Curtis Sliwa pledges — again — to hang up iconic red beret if he wins NYC mayoral race
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa pledged Monday to retire his iconic red beret if he's elected mayor.
'I was born without a beret, I'll die without a beret, I can take the beret off,' Sliwa said as he led an hourlong manhunt for a dog-hating maniac in Queens, that didn't end up sniffing out the suspect.
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The Republican mayoral nominee has shed his ruby noggin topper more often in recent days as he aims to appeal to well-to-do New Yorkers wary of socialist frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.
'If the people are good enough to elect me mayor, I'll retire the red beret. I won't wear the red beret. But for right now, I guess I'm going to have to switch on-and-off depending on what group I'm with,' he said.
3 Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa vowed to retire his beret if elected mayor.
Michael Nagle
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3 He made the pledge as he led a manhunt for a monster who lit a pit bull on fire.
Michael Nagle
Sliwa has promised to ditch the beret before, during 2021's mayoral election, when he was also the GOP candidate.
But Big Apple voters at the time evidently weren't jazzed enough by the prospect of a beret-free Sliwa — the bearer of quite the impressive tan line underneath his cap — and overwhelmingly voted Mayor Eric Adams into office.
Sliwa wore a different hat, so to speak, for an hour Monday as he led an unsuccessful hunt across South Ozone Park for a monster accused of setting a helpless pit bull on fire last week.
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He plastered fliers with photos depicting the suspect under car windshields and knocked on doors.
3 Sliwa's beret is so inseparable from his head that he has displayed a prominent tan line on the few occasions he has removed it.
Stephen Yang
The outspoken animal lover — who once showed off the 15 rescue cats inside his 320-square-foot Upper West Side studio apartment — vowed that animal abuse will be a priority if he's elected.
'I'm trying to get everybody to get involved to put this fiend in jail where he belongs,' he said.
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