Westchester County Executive George Latimer today expressed a belief that a Biden administration will be more receptive to hearing about the needs of local governments such as Westchester County and providing them with needed resources than has been the Trump administration
“I”™m extremely excited for America with the coming of the Biden administration. I think we will see the kind of bipartisan efforts to improve our country that we have missed over the last four years. We need to come together,” Latimer told the Business Journal in a Saturday interview shortly after the major television networks declared that Biden had achieved 273 electoral votes, surpassing the 270 needed to win the presidency.
“Once upon a time, a long time ago, Joe Biden was a New Castle County councilman, in Delaware, which is the same as being a Westchester County legislator,” Latimer said. “So, he understands the world that we live in. The business community, the government community, the nonprofit community ”“ we”™ll all have a chance to make our case with the new administration on a fair basis meaning that we have to show proper need and proper use of resources and we”™ll find a partner in D.C again.”
Latimer said that Biden”™s personality and his experience in Washington should be a plus in getting things done.
“The current president has a personality and style that is certainly unique in American politics and he”™s not going to change. I think what will happen now is that his personality will not be the central force that we all have to deal with. Now we”™ll have a president with not only a different philosophy but a different personality that will help us resume a rational situation,” Latimer said.
Latimer, himself no stranger to criticism from across the aisle in both Westchester politics and during the time he served in the state legislature in Albany, expressed a hope that this can be a time for bridging at least some of the political divide in America.
“There”™s legitimate reason for a two-party system. It”™s good to have two parties that contest and test each other. What isn”™t good is anger and rancor and to see each other as enemies rather than fellow Americans who simply are exercising our right to hold our own opinions,” Latimer said.
“I think there”™s a place for compromise and getting far away from bogus conspiracy theories, far away from the ”˜I hate you and want to destroy you”™ school of politics. It won”™t be easy. We have to lay down the rhetorical weapons and just try to deal with each other with as much goodwill as we can.”
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer welcomed the Biden win and took the opportunity to defend the integrity of the election process.
“The current president is wrong to make baseless accusations of election fraud and claim that the election is being stolen from him. These false allegations are an assault on the most bedrock principle in our democracy: free and fair elections,” Schumer said. “Joe Biden has won this election fair and square and Republican leaders must unequivocally condemn the current president”™s rhetoric and work to ensure the peaceful transfer of power on January 20.”
Schumer said Senate Democrats will do everything they can to help Biden get things done.
“The nation is facing unprecedented challenges: the greatest economic crisis in seventy-five years, the greatest public health crisis in a century, the climate crisis, and worsening income inequality and racial injustice,” Schumer said. He expressed a hope that the Democrats would be able to pick up two Senate seats in the upcoming runoff election in Georgia, which would create a 50-50 Democrat/Republican tie. Democrat Kamala Harris, the new vice president, would then be able to cast tie-breaking votes.
“A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate would be the biggest difference maker to help President-elect Biden deliver for working families across the country and in Georgia where, for too long, they have been denied the help they need by President Trump, Mitch McConnell and a Republican-led Senate,” Schumer said.
In a statement sent to the Business Journal from Albany, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said, “This is a historic day. After the darkness, division and hate of the past four years, America has spoken and rejected more of the same. Congratulations to my good friend President-Elect Joe Biden and to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. Today we go forward in hope and progress.”
