Bo Dietl, the former Fox News personality and ex-cop who believes that 98 percent of sexual-harassment cases are “bullshit” and that there is an “epidemic of rapes” caused by “illegal aliens,” has insisted for nearly two years that he will run for mayor of New York City in 2017.
Now, it appears he finally has the papers to prove it.
Dietl, who runs a private-eye firm in Manhattan and has for years been a friend and ally of both Donald Trump and ousted Fox News chief Roger Ailes, was axed from the roster of paid Fox News contributors last month during the post-Ailes-era purge.
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(Dietl blames New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman for this, after Sherman reported that the former cop helped Ailes wage covert war against political and personal enemies. Dietl has denied this multiple times, and said he is still considering a lawsuit against Sherman.)
Now, with some more time on his hands, Dietl can divert his energy to a longshot run at Gracie Mansion.
“This isn’t a game, this is happening, I’m running,” Dietl insisted on Saturday. “Yep, I filed my papers weeks ago.”
According to registration papers obtained by The Daily Beast, via the New York City board of elections, a committee named “Friends of Bo Dietl,” with Gioacchino Viola as treasurer, filed on September 8 to raise funds for Dietl to run for mayor. (A Dietl campaign is not required to file an actual disclosure statement until January 15. Starting in June of next year, Dietl would have to collect the 3,750 signatures required to get on the ballot.)
“I'm running for mayor now,” Dietl told The Daily Beast over the weekend. “I look forward to meeting with Mr. [Rupert] Murdoch soon to see if I can get the support from Fox News to run for mayor.”
Dietl also said that he has submitted an op-ed on why he’s running to The New York Times, but has not heard back yet on a publication date.
The former Fox commentator has long made clear his disdain for New York mayor Bill de Blasio, whom he tauntingly calls “Big Bird.” Despite his conservative leanings and allies, he says he’s running as a Democrat to target incumbent de Blasio.
Furthermore, Dietl mentioned the billionaires and wealthy donors who he says have pledged to back him in his mayoral run. Among his rich supporters Dietl lists Jack Welch, Vincent Viola, former New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso, and billionaire Republican businessman Ken Langone, the “Home Depot man who wants to demolish Obama.”
“I’m on [Bo’s] team, I’ve signed on,” Langone told The Daily Beast on Monday afternoon during a brief phone call. “I’ll raise as much money as I possibly can. If he runs, I will do everything I can to help him raise the funds [necessary] for him to run a successful campaign.”
Langone called Dietl a “long-term friend” of roughly 25 years, said he has “enormous admiration for his record as a policeman” and otherwise.
“He is a superb human being, and I am proud to support him,” Langone continued. “He would do a superb job as mayor.”
Aside from Langone and other wealthy potential boosters, Dietl has other high-profile friends and advocates, even in the liberal bastion of Hollywood. His book about being “one tough cop” was turned into a 1998 action movie where the character “Detective Bo Dietl” investigates the rape and killing of a nun. (Dietl is played by Stephen Baldwin.)
He is also the only one-time Fox News contributor to have appeared in multiple Martin Scorsese projects, including the new HBO series Vinyl and the mob-movie classic Goodfellas. In Scorsese’s 2013 R-rated black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street, Dietl played himself, appearing in a scene with Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Scorsese taught me how to act,” Dietl told Page Six. “I didn’t go to acting school.”
Both Ailes and Trump have separately endorsed Dietl’s private investigator work.
“I have known Bo Dietl professionally and personally for many years,” Trump said, in an endorsement posted to Dietl’s website. “When I owned the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, his company provided us with security. They did a terrific job. Bo Dietl has ethics that carry him successfully through every venture and in every relationship. He is professional, diligent, and caring. He will give one hundred percent to any job he does. I can recommend him without hesitation.”
So far, Dietl (who calls himself a “Trump guy, 100 percent”) has not heard from Trump regarding his own political aspirations—nor does he expect to.
At least, not before November.
“I think right now, Mr. Trump is worried about becoming president,” Dietl said.
