Curtis Sliwa said Dave Portnoy would “not” win a hypothetical mayoral matchup against Zohran Mamdani, blasting Portnoy’s pizza-fueled fame and arguing voters have moved on from the kind of national cultural fights Portnoy suggested would drive his candidacy.
Curtis Sliwa didn’t just disagree with Dave Portnoy’s idea of running for New York mayor—he laughed at the premise.
On Monday night. Portnoy appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime and. during a discussion about Democratic Socialist wins in New York primaries. accused the Democratic Party of “let the fox into the henhouse” by pointing to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Portnoy added, “And now he’s just running rampant and kicking them all out!”.
After that. Portnoy said he would “love” to run against Mamdani for mayor of New York. holding up his pizza reviews as proof that he’s “done a lot of good” in the city. The next morning. Sliwa—who is the Guardian Angels founder and who “actually ran against Mamdani last November”— made it clear he didn’t think Portnoy’s hypothetical run would go anywhere.
On his radio show, Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning, Sliwa told Portnoy to “come into the ring of fire.” Then he cut straight to the vote count: “Yeah, eat your pizza, you’re not gonna get one freaking vote!”
Sliwa dismissed Portnoy’s path to politics as thin, saying Portnoy’s “claim to fame is you sampled pizza in New York City.” To Sliwa, that’s not a serious credential; it’s something “everybody has done.” He also described Portnoy in blunt terms, calling him a “real schmuck and putz.”
The criticism sharpened when Sliwa addressed what Portnoy implied about his motivation to run. Sliwa said Portnoy would only run because he wants to “fly the Israeli flag like the rest of these folks.” In Sliwa’s view. those issues can’t decide a mayoral election. “They don’t realize those issues, you can’t win,” he said. He added that national flashpoints—“do you support Israel?. Do you support the Palestinians?”—aren’t what the mayoral job is about. arguing that “it’s nothing to do with being mayor.”.
Portnoy’s comments gave Sliwa another target: he said Portnoy’s pitch about being able to “make a change” and his critique of “clown politicians who have never had a job” wouldn’t play with voters anymore. “And by the way, that’s not what people want anymore,” Sliwa said. “All the national issues now, the congressional issues…” are no longer what decides this kind of race, he argued.
By the end of the segment, Sliwa’s message was the same as it began—direct, confrontational, and dismissive. “So Dave Portnoy, come in, knock yourself out,” he said, laying down a challenge while insisting the outcome would be the same.
Portnoy’s hypothetical mayoral ambitions may not be a campaign plan on the ground, but in Sliwa’s telling, the political story is already decided: pizza fame won’t survive contact with New York voters—at least not in a race against Mamdani.
Curtis Sliwa Dave Portnoy Zohran Mamdani New York mayor Guardian Angels Jesse Watters Primetime Democratic Socialists New York primaries Israel flag presidential issues Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning
I mean pizza reviews don’t exactly equal mayor, lol.
Portnoy said he’d run?? That feels like clickbait honestly. Also Sliwa talking about “Israeli flag” stuff sounds like he’s making it way more complicated than it needs to be.
Wasn’t Mamdani already kind of like… the one who keeps talking about democratic socialism? So why would Portnoy’s whole “fox in henhouse” thing even matter if the election’s already done? I’m lost. And Sliwa saying eat your pizza he won’t get a vote like bro that’s not how politics works.
This is why I hate New York politics, it’s always some weird fame person. Pizza guy, street vigilante guy, whoever. Like sure, pizza tasting is cute but I don’t think that’s the real reason anyone would vote for or against him. Also “come into the ring of fire” like are we in wrestling now? The whole thing just feels like they’re fighting on TV instead of governing.