker 3: being affordable, this is the most unaffordable state in the
Speaker 3: United States, and Kathy Hoak has made it that way
Speaker 3: with taxes, congestion pricing, all these add on fees, degree
Speaker 3: and energy scam. So the least she could do is
Speaker 3: waive it during the strike. But she won't do that,
Speaker 3: and she won't do it because she doesn't want to
Speaker 3: do it. She doesn't want to help out common middle
Speaker 3: class New Yorkers who have to get to work.
Speaker 1: So is there going to be a meeting today, Bruce,
Speaker 1: with maybe you and edwal Maine out of Selfon County,
Speaker 1: somebody to figure out some contingency plans to try to
Speaker 1: help your constituents trying to get to work in New
Speaker 1: York City today.
Speaker 3: Well, we're doing the best we can. So we're adding
Speaker 3: on additional buses for our roots. We're opening up our
Speaker 3: parking lots at all of our parks or car pooling.
Speaker 3: But there's not much we can do because again, the
Speaker 3: railroad is something that over three hundred thousand commuters depend
Speaker 3: on daily and we need that railroad open. Kathy Hokle
Speaker 3: should have been bargaining all weekend. I don't know what
Speaker 3: she was doing all weekend, but she should have been
Speaker 3: at the bargaining table negotiating with the union, and she
Speaker 3: should have tried to strike a deal last one.
Speaker 1: Bruce, again, I mentioned at the top of this conversation,
Speaker 1: I saw you yesterday at the UBS arena, you and
Speaker 1: Mazzi Pillop and it's always a gracious and beautiful and
Speaker 1: people love you. They're going nuts in the arena, and
Speaker 1: you did a nice press conference and ers and signing autographs.
Speaker 1: Really is a great event. I didn't go last year.
Speaker 1: Yesterday it was the first time I've been to this
Speaker 1: second anual Tel Aviv Jerusalem game, and it was right
Speaker 1: there in your County Ubs arena. That was a good
Speaker 1: time yesterday.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was a great time. People were having a
Speaker 3: lot of fun. It was a good athletic competition, and
Speaker 3: there was a spirit of good feelings towards the state
Speaker 3: of Israel, America's number one ally now. So yeah, it
Speaker 3: was a great feeling for everybody. It was a good
Speaker 3: athletic competition too.
Speaker 2: Really was a pretty good game. One more on Israel.
Speaker 1: So, in all likelihood, our mutual friend who you are
Speaker 1: with for like ninety minutes less than two weeks ago
Speaker 1: in the Oval Office, the Great President Donald J. Trump,
Speaker 1: it looks like we're getting ready to restart this thing.
Speaker 1: Iran is not responding. I know you're not surprised either,
Speaker 1: am either as Trump. So most people predict Wednesday or
Speaker 1: Thursday we're going back in and what that means is
Speaker 1: it could be a long couple of weeks again for
Speaker 1: the people in Israel.
Speaker 2: Any thoughts on that.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you know, the president, he doesn't want to
Speaker 3: put our soldiers in harm's way. He wants to do
Speaker 3: everything possible to try and not have the soldiers go
Speaker 3: in and fight again. But he's left with no choice.
Speaker 3: We can't let Iran get a nuclear weapon. That would
Speaker 3: be a danger to everybody in the world, but especially
Speaker 3: here in New York. We saw what they did on
Speaker 3: nine to eleven. They're perfectly willing to say, sacrifice their
Speaker 3: own lives to kill three thousand New Yorkers. They would
Speaker 3: do it for three million New Yorkers and think nothing
Speaker 3: about it. The leaders ev Rad could kill three million
Speaker 3: Americans and go to bed and not miss a wink
Speaker 3: of sleep. They have no conscience. They're evil and they
Speaker 3: would do that. And they cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 3: So I support President Trump.
Speaker 1: And if you kill Kathy, on me too. And when
Speaker 1: you kill Kathy Hulkel, you've done a great job with
Speaker 1: this too.
Speaker 2: Bruce.
Speaker 1: You know you do what I do. You go to
Speaker 1: Hokeel and Mam Donnie. I think Mam Donnie needs a
Speaker 1: little bit of a history lesson he he's really a
Speaker 1: coward and a creep. Hectly purposely put out a video
Speaker 1: this weekend about knack ba Day, which nobody in New
Speaker 1: York knows what the hell this guy's talking about. But
Speaker 1: he purposely did it on Shabbat, on the Sabbath to
Speaker 1: really stick it to the Jews. And clearly, Mam Donnie
Speaker 1: needs a history lesson as to what really happened in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight, won five Arab nations, five of them
Speaker 1: attacked Israel, and Israel defended themselves and do what the
Speaker 1: always do, They kicked their asses. That's what happened in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty eight. So I'm not sure what knock bad
Speaker 1: Day is, but I thought it was pretty grotesque of
Speaker 1: this mayor to come out looking for Palestinian sympathy and
Speaker 1: really rewrite history and do it on Shabbat this weekend.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts on Mamdani.
Speaker 3: Well, he's disgraceful. He's an anti Semite. And I got
Speaker 3: to tell you, whether you're Jewish, whether you're Christian, it
Speaker 3: doesn't matter. When I travel around New York City, there's
Speaker 3: buyer's remorse. People are young, people are coming up to
Speaker 3: me and telling me this guy hasn't done a thing
Speaker 3: that he said he would do. It's more affordable now
Speaker 3: to live in New York. He offered free bus rides,
Speaker 3: he increased the fare the day after the election. So
Speaker 3: this guy is not the real deal. He's a bad guy.
Speaker 3: He's inexperienced, and he's an anti Semite, and he's got
Speaker 3: un American values.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap this up when we started this. This is
Speaker 1: the Nasaul County executive. He will be folks, There's no
Speaker 1: question he will be the next Covenant of New York.
Speaker 1: Why he's the much better person, He's a much better candidate.
Speaker 1: He actually loves his city in the state, unlike again
Speaker 1: the wicked witch Kathy Hulkl Bruce, give it to me, baby,
Speaker 1: Give me your message. Holcl's listening, trust me. Give me
Speaker 1: your message to the governor on this strike right now.
Speaker 3: Sit down, first thing this morning, make a deal. You've
Speaker 3: been giving money to illegal migrants. You can't make the
Speaker 3: argument to union leaders that you don't have the money
Speaker 3: after you did that. Spend the money on New Yorkers
Speaker 3: and this strike.
Speaker 2: Bruce, you're beautiful. I love you.
Speaker 1: It's great seeing you yesterday. You sound great this morning,
Speaker 1: and you're our savior. You're going to ride in like
Speaker 1: your beautiful white hair on that beautiful white horse and
Speaker 1: save our state here in New York.
Speaker 2: Bruce Blakeman, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: You're the best. Said thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Look who's talking there. He is a Nasau County executive
Speaker 1: and soon to beat, thank god, the governor here in
Speaker 1: New York. My dear friend Bruce Blakeman will take a break.
Speaker 1: Three more hours to come the Monday edition of Hidden
Speaker 1: Friends in the morning.