Giuliani pulled no punches on the radio

Cuomo, not Pataki
Mr. Giuliani picked enemies with a joyful lack of discrimination. That a strong-willed Republican in a vastly Democratic city quarreled with what he called the “civil liberties crowd” and social service advocates “who thrive on the perverse philosophy of dependency” comes as no surprise. But in 1994, he shocked his party by endorsing Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, a liberal Democrat. Then he eviscerated the Republican challenger, George E. Pataki.

“He has one idea in this campaign and it’s borrowed from someone else,” Mr. Giuliani said of Mr. Pataki during an October 1994 show.

The mayor kept up the mauling after Mr. Pataki became governor-elect.

When a caller told him to grow up, Mr. Giuliani interrupted.

“I’m not acting like a school kid — I really resent that,” he said. “I’m not going to let anyone humiliate me.”

The mayor and governor eventually declared a truce.

The tone of the WABC program changed over the course of Mr. Giuliani’s years in office. In 1994, Mr. Giuliani inherited a city plagued by 2,000 homicides annually; to some, swaths of the city were nearly impassable at night. Caller after caller complained of drug dealers and thuggish intimidators, and Mr. Giuliani hacked at encrusted bureaucracies and preached “change, change, change, reform, reform, reform.”

When Police Officer Sean McDonald was killed trying to arrest robbers, the mayor was eloquent.

“New York City was shattered again this week by a brutal attack on all of us,” he said, opening his March 18, 1994, program. “It’s an attack on everything that’s good and decent in New York City.”

As the city improved, Mr. Giuliani became looser, more assured — and quicker to scold and mock. Gravel-voiced Joe from Dutchess County asked in 1999 why the mayor did not attack President Clinton at a fund-raising dinner. When the program returned after a commercial break it sounded as if Joe still was on the line. It was the mayor, imitating Joe’s dese-dem-dere voice.

“This is, uh, Joe from, ahhh, Dutchess County. I unnerstan’ youse went too easy the other night because people applauded or they didn’t applaud for ya or sumthin’—I don’t remember.” Mr. Giuliani giggled. Then he speculated that maybe Joe was a long-term resident of a state prison.

“I think you should go back to making license plates, Joe.” The mayor cracked up again, before adding: “Oh well, we’re only kidding around. You’ve got to have a sense of humor, Joe.”

He denounced some racially insensitive whites — in 1999, he hooted Hal from North Bergen off the line: “You have to be the most prejudiced person I’ve ever talked to. What a jerk you are, Hal.”

But he rarely modulated his tone with black callers, even as racial tensions mounted during his second term. He had hired few senior black officials and he distrusted most of the city’s elected black leaders. Then in February 1999, plainclothes police officers fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black peddler, killing him.

Tony from the Bronx
In April, Mr. Giuliani punched a button at WABC and greeted Tony from the Bronx. Tony, who was black, minced no words. Your problem, he told the mayor, is that you won’t talk to black elected officials, your police are out of control and innocent men are getting shot to death.

Tony paused and the mayor began talking. Mr. Giuliani saw himself as the one who was misunderstood and aggrieved.

“Well, you’re not telling the truth, Tony — so I’ve got to tell you the truth,” he began. “You are buying into a demonized rhetoric, which is ignorant. See, what you do is, you either don’t read the papers carefully enough or you are so prejudiced and biased that you block out the truth.”

He attended the Diallo funeral, the mayor said, and “in a heartfelt manner expressed my remorse.” But, he added, “I was virtually spit at and called all sorts of names. I had a hard time feeling like a religious service was going on.”

The mayor returned to Tony: “It’s really unfortunate that you don’t have the ability to understand this.”

Tony did not respond; he had hung up several minutes back.

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