President Joe Biden ultimately bowed to pressure within the Democratic Party and abandoned his re-election bid on Sunday — throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. One reason for growing unease within the party after last month’s debate is Biden’s apparent effect on down-ballot races. With control of the House likely to come down to a handful of seats, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly told Biden’s team his poor polling threatened to hurt all Democrats on November’s ballot. One closely watched district is for New York’s 17rh House seat — where first-term Republican Mike Lawler faces former Democratic Congressman Mondaire Jones. Lawler spoke with WAMC’s Ian Pickus today about how the race has changed.
I don't think it changes it much at all. Kamala Harris, you know, worked hand-in-glove with President Biden over the last three and a half years. She was tasked with handling the border crisis, and failed miserably. Since Joe Biden took office, over 10 million migrants have crossed our southern border, most of them illegally, 90% being released into the country, costing states like New York billions of dollars of taxpayer money to deal with the crisis. You know, you look at the economic challenges facing the country, we have an affordability crisis, groceries, gasoline, mortgages, utility bills through the roof, and then obviously the crises around the world. So it doesn't change much, and certainly in my race, you know, my opponent hasn't changed. Mondaire Jones was the third-most progressive member of Congress. He voted 100% of the time with the Biden-Harris agenda. He supported defunding the police, supported cashless bail, supported open borders, called ICE agents racists and terrorists. So it doesn't really change all that much. The dynamics in the country are what they are. People are frustrated by the policies much more so than the personalities.
I have to note that your statement upon Biden's announcement was more magnanimous than most of your fellow Republicans’. So do you think he did the right thing by stepping aside?
Well, look number one, we can all appreciate someone who's been in the arena for over 50 years and served our country as a senator, as vice president, as president, while still disagreeing with many of their policy positions. I think it was clear to everyone you know, after watching that debate three and a half weeks ago, that he would be unable to fulfill another term. And so from the vantage point of the country, yes, I do think it was the right thing to step down. I also think for him, I think it's sad to see what has happened. Nobody, nobody should go out like that. And you know, I think his team, his advisors, his family really should have addressed this well over a year ago, when he was deciding whether or not to run for reelection. I think this is not the way someone, certainly who has served our nation for over 50 years, but certainly of his age, should have been allowed to go out like that. Frankly, I think it's sad. I think it's unfortunate. And you know, frankly, I think a lot of people kind of gaslit the nation for well over a year about his mental acuity and ability, and it was wrong.
Do you agree with people like Speaker Mike Johnson and northern New York Congresswoman Stefanik that if Biden is not going to run for reelection, he should resign the office outright?
But I think there's serious questions about his ability. Again, nobody who watched that debate could walk away from it say, yeah, he could serve another four years. We all recognize that, which is why Democrats went in full-fledged panic mode to push him out, because they were concerned about the impact on their electoral chances. And you know, for a party that talks about protecting democracy, they seem to have no problem disregarding 14.6 million Democratic Party primary voters and doing everything they could to force Joe Biden out. But this is a mess of their own making. And you know, again, it raises significant questions of how this was even allowed to occur, knowing full well that he was having difficulties. And, yeah, I think it raises questions about his ability to fulfill the remainder of his term, you know, and obviously, with the threats that we see around the globe, my biggest concern is that our adversaries are seeing all of this play out in real time, and will seek to take advantage of it. That's where I have great concern. And you know, obviously this is going to be something that's discussed over the coming days. It's a busy week in Washington, with the Secret Service Director testifying about the assassination attempt against President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu coming to speak before a joint session of Congress, and obviously Democrats trying to figure out who their nominee is going to be, though, you know, they seem to be coalescing pretty quickly behind Kamala Harris.
Do you think Republicans would rather have run against Biden than Harris?
Do I think Trump would have rather?
Yeah, and I mean, it's going to have a down ballot effect on races like yours. There's no question.
Look, I don't think it really makes a difference. The policies are what has frustrated the American people, the cost of living, the disaster at our southern border. Kamala Harris owns that. She was part of this administration. This is not a Kathy Hochul situation where she can say, Oh, no, Andrew Cuomo never included me in anything. She was fully involved and engaged on the policies of this administration. She was out there dutifully selling these policies, and I don't think that really changes very much.
