Former Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., on Monday said New York voters are getting “fed up” with a scandal-scarred Cuomo administration, and that GOP candidates have a better shot at winning the race for governor next year than it has since George Pataki was in Albany.
In an interview on Newsmax TV’s “John Bachman Now,” the veteran politician from Long Island said New York GOP Reps. Lee Zeldin and Elise Stefanik, along with Andrew Giuliani, have a clear shot in November 2022.
“People get tired of a candidate after three terms in office,” King said of current Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has served since 2011.
“I think that rank and file New Yorkers more and more are getting fed up with the entire Cuomo administration — all of the ambiguity, all of the distortions, all of the misstatements, all of the arrogance,” King said.
“We have the nursing home issues, all the other allegations against Gov. Cuomo, the fact that the progressive left wing of his party is opposed to him, the fact that traditional Democrats are getting fed up with him. That should [result in] a strong united Republican and conservative body effort,” he added.
King added no one should count out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., from running again from her own district or elsewhere.
“Don’t sell her short. She has millions of dollars,” he said. “She actually represents the old neighborhood that I grew up, and I never thought growing up [in Sunnyside, Queens] we’d have a congressman like AOC.”
King also took aim at President Joe Biden’s massive proposals for infrastructure and families as spending plans that will only wind up costing jobs and middle-class voters, despite promises it’ll be paid for by taxing the rich and corporations.
“It’s gonna slow down the entire economy,” he insisted, adding: “At this rate when we have money going in all directions … all of that being subsidized by the federal govern all of that is just wrong. And I think it’s gonna backfire on the Democrats in 2022.”
According to King, when the nation is in a crisis, the government will spend more than it has on hand. But “as you come out of that crisis, that’s when you can start pulling back on the spending. That’s when be spending programs should end and let the economy rebound on its own.
“With the economy coming roaring back the way it is, it’s absolutely responsible,” he said of the multi-trillion-dollar spending plans.
King also lamented the deaths of migrants trying to get across border, blaming Biden for having nothing to replace the policies from former President Donald Trump that Biden ended.
“People have been killed coming for the U.S. border,” he said. “Those who was dying in the desert, those who were involved in the capsizing, [of a ship filled with immigrants] all of the people smuggled in cars and trucks. These people are suffering and it’s because of immigration policy … that’s totally out of control.”
“It’s all because of [Biden] and his policies and his administration that we do face the real humanitarian crisis,” King added.
Source: Newmax
