Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of the New York 17th Congressional District represents parts of Westchester and Dutchess as well as all of Rockland and Putnam. He went on TV Feb. 25 and was gushing with praise for Donald Trump’s Feb. 24 State of the Union address. On the other hand, Democratic Congressman George Latimer whose 16th Congressional District covers parts of Westchester and the Bronx was troubled by Trump’s divisive rhetoric, self-aggrandizement and use of falsehoods.
“The president delivered a robust defense of his administration and the Republican Congress and the work we’ve done, especially with the tax bills, securing the border, ending these conflicts around the globe,” Lawler said on Fox Business.
He characterized the speech as delivering “beautiful moments” such as when Trump brought out the U.S. ice hockey team that won gold at the Winter Olympics and a pilot who flew on the mission that captured Venezuelan President Maduro.
“I think the president pointed out the economic record and contrasted it very well with Joe Biden’s disastrous four years,” Lawler said. “I think the president laid out the agenda, he laid out the path ahead on health care, on housing, on energy.”
Later in an interview on CNN, Lawler said that Trump focused on “a lot of positives” in his speech and highlighted a lot of the successes on foreign policy.
Lawler faulted Democrat senators and representatives for not standing when Trump challenged them to do so if they agreed with him that the U.S. government’s first duty is to protect the American people, not illegal immigrants.
“When you poison the well with partisanship and you poison the well with your attitude you can’t expect people that you’re insulting to all of a sudden stand up and be with you on something,” Latimer told Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal.
Democrat Latimer recalled that when he was serving as Westchester County executive he never used his State of the County address to vilify Republicans.
“State of the Union addresses from other presidents of both parties have been to bring people together, talk about common themes, find a way to get to bipartisan agreement. That’s how Ronald Reagan used it, that’s how George W. Bush used it, that’s how Barack Obama and Bill Clinton used it,” Latimer said. “Trump made a point of trying to criticize Democrats, vilify us, and I think people can see that kind of mindset does not move America forward.”
Latimer pointed out that Trump’s underlying theme throughout the 107 minutes, which is the longest State of the Union speech in U.S. history, was to praise himself for what he claims that he’s done. He pointed out that Trump did not provide factual and policy updates on important issues such as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s threatened invasion of Greenland and reports of Iran purchasing missiles from China that can be used against warships such as the the U.S. Navy ships Trump sent to stand by for possible action against Iran.
“What happens is when you do these things … you increase Iran’s reliance on China, which is not a good thing for America’s geopolitical interests,” Latimer said. “This is a dangerous world and you don’t make it any more peaceful by rattling sabres. Sooner or later someone is going to surprise you by striking you.”
During his speech Trump took credit for creating a thriving economy, but fact checking by several major news services showed that statistics used by Trump were either misleading or completely false.
“He talked about the tariffs and how good the tariffs have been but I’ve talked to local business people and individuals and all they see in the tariffs is how much more they have to pay for goods or how difficult it is to price and sell the goods that have gone up because of tariffs,” Latimer said.
Latimer said that he didn’t expected Trump to say anything about the Epstein files during the speech, and Trump didn’t. Democrat members of the House and Senate attending the speech were wearing buttons calling for the Epstein files to be released. Several of Epstein’s sex trafficking victims attended the speech as guests of Democrats.
“This is a huge scandal,” Latimer said. “The transparency factor is not there at all. The Department of Justice is slow-walking information even though we have a law to release the information. The American public is not going to have any confidence or faith until they know who is involved in those scandals.”
Latimer said that Trump may have “ginned up” his Make American Great Again (MAGA) base but others didn’t hear anything in the speech connected with reality or with what their future looks like.
“If you’re going to give a partisan speech save it for the campaign trail, don’t bring it onto Capitol Hill in a formal speech about governing,” Latimer said.
