The Karol Markowicz Show: Inside NYC Politics: Inna Vernikov on Crime, Anti-Semitism, and the Fight for New York’s Future
4/10/202629 mincomplete
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1:56Hi, and welcome back to the Merrill -Marco Show on iHeartRadio.
1:59My guest today is New York City Councilwoman Ina Vernikoff.
2:03Hi, Ina. So nice to have you on.
2:05Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
2:07So I feel a lot of affinity with you, obviously, because of our shared ex
2:12-Soviet background. And I'm from South Brooklyn, where you are a councilwoman.
2:17I wish you had been the councilwoman when I lived there.
2:20But, you know, we'll take what we can get.
2:22Did you always want to be in politics?
2:25No, actually not at all.
2:27I always grew up having this dream of being an attorney, which I am.
2:33Um, and, you know, I know that you understand this so well because as an
2:39immigrant from the Soviet Union to come to the United States, not speaking a word
2:44of English, uh, you know, not knowing what's going on in this country because we
2:50were so new here and being a child, um, and then being able to go
2:55to law school, go to college, then go to law school, obtain a law degree,
2:59pass the bar exam, um, become an attorney and open your own law practice.
3:05Like my mom would say on Broadway is such a big deal for someone who
3:10comes from a small town in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union.
3:13I know you understand that so well.
3:15It's the American dream. And I'd always dreamed to be a lawyer just because, um,
3:21I always grew up with this like innate sense of justice.
3:24I always wanted to see justice.
3:26And whenever I saw injustice, I always wanted to correct it.
3:29So, um, I, I did get my dream of being a lawyer, but never wanted
3:35to be in politics, was never interested in politics at all.
3:38Um, in fact, when my dad used to try to feed me politics and turn
3:42on, oh, hey, watch Fox News, watch, you know, all the channels, never had any
3:47interest in it. Um, until obviously I really grew up and started understanding what's going
3:53on in this country. And, uh, it was during the Benghazi attack that I became
3:58very interested and was dumbfounded by what was happening in American politics, um, and wanted
4:04to get involved and then still never wanted to run.
4:08And then eventually when I saw the tremendous rise in antisemitism in New York City,
4:15particularly, also in the country, but especially in New York City and the Black Lives
4:19Matter movement, um, and the way that our cops were treated, I decided I had
4:25to take action and eventually decided I had to run for office and leave my
4:29law practice. Were your parents supportive?
4:33Like I know my parents, they saw, you know, there were three careers you could
4:36do. You could be a doctor, you could be a lawyer.
4:38And at the time I was growing up, it was the third one was computer
4:41programmist, you know, like. Oh yeah.
4:44Very popular. That's it. That's it.
4:46Those were the three options.
4:48Pharmacist. Pharmacist. Oh, pharmacist. Yeah.
4:50That's a good one. I feel like you had to be a pharmacist.
4:52But yes, yes, that's absolutely right.
4:54And so choosing to be something else is taking a leap.
4:58And I know, you know, if when you are here from another country, you came
5:02from the Soviet Union, leaps are not that popular.
5:05Were your parents supportive? My parents were very supportive of me being an attorney.
5:09Um, but half my family has very different political views than I do.
5:14Really? No, it's, yeah, most people don't know that.
5:17Um, and being one of five Republicans in New York City, it's kind of interesting
5:22that half my family is actually liberal, progressive.
5:24So if. which is also very unusual for our social media family yeah community is
5:30so conservative yes i would say like 95 of our community is so conservative republican
5:36my family happens to be a little different but you know we try to make
5:40it work and it's it's not easy it's not easy it's not yes yeah but
5:47do they worry about you like another thing is my mom during the obama administration
5:52she would be like can you not constantly write about how much the president is
5:56doing a bad job like she worried about me getting into you know trouble being
6:00on the wrong side of the president or something do your is your family concerned
6:05about you out there like putting your opinions out there well i think like my
6:09very close family they've kind of gotten out of that soviet mentality because i think
6:15that's like the soviet mentality don't sure no same thing against the government you're going
6:21to get punished that's what they're used to that's where they came from right um
6:24so i i think they don't really have that but you know they're always concerned
6:28for my safety because i do get threats um i do get a lot of
6:32threats especially um after october 7th and since i've been so outspoken and all these
6:38controversial issues um shouldn't really should not be controversial like anti -semitism um but i
6:45did get a lot of threats even during the ukraine war when i you know
6:49stood up for ukraine um i got a lot of disgusting letters and threats and
6:55you know we we have a very close contact with the counterintelligence unit with the
7:00police department so they're very very good and you know we can't we can't live
7:05our lives being scared yeah absolutely you know i think sometimes that i don't have
7:10a lot of hope for new york city in the short term but when i
7:15think that i then think of south brooklyn which i think is such a functioning
7:18like sane place you know nobody in south brooklyn is thinking that biological boys should
7:25play in girls sports i mean just little things like that um and so i'm
7:29hopeful about your part of brooklyn do you are you optimistic about you know your
7:33area and then are you optimistic about new york in general i actually am optimistic
7:39about new york um i think that first of all you know so many people
7:44here are concerned about mamdani which is why i'm not sure if you if you
7:48followed but during the mayoral election um i actually crossed party lines to support andrew
7:53cuomo um just to make sure that we don't get mamdani and uh it was
7:59it was actually see i i didn't know that at the time that i was
8:03doing it because i always look to do what's right um but it seemed it
8:07came out to be a very popular move in in this part of town where
8:11a lot of these uh republicans who vote for trump went for andrew cuomo uh
8:16because they understood that that was the only way to beat mamdani that we actually
8:20couldn't vote for the republican candidate but i think that a lot of the fears
8:25about mamdani are actually going to turn out to be frivolous because i think that
8:32with all of his rhetoric and with all of his actions uh there are that
8:37that do reasonably cause a lot of fear in our communities i do think that
8:42he's not going to be able to accomplish the majority of the things that he
8:47promised when he was campaigning and we kind of see that um you know as
8:51he became the mayor and as things are progressing we see that everything he wants
8:56to push i always say like the adults in the room are not right and
9:01i don't think he's going to be able to do a lot of the stuff
9:03some of it is because he's just it's just impractical and impossible and some of
9:09it is because they're going to be moderate democrats and others who are going to
9:14push back and say no sorry we can't make free buses we can't raise property
9:18to 9 .5 and so i think that's going to be that's going to be
9:22his legacy and i think he's imploding now and i actually don't think that he's
9:27going to be mayor again um just because he can't accomplish things that he promised
9:33the left and uh more things are coming out as we go and i think
9:39that that you know the pendulum will swing as it always does and i just
9:43think that we do have we should have hope and there is uh and the
9:50tunnel i i love your optimism i hope that's right i i root for new
9:55york listen i live in florida but i you know i still have family and
9:57friends in new york i want things to work out and i especially root for
10:01south brooklyn because i think that the south brooklyn tries to vote itself to sanity
10:06they do you know they're the ones voting red they're the ones voting for the
10:10republicans they want a better world for themselves and for their kids and they're met
10:15with this like far left you know insanity in new york so i i hope
10:19you're right and i hope that things get better from here thank you do you
10:25think it would take uh do you think that new york um does go back
10:31to like a giuliani or something could you be that giuliani i don't i don't
10:35see new york going back to a giuliani anytime soon but i do see new
10:40york going back to a moderate democrat uh maybe like a bloomberg um you know
10:46have you know there's rumors that maybe jessica tish will work for mayor you know
10:51maybe speaker menin you you I mean, there are others.
10:54Look, Cuomo got close to a million votes.
10:58And we're talking about Cuomo.
11:00He's not even that great.
11:01Not only that, I mean, with all his baggage, right, not a well -run campaign
11:08at all. You know, towards the end, I got a little bit involved and got
11:13to seal a little bit of the campaign, not a well -run campaign.
11:16And then also, he didn't run on the Democrat line, which is the only line
11:22that ever wins, really. It's almost impossible.
11:25He lost the primary. Yeah, he lost the primary.
11:27It's almost impossible to win on an independent line.
11:29And he ran on an independent line, and his position on the ballot was really
11:34not a good position. If you saw the ballot, it was somewhere to the bottom
11:39right, which actually really matters because voters just, you know, they go in a few
11:45minutes to vote. And if they don't see you on the ballot, they just vote
11:49for someone else or just leave.
11:50So with all that said, he still got close to a million votes, which says
11:56a lot about, you know, the voters in New York City and where we could
12:00go had we had a really good moderate Democrat candidate who wasn't a Democratic line.
12:06I mean. Yeah, or a Republican who was like maybe a little bit more serious.
12:11I like Curtis Leo, but that was never going to happen.
12:14Well, that's the other thing.
12:15If he wasn't, if Curtis Leo wasn't in the race, I do believe that one
12:20would have been mayor today.
12:21What would you have done as like a plan B had this not worked out?
12:25Had you had you not become a New York City councilwoman?
12:28Would you have just stayed a lawyer?
12:29Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I, you know.
12:32What kind of law? Yeah, no, a lot of people, I feel like go into
12:38politics when they kind of don't know, they don't really have another plan or another
12:44option. And this is kind of like what they want to do or kind of
12:49like their life. For me, my law practice was my life.
12:53It was, like I said, my dream and I had to leave it.
12:58And it was a very sad for me to have to leave a law practice
13:01that I built with my own hands.
13:03You know, I worked, I stayed up till two o 'clock in the morning, the
13:05first year and a half of my practice, you know, just to make it work,
13:10bring in clients, you know.
13:13So it was tough. And yeah, I absolutely would have stayed an attorney, a practicing
13:19attorney. Yes, we're going to take a quick break and be right back on the
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15:57I think people don't get what a sacrifice it is to go into public service.
16:02In so many ways, you know, you leave the private life behind, and you leave
16:07a business that you've built and a life that you had to make changes that
16:12you want to see. I think a lot of people see, you know, politics or
16:15political jobs and elected officials as like, oh, they, they.
16:20You have this like glamorous and stepped up life, but actually it's a lot harder
16:24for a lot of people.
16:26Yeah. And I actually think that's why people like Trump and Mamdani were able to
16:32get elected because like, you know, someone like Trump, he has all the money supposedly
16:38in the world and the life that he wants.
16:40But he gives that up to make a difference and to make a change.
16:45They're kind of like the populist candidates that people appreciate.
16:50You know, they go against the establishment, they go against what we're used to and
16:55they try to fight for the people.
16:57I mean, you know, with Mamdani, I think that's what voters saw in him.
17:02I don't think that's that's true.
17:04But they're still both populist candidates.
17:07And yeah, it is. It is.
17:08It is not an easy life necessarily.
17:12And you get so much pushback and you get threats, threats to your safety and,
17:17you know, your life. Sometimes you get involved in issues where there's protesters right outside
17:24your office. Your staff is scared.
17:26You know, you have to sit home or whatever it is.
17:29You do give up a lot.
17:31You know, I gave up something I love doing to do this, to make a
17:35difference. What would you say are you most proud of in your life?
17:39Well, I think now that my life is a lot about what I'm doing, which
17:44a lot of it is politics and representing constituents.
17:47I think I'm very proud of the fact that I have this immense opportunity and
17:52privilege to speak up for so many Russian speaking Jews who came from the Soviet
17:58Union. And, you know, I get so many, they reach out so many times so
18:04much. I hear I hear from them a lot about how proud they are to
18:08have someone who is, you know, comes from where they come from and understands them
18:14and is able to speak up for them because they just feel so unheard, especially
18:19at a time like this.
18:20When we have a socialist communist, in my opinion, and when there's so much anti
18:26-Semitism, the two things that Soviet Jewry escaped.
18:31Those are literally the two things they escaped.
18:33And you know that better than anyone, right?
18:34Anti -Semitism and socialism, communism.
18:37And that's where we're living today.
18:39And, you know, anti -Semitism and socialism.
18:42And so to have this opportunity to represent them and speak up for them and
18:47speak up against all of that is, I'm very proud of that.
18:50It's huge. Yeah. And, you know, look, you know, it's funny, you know, we talk
18:54about how the ex -Soviet Jewish community really supports you, but they don't just support
18:59you because you are like them, an ex -Soviet Jew.
19:02It's because you are also ideologically on their side.
19:06I think we had so many elected officials who were ex -Soviet Jews and who
19:10were quite leftist. And it was like perplexing.
19:13Like, how did these people, I'm not going to name names, but I have a
19:16few that are really, I have on my very, very negative list because I felt
19:20like they did not represent our community and they did not represent the values at
19:24all. They were on their own like tangent going to the left.
19:28So I think that that's what makes you so special to the community in that,
19:33yeah, of course, we're of the same culture.
19:35We're from the same place, but you also have the same ideals and that that's
19:39big. Yeah. And I think that's a big problem that we have today, kind of
19:44a little bit on both sides of the aisle, but obviously a lot more with
19:47Democrats, which is that they're afraid to go against the grain.
19:52They're afraid to speak up for issues that really matter because they want to fit
19:56in with a Democrat establishment.
19:58You know, for example, in the city council, a lot of the Democrats, we have
20:02a lot of moderate Democrats in the city council, actually.
20:05People don't know this, but we do have a lot of moderate Democrats.
20:09However, a lot of them are afraid to actually publicly align with us, which they
20:16do privately, but they're publicly afraid because they're afraid of pushback from a speaker, especially
20:23from the previous speaker, because they get threatened with, we'll take away your funding for
20:28your district or we'll lose your committees.
20:31If you don't vote or support this bill, we'll do all of that.
20:34Right. There's consequences. And they they don't want to go against the grain.
20:39They don't want to lose funding.
20:40They don't want to lose their status in the Democratic establishment.
20:42They don't want to lose, you know, committees.
20:46They don't want to lose their power.
20:47So they just go along and they don't go against the left.
20:52They actually support the left publicly, even though privately I can tell you for a
20:56fact. So we privately, a lot of them, they come to us and they say,
21:01I totally agree with you.
21:02I totally agree with you on these issues.
21:04Right. Especially about like policing and like PD and feminism stuff.
21:08But they won't they won't do it.
21:10They won't do it publicly.
21:12And so that's actually more of a problem.
21:16I have more of a problem with those moderate Democrats than I do with the
21:21left. I know what you mean.
21:22At least the left there.
21:23They have some ideology. They have some beliefs.
21:27These people are just opportunists.
21:28It's unfortunate. You know, but I I during the pandemic where I was writing about
21:32opening schools all the time, I had CNN, you know, newscasters in my DMs being
21:39like, I agree with you.
21:40I just obviously can't say anything.
21:42Well, I'm like, you are the weakest person ever.
21:44Coward. Agree with me, but you can't say anything.
21:46Yeah, you coward. Right. Right.
21:49Give us a five -year -out prediction, and it could be about anything at all.
21:54Yeah, sure. Well, I think I kind of mentioned it before.
21:57I do think things are going to change a lot.
22:01You know how sometimes people say, you know, things have to kind of burn down
22:05for them to be better, and I think it's just rock bottom, and I think
22:11we're going to hit it here in New York City.
22:13I mean, how much lower can we go, right, with all the chaos and the
22:19anti -police and the crime and the affordability crisis and all of that, and I
22:24think people are struggling. You know, affordability is the number one issue in New York
22:29State right now. It's actually not crime.
22:31I think crime is second, but people are really struggling, and I think they're going
22:37to realize that all the promises to make everything free are just not real.
22:41That was like a pipe dream.
22:43And I think that, you know, back to the mayor, I have to just mention
22:48it. I think that he's basically a TikTok influencer who ran on the promise of
22:53affordability because affordability was so attractive to New Yorkers, and obviously he got all these
23:00votes because he promised all these free things.
23:02But I actually think his main focus, based on everything we're seeing, really is to
23:06free Palestine. I think, you know, every chance he gets, I mean, we saw yesterday,
23:12it was St. Patrick's Day, and he used his platform to basically talk about, you
23:21know, Gaza and Palestine. He basically hijacked St.
23:24Patrick's Day after snubbing 2 .5 million Catholics in New York when he didn't show
23:29up for the installation of the new archbishop.
23:33And I think everyone, I think a lot of these ethnic communities are realizing that
23:39he's really there to, for a platform for Palestine and Gaza, which is really, look,
23:46I don't care. He could have his, he could talk about free Palestine.
23:50Yeah. Even though, even though.
23:51He's the mayor of New York City, like, and his whole argument was like, oh,
23:55the mayor of New York City should be about New York, shouldn't be about Israel.
23:57But he's literally over there, like his mind is over there.
24:01Absolutely. He's hyper -focused on Israel and Palestine.
24:06And, you know, what he's missing is that to free Palestine, he needs to free
24:10Gaza from Hamas. But that's a whole separate conversation.
24:13Point is, he should be focused on, you know, snow, cleaning out the snow, which
24:18was a complete failure. This, these two blizzards that we had, I'm sure you've seen
24:22and heard about it, you know, cleaning the streets, the Department of Transportation, our schools,
24:28which are miserably failing our students.
24:30He's completely not focusing on that.
24:32He's deflecting all its problems that are very real and talking about Palestine.
24:39And I think he's going to implode and I think that the pendulum will swing
24:43and we will see a different New York in five years from now.
24:48So I said no surprises on this podcast, but I have one question I want
24:51to throw in here that I didn't talk about.
24:54What's your favorite restaurant in South Brooklyn?
24:57Oh, I have so many, but.
25:00Maybe like a few. I just, what should I check out when I'm back?
25:04Do you eat kosher or not?
25:06No. Okay. No, so you should definitely quote about Michael's on Nostrand and other.
25:11Oh yeah. I love Michael's.
25:13Italian restaurant. Oh, you've been there.
25:15Yeah. Okay. But yeah, I do.
25:16I do like a lot of meetings, like breakfast, and my breakfast is my favorite
25:19meal of the day. So I do a lot of breakfast meetings and au pair.
25:24But yeah. I haven't been there in a long time.
25:26I'll have to check it out.
25:27Yeah. Check it out. You know, I've loved this conversation.
25:31I've, I've really been such an appreciative fan of your work.
25:34I think you're an amazing councilwoman.
25:35And again, I wish you had been around when I, when I lived there.
25:39Well, maybe we can have you back at some point.
25:41Yeah. Well, to visit, maybe.
25:43Maybe we'll go to Michael's.
25:45Let's do it. But leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on
25:50how they can improve their lives.
25:53My best tip would probably be do what you love.
25:58That is professionally. It's kind of like a mantra I always followed.
26:03Even if you're afraid to do it, or it's difficult, or it's challenging.
26:08I'd say like we only have one life.
26:11And I think that you'll never regret doing what you love.
26:15Um, and you don't want to be miserable doing a job just because you're making
26:20money. You want to do it because you enjoy it and you get satisfaction out
26:24of it. And you feel like you're accomplishing something and making a difference.
26:28For me, that's always been the more important, more important than making money.
26:33Um, and so that's why, you know, I filed my dream to become an attorney.
26:36And now I really do love what I do, speaking up, standing up and helping
26:42people every day. I love it.
26:45She is Councilwoman Ina Vernikoff.
26:47Thank you so much for coming on, Councilwoman.
26:49Thank you so much for having me.
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