NYC mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa seemingly rage-quits WABC and shuts down idea of working for Cuomo
NEW YORK — Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, in a fiery radio show appearance on WABC Wednesday morning, disavowed the station, saying he would never return, and shut down any idea of joining Andrew Cuomo’s potential mayoral administration.
“Remember that scene in ‘Braveheart? Mel Gibson at the end, when the executioner was impaling him?” Sliwa, who typically has a show on the station, asked host Sid Rosenberg.
“If all of a sudden, the executioner would’ve stopped, and I was on that gurney, and said, ‘Hey, you can work for Mayor Andrew Cuomo,’ I would say, ‘Finish the job. Impale me.’”
Despite polling at the back of the three-man pack, Sliwa has captured the focus of those trying to stop Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani from winning the Nov. 4 election. Mamdani, polls consistently show, is operating with a double-digit lead over Cuomo.
Sliwa has been facing calls from moderate and conservative New Yorkers to drop out of the race in order to give Cuomo, who’s running as an independent, the best shot at City Hall. Recently, longtime allies like Rosenberg and John Catsimatidis have joined the chorus.
On Tuesday, Cuomo said he would be open to offering Sliwa a job in his possible administration as an incentive for dropping out of the race.
Sliwa said he felt “personally offended” by some of those calls coming from his own people at WABC, Catsimatidis’ radio station.
“You will never see me ever in the studios of WABC again, never, no matter how this election turns out,” he said on WABC’s conservative show “Sid & Friends.” “I cannot go out there every day and have to try to defend WABC, which is now ganging up on me in every conceivable way.”
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Catsimatidis said he had no conversation about Sliwa, who’s been on leave from his regular show to run for mayor, about quitting.
He noted Sliwa has a 30-year handshake contract with the station, and he said Sliwa has threatened to leave before but not followed through: “People say a lot of things when they’re upset,” he said.
“I can guarantee you 100% we never threatened Curtis with his job, we would never do that,” Catsimatidis said, adding that some people told him to threaten to fire Sliwa because of his refusal to get out of the race.
In his appearance, Sliwa also slammed the ex-governor for his light public campaign schedule.
“Cuomo is on WABC all the time now, while I’m out on the campaign trail, pinching babies, shaking hands,” Sliwa said. “He’s become the radio guy; now I’m the politician.”
Cuomo has made his plea to conservative listeners of WABC twice in the past week.
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(With Chris Sommerfeldt.)
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