Where Did New York City’s Common Sense Go?

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, with us is Tony Carbonetti, Chief of Staff to one of the greatest mayors New York City has ever had. Rudy Giuliani did a great job for eight years. Well, Tony, you guys honored Tom Ridge, Homeland Security, honored Rudy Giuliani last week. Tell us about it.

0:22 Speaker 2 Yep, Rudy came back to the city. He’s no longer a city resident. He’s now a resident of Florida, like most people that have fled New York City. He came back and he did a speech the other night at Cipriani.

0:34 It was wonderful. I love listening to Rudy speak because he gets up there and you get the full Rudy, as they say. He starts on New York City and we end up in the Middle East. But it’s wonderful to see him. He was very well received. And like I said, I think he’s the reason New York City

0:53 is still standing. It was Giuliani, then Bloomberg, and all downhill after that, John. Understood.

0:58 Speaker 1 Understood. And there’s so many things going on. Give us your pulse. You know, there’s nobody who knows New York City better than you. You were Rudy’s chief of staff for eight years, and you’ve been living in New York forever.

1:14 Speaker 2 I was with him for eight, and I wasn’t chief of staff the whole eight. But I’m a New Yorker. I’m 57 years in New York City, John, a little less than you. We understand the vibe of New York City.

1:25 Speaker 1 Give us the pulse.

1:26 Speaker 2 I’m worried that we’ve lost our swagger. I’m worried that New York City, you don’t feel the enthusiasm anymore. It’s become too much of an us versus them. New York City’s always been the one place where we were all in this together. And I get worried that, I think the whole country’s kind of become the us versus them,

1:50 the black and white. I don’t mean black and white people, I mean just black and white opinions. If you don’t agree with someone 100%, You know, that’s it. You’re my enemy. And I disagree with that whole philosophy.

2:03 Speaker 1 Well, I agree with you. So we’ve got elections in nine days. What’s going to happen?

2:11 Speaker 2 As a Republican, I’m very worried. I don’t see any scenario by which we can keep the House. I hope we keep the Senate. I am very worried. I think Al-Sayed wins. And I’ll tell you why I think he wins.

2:28 They have to stop the same attack, this Muslim Brotherhood, this he must be some kind of terrorist. The people that are going to vote against him for that, you already have. Make a case as to why he’s not going to be a good senator. Make a case as to he’s not qualified because he’s never done X, Y,

2:53 or Z. or these are the issues he’s going to vote against, start talking about other issues. Stop trying to scare people into voting against him because the people that are going to vote against him because his name sounds funny or they think he’s a terrorist, they’re already voting against him. You know what I’m saying?

3:10 Speaker 1 Yes.

3:10 Speaker 2 You’ve got to stop that.

3:12 Speaker 1 Well, anything else you want to tell the American people and New Yorkers?

3:17 Speaker 2 I’m worried about Texas. I’m worried about Texas. I think we should have kept Cornyn. I think it would have been a layup if we’d kept Cornyn. I’m hearing things now that scare me. I don’t think Kansas is real.

3:29 I think we’re going to win Kansas. Susan Collins always comes back. She always does. They’ve counted her out like six times. She always comes back. She’s a common sense lady. Yeah, and that’s what we need to be. What I’m afraid of is when we do lose the House, the progressives will get too much say in Congress.

3:50 Speaker 1 Could you imagine if they become members of the Intelligence Committee?

3:54 Speaker 2 No, the Unintelligence Committee. I mean, can you really tell those people? Could they clear background checks?

4:00 Speaker 1 I don’t think so. Tony Carbonetti, we’re out of time, but thank you for coming on this Sunday morning, and we’ll talk again during the week. Thank you, John.