With lawmakers back in Washington for the Sept. 2 reconvening of Congress following the August recess, Congressman George Latimer, the Democrat who represents New York’s 16th Congressional District that includes parts of Westchester and the Bronx has had an opportunity to reflect on what he heard from constituents while he was in the district during the break.
“It was a reminder that we’re a very divided country. There are people who believe that what the president is doing is good no matter what it is and really don’t even try to defend it on the individual merits but just because they have this incredible faith he is shaking up the establishment and that’s what they want to see,” Latimer told Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal. “They haven’t considered, in my judgment, what the end product is. Then, there are quite a lot of people who are horrified by the fact that he’s breaking through barriers that were created to provide checks and balances. Our founding fathers understood how important it was not to give any one person too much power. Here you have a president who can threaten a law firm, threaten a university, threaten a media outlet, threaten a prosecutor who as gone after him for crimes he may have committed, and his desire for control knows no boundaries.”
Latimer, who was elected to Congress last November from his position as Westchester County executive, pointed out that he is old enough to remember when presidents used the National Guard legitimately to help deal with mob violence in U.S. cities, ensure integration in the south or help deal with natural disasters.
“The MAGA base does not have a voting majority in the major cities of the county and MAGA resents it,” Latimer noted. “Through the president they now can exert their will through what I consider to be an extra-legal overreach. You bring in troops as a last resort because there is a crisis that is out of control, that is discernible to all, and that is not the case now.”
Latimer disputed that there is the crime emergency that Trump has declared to justify the use of the military to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., patrol Amtrak’s Union Station, and for the Trump Administration to seize control of the train station. Latimer said that he is a regular rider of Amtrak in and out of Union Station and also rides Washington’s Metro at very late hours when going between the Capitol and the place where he stays when Congress is in session.
“There are no incidents on the Washington, D.C., Metro subway that warrant bringing in the military,” Latimer said. “It is a creation of a crisis in order for him (Trump) to exert power. I assume he’ll do the same thing in any other city where he believes he can call a crisis.”
Latimer pointed out that Trump has not provided proof of a crime emergency in Washington, just as he has yet to produce any proof of the fraud, waste and abuse he claimed existed at U.S. Aid for International Development when shutting down that agency. Latimer said that it is ideology rather than facts that has been the motivator.
Latimer suggested that if Trump ordered the military into New York City as he has threatened he would station the troops in high visibility areas.
“It’s a precursor to what he would want to do down the line and we’ve seen it done in other governments, in Germany in the 1930s, in more recent years in places like Hungary, and this is the playbook he’s using,” Latimer said.
Latimer said that if Trump wants to send a message that he is in charge he would easily do that by deploying military forces in many places in the country, not just in major cities.
Latimer forecast that the Epstein files will again become a major issue even though Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to mute the matter. Johnson adjourned the House of Representatives early for the August break in order to block a House vote that was expected to require the immediate release of all of the files.
Latimer said that it’s been shown that Trump was close to Epstein and they had friendly interaction.
“This is where Congress should use its oversight to launch an investigation,” Latimer said, while also doubting that the Republican majority would allow that to happen. “Trump has already said that he will make sure that any Republican that doesn’t go along with him will face a primary. There are only a handful of Republicans in either House that would consider standing up. Look at what happened to Liz Cheney. She stood up to Donald Trump on the stealing of the 2020 election and he had the wherewithal to end her political career.”
Latimer also expressed concern about Republican efforts to adopt gerrymandered redistricting maps as their way to hold onto their Capitol Hill majority.
“Right now, because of the political construct of things, this is a MAGA moment,” Latimer said. “They have control of both houses. The only things getting out to the floor are the things that Donald Trump wants to get to the floor. I have worked very comfortably with Republicans in Westchester County government and when I was in the state legislature in Albany. I was hoping that would be the case in Washington.”
Latimer said that Republicans in Congress face absolutist control from the top down as do Trump’s cabinet secretaries and other department heads. He also worried that an election could be suspended, noting that while it has not happened before, a lot of the things that actually are happening also have never happened before.
“Right now we’re eight months into this and we’re seeing efforts to do things that will have long-term negative effects,” Latimer said. “There are people who think ‘we’re making America great again.’ Unfortunately, you’re not. For those of us on the other side of this, it’s not enough to say, ‘he’s bad, he’s bad.’ We have to offer a positive direction and convince people that what we’re trying to do is the right thing.”
