There are many qualities that make a great leader. But having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.
I’m not sure if President Obama is an ideologue or a pragmatist. I am hoping and praying he’s a pragmatist.
While I was the mayor abortions in New York went down and adoptions went way up, because we worked on adoptions as an alternative, so that there’d be a real choice.
I was a Yankee fan in Brooklyn because my father was a Yankee fan. And my father was required to live in Brooklyn with my mothers family, who were all Dodger fans. So he was surrounded by Dodger fans. He was a Yankee fan. So his revenge was to make me a Yankee fan.
We can’t accommodate terrorism. When someone uses the slaughter of innocent people to advance a so-called political cause, at that point the political cause becomes immoral and unjust and they should be eliminated from any serious discussion, any serious debate.
I think that sometimes the most intelligent things that prosecutors do is when they exercise their discretion not to go forward with a case.
I’m looking for a president that’ll be like a Ronald Reagan to a Jimmy Carter.
I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can’t stop us.
You can be a patriotic American and be a critic, but then you’re not expressing that kind of love that we’re used to from a president.
Life needs penalties and rewards for people. You can’t control people with only penalties. You have to think how to create rewards.
Rick Perry I have a great fondness for. And what Rick Perry has, like Jeb Bush has, it will be interesting to compare their two records as governor, very close, great economic development, low taxes, all the things we want domestically out of a president.
Although I have to leave you as mayor soon, I resume the much more honorable title of citizen of New York, and citizen of the United States.
In 2012 President Obama didn’t go anywhere near African-American communities. Why? Because unemployment was so high there, he didn’t want to address it.
You have to be willing – you have strong ideas, you have strong views, but you have to be willing also to look at experience.
The reality is you’ve got to be yourself. You’ve got to be who you are. You’ve got to be honest with people. If your views change on something, you’ve got to be willing to express it.
If we were building our navy, rather than reducing our navy to pre-World War I levels, China would not be thinking about increasing its navy to take over the South China Sea.
I lived through crises. September 11 is obviously the biggest one that I’ve lived through.
And if you have a law that isn’t working, and you have thousands and thousands and millions of people, then the terrorists hide among them. And we have to have a law that makes sense.
It’s part of the Constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then the restrictions of it have to be reasonable and sensible. You can’t just remove that right. You’ve got to regulate, consistent with the Second Amendment.
I understand the Second Amendment. I support it. People have the right to bear arms.
There can be people who feel one way about gay rights, another way about gay rights. There can be people who have different views on abortion. But we respect each other. I think we learn from each other. And we understand that ultimately we have the same values.