( Alex Brandon ) / AP Images )
Tom Suozzi, former congressman (D-NY3), talks about his campaign to reclaim his seat in Congress in the special election on February 13.
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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Today on the show, we'll start in just a minute with Tom Suozzi for a candidate interview in the election to replace the pants-on-fire congressman, George Santos, who of course got expelled for making up so much of his life story, including on this show, unfortunately. My questions and yours for Tom Suozzi. You can start calling now at 212-433-WNYC. Call or text a question, 212-433-9692.
Also today, our Climate Story of the Week, which we do every Tuesday on the show. Today, kind of a service for many of you who live in New York City, we'll have the city's chief climate officer and two other guests on the new law that has taken effect this year, requiring energy efficiency upgrades in many New York City buildings. Now, if you're a landlord or a renter or a co-op or condo owner, this affects you. We will take your Local Law 97 questions for your buildings for Mayor Adams, chief climate officer, later this hour.
We'll also have The Washington Post diplomatic correspondent, Missy Ryan, today on the multinational efforts to bring peace and justice to Israelis and Palestinians. At the moment, Hamas is blocking a shorter-term ceasefire for hostages deal that multiple other parties have agreed to, and Israel is blocking a longer-term two-state solution for recognition by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states' deal that multiple other countries have agreed to.
We'll hear how Secretary of State Blinken, who's back in the area for his 5th trip since October 7th, working with Qatar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, how he and they are trying to get the two warring parties unstuck short and long term. We'll have a call in at the end of the show today for those of you mostly age 40 or under who consider yourself nones, as in your religious affiliation is none of the above. If that sounds like you, you're not alone. New polling shows you are in the fastest-growing religious category in America, especially among young Americans.
That's all coming up, but we start here. Early voting began on Saturday and runs through this Sunday in the high-stakes race to replace George Santos in Congress. This matters in its own right, of course, for the people in the Queens and Nassau County District. More than that, all of political America seems to be watching this election as an early swing district bellwether for how to run in November for control of Congress and the presidency too.
We have Democrat Tom Suozzi with us for a candidate interview. We have also invited Republican Mazi Pilip. Tom Suozzi, as many of you will recall, held the seat for three terms before deciding not to run for re-election in 2022, and primary Kathy Hochul for the Democratic nomination for governor instead. Obviously, he lost that race and is now vying to win his old seat in Congress back. Previously, Suozzi was the Nassau County executive and the mayor of Glen Cove.
There's some breaking news in this race in the last day. The two candidates have come out on different sides of the bipartisan Senate bill on the border. Suozzi is for it, Pilip is against it, so that will be one of our topics to be sure. Tom Suozzi, as I said, will take some questions from you as well as from me. 212-433-WNYC, call or text. We just ask questions, not speeches, please. Tom, thanks for coming on for this. Welcome back to WNYC.
Tom Suozzi: Brian, it's always good to be on your show.
Brian Lehrer: Would you like to start by introducing or reintroducing yourself to the voters? I never like to assume that even though I follow politics closely and I've interviewed you various times in your various roles that the average listener out there really knows who anybody in your kind of position is. You can't give a long speech, but take about a minute if you like and just tell the listeners who you are according to you and why you want your old job back.
Tom Suozzi: Thanks, Brian. I really appreciate it. I've devoted most of my adult life to public service. I'm trained as a lawyer in CPA. I was the mayor of Glen Cove for eight years, county executive for eight years, member of Congress for six years. I've gotten a lot of stuff done. I've helped a lot of people, cleaned up pollution. I've built buildings. I've helped people make their lives better. I've fought crime, and I've always tried to be somebody who works across party lines, someone who tries to find compromise to move things forward.
I'll work with anybody. I'll work with Democrats. I'll work with the Republicans. I'll work with progressives. I'll work with conservatives. I'm a Democrat. I'll always be a Democrat. I won't betray my values, but I'll work with anybody who genuinely wants to try and help people and make lives better. We all know what politics has become in our country. I think people are sick and tired of the finger-pointing and the backbiting and the petty partisan politics.
I want us to think about what politics could be, where people, instead of offering attacks, offer solutions. Where people try to-- instead of knocking people down, try to build people up and try and move forward. Everybody has always disliked Congress. I think it's really disliked right now because it's just not getting anything done.
Brian Lehrer: I will say that you and your opponent are attacking each other plenty, and we'll get to some of those attacks going each way, but let me ask you about the area trending Republican and why you think you can break this pattern. Long Island, which used to be largely Democratic or at least meaningfully divided, now looks like a Republican stronghold. All four seats in Congress, both county executives, both county DAs.
The Queens part of the district too has replaced its Democratic City Council person with a pretty mega Republican, Vickie Paladino, in the last two elections. Why, in your view, is the area going from blue to red?
Tom Suozzi: I think that the people who live in the 3rd Congressional District are worried that Democrats are not listening to the concerns that they have, so I make a point of focusing on the things that they're concerned about. They're concerned about high taxes and the cost of living. I'm the main proponent in all of Congress to bring back the state and local tax deduction. They're concerned about the immigration crisis. I've been talking for years about the need for a bipartisan compromise. We now have a bipartisan compromise. I will support it, my opponent won't.
People are concerned about attacks on local control. I'm in favor of local control. I think the crime in New York City has been a big concern for the residents of Long Island. It's always been a very public safety-conscious community, and the crime rate is incredibly low on Long Island and in Northeast Queens, but people have a sense of fear of crime and it getting out of control and the sense of permissiveness. I've always been someone who stood up for law enforcement. When I was a county executive at Nassau County, [unintelligible 00:07:24] 12th largest police department in the United States of America.
We reduced the crime rate to the lowest it's been in its history, the lowest crime rate of any community over 500,000 people. Listen, the bottom line is, they want their elected officials to listen to them. They don't want to hear about these academic debates at the fringes. They want to know that you're going to be focused on the issues that they and their families are concerned about. I've tried to do that throughout my entire career.
Brian Lehrer: If top issues include the border and crime, is there kind of a disconnect there? I know the district pretty well. I grew up in the Queens part of this district. I'm not sure if you knew that. I've had family and close friends all over the North Shore my whole life. This is, as you say, a low-crime, high-income district, or I'm adding high income, median income, $130,000, and not very Latino, just 8% according to data USA, and very few of the recent asylum seekers.
Why do you think these issues, crime and migration, are flipping the area red more than places actually in New York City where there is more crime and more immigration and more concentration of asylum seekers? It can look like a disconnect.
Tom Suozzi: Well, in Northeast Queens, there's a tent city in Creedmoor, and the people of Northeast Queens are really concerned about that. They're concerned about the impacts of people living in the area and they can't use their local parks or they feel they can't use the local parks. The Republicans have effectively weaponized the issue of crime and immigration generally and created a sense of fear. The reality of the situation is that the people of my district, the people of Long Island generally, are relatively moderate people, and there's a very strong Republican organization.
Remember, when I became the county executive of Nassau County, I was the first Democrat with a Democratic legislature since 1917. We took the wind out of their sails for a good 15 years or so, but now they're back to being a strong Republican organization, and they're effective at weaponizing a lot of these national issues to create fear amongst the residents. The fear is of some of the extremes of our party. I'm pointing out the extremes of the other party as well, the Republican party. People don't want extremism. They want common sense.
They want people who will work together to actually solve problems. That's what I've tried to do my entire career. My opponent on the other hand is doing Republican points extremism. We don't even know any details about her. She's been very loathed to be out in public. I'm sure she's not going to be on your show. You said you invited her on your show. She hasn't shown up for any debates. She hasn't shown up for any interviews, no town halls, and they're just using the Republican machine to try and bring out their vote and focus on the national Republican issues. She's taking very extreme positions.
I couldn't be further from that as far as being somebody who people know, they know my positions. I'm bipartisan and I'm in favor of the bipartisan deal. I'm pro-choice, got an F rating from the NRA on guns. She won't even support a semiotic weapon then.
Brian Lehrer: Let's talk about some of these positions, yours and hers, and let's start with the border. The new bipartisan Senate bill has been released with various new border policies plus aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. You are for it. Your opponent has come out against the bill saying it won't solve the problems at the border like the tougher House Republican bill would. Want to make your case for the Senate bill?
Tom Suozzi: Well, first of all, you're never going to pass the House Republican bill. It's an extreme right-wing bill that will never get the votes, certainly in the Senate. Even if Donald Trump was to win, even if the Republicans were to win the House, under no circumstances, even under the most rosy Republican circumstances will they get 60 votes in the Senate. There'll have to be a bipartisan compromise. The House bill is an extreme right-wing bill that destroys the history of our country's relationship with asylum seekers and other issues.
It will never be supported. You have to compromise. I wrote a bipartisan compromise with Peter King back in 2019 when The New York Times called it The Grand Compromise.
Brian Lehrer: Former Republican congressman from Long Island, Peter King.
Tom Suozzi: Right, because I've always tried to work across party lines. You know that I was the vice chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus; 25 Democrats, 25 Republicans. We met every week to find common ground. I know the people that negotiated the bill in the Senate. The Republican is a really conservative guy from Oklahoma, a good Democrat from Connecticut, and Kyrsten Sinema is an independent [unintelligible 00:12:16] Arizona. This is a well-thought-out deal that's been hammered out over four months that makes a lot of sense that will give the Republicans a lot of what they want.
They want up a wall, they want more security, more border patrol agents, that's great, but there'll also be more immigration judges, and you resolve asylum cases in weeks instead of 10 years. There's a 10-year backlog, which is absurd. 80% of the people who seek asylum get denied asylum and 20% get granted. That's the history for decades. The problem is when these cases don't get adjudicated for 10 years, the system's chaotic. This fixes that. It's a compromise and that's what people want. They want us to solve the problems and stop the finger-pointing.
Brian Lehrer: Peter King, by the way, for the record, has endorsed your Republican opponent. He's staying with his party in this race, but that--
Tom Suozzi: That's kind of the point, Brian. Let me just say that's the point.
Brian Lehrer: Go ahead.
Tom Suozzi: Peter King does not support me politically. I accept that, but I worked with Peter King and made compromises on issues like the state and local tax deduction to work together. On guns, we worked together. On immigration, we worked together. On getting money to clean up the Navy Grumman plume and Bethpage, we worked together. I'll work together with anybody. Even if you don't support me and I don't agree with you on a whole bunch of stuff, I'll work with you if we can find common ground to actually serve the people. That's what politics is supposed to be.
Brian Lehrer: The House Republican border bill known as H.R.2, which you said is extreme and it'll never get through the Senate, would have a Trump-style border wall according to what I've read, 900 miles, and under that bill, asylum seekers would stay either in Mexico or in detention centers in the US while their claims for asylum are assessed. You just acknowledge that 80% of people who claim asylum are denied on the merits. Do you oppose those provisions?
Tom Suozzi: I'm not opposed to building physical structures or wall if it's part of a compromise. If you need to get the Republicans on board to try and speed up these asylum cases to get more immigration judges, to get more resources, to treat people like human beings, I'm happy to compromise to give them a wall if that's their big thing. As far as we remain in Mexico, I don't think that that necessarily makes sense because people are treated so poorly there.
I do want the cases adjudicated quickly, and I want them adjudicated in such a fashion that it's fair to people but it also lives up to the American principles. There are people that are legitimately seeking asylum. The reason there's a need for reform is that these underground organized crime entities that are making billions of dollars off of transporting people to our southern border and telling them how to evade the existing asylum laws, it doesn't make any sense.
Brian Lehrer: The Senate bill allows the president to shut down the border only after there are 4,000 migrants having contacts with officials per day for a week. The Republicans say--
Tom Suozzi: Or 8,500 in one day.
Brian Lehrer: Yes, either way, it sounds to Republicans like a really big number. It's still pretty open.
Tom Suozzi: Can I make this very clear? The Wall Street Journal says this is a good bill. Fox News is saying this is a good bill. The US Chamber of Commerce says this is a good bill. My opponent, Mazi Pilip, thinks she knows better than all of them because she's taking the talk points from former President Trump who told Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, "Don't do a bill. I don't want to give Biden a victory and I want to be able to run on this issue."
That is, as Mitt Romney said, appalling. That's what's wrong with politics in the United States of America these days, where it's all about theater and tweets and campaigns, and it's not about solving problems and making people's lives better.
Brian Lehrer: One other thing on this topic, the House Republicans under Speaker Mike Johnson have now released an alternative bill while there's a deadlock on the border bill that's a standalone with just aid to Israel. He says that's a consensus priority. The border bills in Ukraine are still in dispute, so let's go ahead with just aid to Israel. Here's a clip of your opponent, Mazi Pilip, on a PIX11 candidates forum. They interviewed her and they interviewed you back-to-back.
As you know, this is before the Senate bill was released, but I think it stands she's supporting that Israel aid alone approach. This begins with a moderator's question.
PIX11 Moderator: Should the aid to Israel and Ukraine depend on a border deal?
Mazi Pilip: I don't think so. The way I see it, I would like to separate the three deals. Because Israel right now under attack. Since October 7th, Israel is going through a tough, tough time. We're talking about hostages still with Hamas hands, six of them is American citizen. I think people are forgetting the fact that we're talking about American citizen still with Hamas, and we have to bring them home. We need to support Israel now without any condition.
Brian Lehrer: Mazi Pilip up on PIX11. Tom Suozzi, do you agree on an Israel-only bill for now while the border bill is stuck?
Tom Suozzi: First of all, I'd be happy to support an Israel-only bill, but let's remember that it's Mazi Pilip and her benefactors, the ones who pushed for a border deal as part of Israel and Ukraine support. The Republican Party are the ones who said, "We are conditioning support for Israel and Ukraine on getting a border bill done." They pushed for it, they pushed for it, they pushed for it, and now they got it, and they're saying, "Oh, we're going to kill it." It's the height of hypocrisy. It's cynical. It's so wrong. I'm not going to fall for this trap. If there's an Israel-only bill and I was in the Congress, I'd vote for it.
I'm a unequivocally supporter of Israel, but this is a bunch of BS because the reality is the Republicans are the ones-- James Lankford, the Republican conservative from Oklahoma said, "We as Republicans locked arms together and we said we will not support Ukraine and Israel unless we get a border deal." They pushed for it. Now, that he's finally negotiated the deal, now they're trying to kill the deal. It doesn't make sense. They're doing it only because former President Trump has told everybody, "Don't give Biden a victory." That's just plain wrong.
My opponent is just doing the marching orders of the Republican Party and going along with the extremism of the Republican Party that are playing politics with people's lives. That's wrong. The choice is clear. Tom Suozzi is a bipartisan, get things done, try to make people's lives better elected official. My opponent, Mazi Pilip, in this race, is an extreme Republican doing the marching orders of Mike Johnson and Tom Emmer and President Trump and the other people that are just trying to push our country into a far-right extreme direction.
Brian Lehrer: Here's a political question that we've gotten, two versions already from listeners in text messages. I guess this is from Democrats who support you. One version is, "Could you ask where his lawn signs are in Massapequa? So far, I've seen one on a fence by the [unintelligible 00:20:05] mall. Are Republicans really taking down signs? If so, how do Suozzi supporters fight back?" Another one-- I'm just trying to pull this up.
Tom Suozzi: Well, that's a really good question.
Brian Lehrer: The other one just says, "Two words for Suozzi, lawn signs. Neighbors want to see who neighbors support." I guess there are a lot of Pilip lawn signs that people are seeing.
Tom Suozzi: We put up 9,000 lawn signs, more than I've ever done in any campaign in my career. Because the Republican Party is back to being the machine that it was in the bad old days when Al D'Amato came out of the organization and you used to pay 1% of your salary if you had a county or a town job, it's back to being like that in those old days. They control the town of Oyster Bay, the town of North Hempstead, the town of Hempstead, the county of Nassau. They control all the public works departments.
The public works employees literally go up and down the streets and take down my signs and leave my opponent's signs up. They have brigades of people that go around at night tearing up my signs, ripping them up. It's the bad old days as far as politics. We've put up thousands and thousands and thousands of signs only to have them ripped up again, but we'll put them up again. We'll keep on putting them up.
People should go to the website, call the campaign. Go to www.suozziforcongress.com and order a lawn sign. We'll be happy to get you more lawn signs, but they're ripping them down. That's the bottom line.
Brian Lehrer: We'll continue in a minute with Tom Suozzi in a candidate interview for the 3rd Congressional District seat in the district covering parts of Nassau County and a little bit of Northeast Queens. This is, of course, the special election to replace George Santos. Early voting is underway and continues through Sunday. Then, election day itself is next Tuesday.
We have other issues to cover, comparing he and his opponent on the Middle East, on abortion rights, on gun safety. We will get to some of your phone calls, 212-433-WNYC. Or you can continue to text questions as well, 212-433-9692. Stay with us.
[MUSIC - Marden Hill: Hijack]
Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, as we continue with our candidate interview with Tom Suozzi running as the Democrat to replace George Santos in the current special election. Because I have family in the district and I go there often, I've been collecting mailers that your campaign has been sending out in large numbers, one a day, to one of my relative's homes there. Let me ask you about some of the ways that you're campaigning here.
Here's one that says, "Suozzi is determined to work with anyone to increase police funding, strengthen border security, combat gun violence, work to end the migrant crisis." In that flyer, you're running on all Republican talking points. "Increase police funding." You don't say, "Plus police reforms to fight mass incarceration." You say, "Strengthen border security," and, "Work to end the migrant crisis," as two of the four.
You don't say, "Comprehensive immigration reform," or, "Help the asylum seekers," as many other Democrats also highlight. The only exception is, "Combat gun violence." Both parties say that. Why focus your police and migrant language in that flyer so similarly to how Republicans do?
Tom Suozzi: Well, first of all, let me just say that Republicans do not focus on preventing gun violence in any way whatsoever. I have an F rating--
Brian Lehrer: They have different ways, right?
Tom Suozzi: No, they don't do it. I have an F rating from the NRA. My opponent is taking the Republican talking points from the NRA on a regular basis, and we couldn't be more different. I'm a--
Brian Lehrer: Did she get their endorsement? I don't actually know. Is that fair? Did she get an NRA endorsement?
Tom Suozzi: I don't know the answer to that either.
Brian Lehrer: Okay.
Tom Suozzi: I know that she's been supported by people like Tom Emmer and Mike Johnson, who certainly got the NRA endorsement. This is the best campaign I've ever been involved in. It's an incredibly well-run campaign as far as we've raised the money, we're doing the TV and the mailings, and we're getting the vote out. We have a great field operation. We have an enormous amount of volunteers, a great ground campaign.
It's a really remarkably well-run campaign. The bottom line is, you said these are Republican talk points. You brought up crime, you brought up immigration, you brought up guns. You brought up something else. I forgot what the other one was, but the bottom line is these are not Republican talk points.
Brian Lehrer: Well, it wasn't crime. It was, "Get more police funding."
Tom Suozzi: Right, so public safety. People are concerned about public safety. American people, Democrats, and Republicans are concerned about public safety. When you see cops getting beat up in New York City and then getting let out and then they leave the area, that pisses off Democrats and Republicans. It's outrageous. You're living in a bubble if you think that only Republicans are concerned about crime.
You're living in a bubble if you think that only Republicans are concerned about immigration. You're living in a bubble if you think that only Republicans are concerned about taxes. These are people's issues. These are American issues. This is why other Democrats have lost these districts is because they're not focused on the issues that people are talking about with their families.
I've always been a person who focuses on fairness and justice and Democratic issues and trying to help people and serve the poor and clean up the environment and all the other typical Democratic issues that we would want to highlight. I'm endorsed by every Democratic organization you can think of, and they're all working to help me in this race, but we have got to focus on what the people are talking about. They're talking about crime. They're talking about immigration. They're talking about taxes.
This is not new. I was on your show when I ran for governor in the Democratic primary. I talked about the same issues. I got killed in the Democratic primary and that's okay. It was fair and square. That's the issues I've always been focused on. That's why I think that I can win this race despite the fact that the enormous anti-Democratic feeling that there has been because they know I'm a Democrat that focuses on what the people care about, and that's what I'll always do.
My opponent in this race is an extremist. She's a far-right-wing extremist. Maybe she's not even a right-wing extremist because she was once registered as a Republican-- I mean as a Democrat.
Brian Lehrer: As a Democrat.
Tom Suozzi: As a Democrat, but she's talking like a right-wing extremist. She had Tom Emmer and Mike Johnson come to campaign for her and do fundraisers for her. She won't do anything in public. She's come out publicly and said she's pro-life and she supports the Supreme Court Dobbs decision. She's endorsed by the Conservative Party. She doesn't want to make a compromise on the immigration deal. She doesn't support a semi-automatic weapons ban, banning AR-15s and the like. She doesn't come out in favor of supporting universal background checks. I don't know what she stands for, quite frankly, because she's never in public.
Brian Lehrer: On calling her 'pro-life', another of your campaign flyers that I have says, "Mazi Pilip is running on an extreme party platform that calls for a ban on abortion in New York with no exceptions for rape and incest." Quoting from your flyer, but I want to ask you-
Tom Suozzi: That's actually a flyer from the House Majority PAC, but okay, go ahead.
Brian Lehrer: Okay, in support of you. I want to ask you if that's a lie or an unfair attack because here is Ms. Pilip in a Fox 5 interview asked about her position on abortion rights.
Mazi Pilip: I'm religious. Therefore, I am pro-life. However, and I want to emphasize the 'however' here, I'm not going to force my own beliefs in any woman. It's not going to happen. Therefore, I'm not going to support a national abortion ban.
Brian Lehrer: That sounded clear and unequivocal, at least on the national abortion ban.
Tom Suozzi: That is so deceptive. That is the Republican talk points that she's been using throughout this. She's trying to trick people. She is on the Conservative Party platform. The piece says that she's running on a platform. She's on the New York Conservative Party platform.
Brian Lehrer: Do you mean she's on the Conservative Party line on the ballot as well as Republican?
Tom Suozzi: Yes. She said that she has been vetted by the Conservative Party and they believe in what she stands for. In addition, she's come right out and said that she's pro-life. She's come out and said that she supports the Dobbs decision. She believes it's good that it was brought back to the States. She said she will not vote to codify Roe v. Wade. This is just a complete deceptive move. It's the same as when she says--
They asked her about guns. She said, "I don't think that people should have access to automatic weapons." They don't have access to automatic weapons. Automatic weapons have been illegal in the United States of America since 1986. It's semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15s that are legal. These are deceptive practices that are being used by her handlers and why she hasn't engaged in any debates or come on your show or many other shows that are not friendly audiences for her. It's just a deceptive campaign.
How in the age of post-George Santos, how is it possible that a candidate refuses to take the debate stage up until this point in the campaign? How is it possible that they refuse to take questions at a town hall meeting or go to civic meetings? How is it possible that she won't come on your show or other shows like yours throughout this process?
Brian Lehrer: You've got the one debate coming Thursday night on News 12, right?
Tom Suozzi: Which does not show in Queens, and it's five days before the election. Early voting started on Saturday. Yes, that's correct.
Brian Lehrer: Available, I guess only-
Tom Suozzi: If she shows. [laughs]
Brian Lehrer: -on cable in Nassau County on News 12. Just to follow up one more time on the abortion question, she did say in that clip, "I'm not going to force my own beliefs on any woman."
Tom Suozzi: Okay. Let's make this very clear that Amy Coney Barrett and Kavanaugh both said that they wouldn't overturn Roe v. Wade. If she won't even show up for a debate, if she won't even stand up to the bosses that are telling her not to support the immigration compromise, if she won't come on your show, she's going to all of a sudden show this streak of independence to stand up to the right-wingers to control the Republican Party in Washington, DC.
The bottom line is she has said clearly, she praised the Supreme Court decision, the Dobbs decision. She said clearly, she will not vote to codify Roe. The distinction between she and I couldn't be more clear on that particular issue.
Brian Lehrer: Jack in Queens in the district in Bayside, you're on WNYC with Tom Suozzi. Hi, Jack.
Jack: Hi. Hi, Tom. Thanks for taking the call. The question I had is I've heard a report, I don't know if it's true or not, that Biden is going to veto the Israel bill.
Tom Suozzi: I don't know where you would've heard that. The president-- I went to Israel. I went to Israel in December.
Brian Lehrer: Wait, let me just be clear about the question for our listeners. When you say veto the Israel bill, do you mean the House standalone Israel aid bill that assumes the border bill does not get through, so the standalone Israel aid bill that Speaker Johnson wants and Mazi Pilip supports? Jack, is that the bill you're talking about that you heard Biden would veto?
Jack: Yes. Listen, I know Tom is supportive of Israel and I met him. I think he's a great guy, but I am concerned about the report that Biden will veto the aid to Israel.
Brian Lehrer: All right. I haven't seen that report, so I'm even a little slow to say that as fact, but okay, you're calling and saying you heard that, so maybe it's true.
Tom Suozzi: There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation that people are using in politics these days using different group chats and texts and the emails and WeChat and WhatsApp and that kind of stuff trying to spread disinformation about things. The president is one of the most ardent supporters of Israel. I went to Israel in December. I visited with a family that is from Plainview whose son was taken hostage. Actually, it turns out I met the young man, Omer Neutra, when he was at the Solomon Schechter School as a big supporter of the Solomon Schechter School.
I met with the IDF. I went down to Kfar Aza in the Gaza envelope, saw the gruesome things that happened there. I was there at the Hostage Square. The bottom line is I was shocked at how popular Joe Biden is in Israel. He's not popular in my district. He's not popular as we would like in the country.
Brian Lehrer: Wait, he is popular in your district. He won in your district, right?
Tom Suozzi: Well, he won by eight--
Brian Lehrer: He beat Trump in your district by eight points.
Tom Suozzi: He won in my district by eight points-
Brian Lehrer: That's pretty good.
Tom Suozzi: -but now his favorables to unfavorable are very bad as are Trump's. They're both underwater, but he's not popular in my district right now. The people in Israel are so grateful to Joe Biden for the incredible support he has shown them throughout this process, not only being the only US president to ever go to Israel during wartime, not only for what they believe is the best speech they ever heard from a US president on their behalf, not only for sending the aircraft carriers there, but for actually standing up and supporting them despite the withering attacks he's facing from the left in his own party.
Brian Lehrer: Here's the opposite side of that from another listener, Peter in New Hyde Park via text, "What is Suozzi's plan to end the immense human suffering we're seeing in Gaza, and why hasn't he made outreach to the growing Muslim community in his district? Even Santos did that," writes this listener.
Tom Suozzi: First of all, I have tremendous support in the Muslim community. I'm the founder of the Uyghur Caucus in Congress, which are the Muslims that are discriminated against in forced labor camps in China. I was the co-chair of the Pakistani Caucus and went to Pakistan, the first member of Congress to go there in 2022 after the historic flooding there. I've supported Muslims back when I was county executive, putting them in my administration right after 9/11. I have very good relationships in the Muslim community. They're not happy that I'm so strongly in favor of supporting Israel during this difficult time, but they realize that I'm the best bet they've got in this difficult situation right now.
I believe that what we should be doing is what the administration is doing, what the Europeans are doing, and what others are doing, which is trying to negotiate with the Saudis and with other Sunni Arab states to build a coalition to rebuild Gaza so that there will actually be a government that will focus, not on terrorism and building tunnels and trying to kill Jews, but a government that focuses on educating children and sewer and water and public works and picking up the garbage and doing the things a government is supposed to do.
Brian Lehrer: You're running against Mazi Pilip who lived in Israel and was in the IDF. You're not running against a progressive Democrat, but some other Democrats would say, Americans are dying now over there to support Netanyahu's war, the way he's fighting it, allowing so many civilian casualties and he ignores President Biden's pleas for a less civilian intensive approach, even while saying, of course, Israel has a right to defend itself and now Americans are dying in the Jordan drone attacks for this approach that our government actually objects to.
Tom Suozzi: Well, we have to be very clear--
Brian Lehrer: Would you say anything to those fellow Democrats about conditions on aid or anything else?
Tom Suozzi: No, I don't support conditions on aid to Israel whatsoever. I want to make it very clear that there is a concerted attack by Iran to try and destroy stabilization in the Middle East. They're supported by Russia and they're supported by communist China, and they're all working in league to destabilize our democracy and other democracies throughout the world. This is all part of this.
The bottom line is that I will work to try and bring peace to this area, but I'm going to support the experts who are working on this day and night with the intelligence and the military backgrounds to try and figure out what the best way forward is in a way that we have to defeat Hamas. Hamas is not some loose confederation of desert soldiers. They're a sophisticated, disciplined terror army whose mission is to destroy Israel and kill Jews, and they must be stopped.
If people had come to us when we were going after Osama Bin Laden and Osama Bin Laden said, "Okay, listen, I want a ceasefire. I want to have peace. All I want to do is come move to Staten Island and you can trust me. I'll be right next door but don't worry, I won't do anything again," Nobody would believe that. This is people that are living right next door that are focused on destroying your country and killing your people, and that's what they will continue to do.
When I was in Congress, I did a bipartisan bill with a congressman from Wisconsin named Mike Gallagher called the Human Shields Act, which is that Hamas and Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations use civilians, and they put the civilians nearby their weapons stockpiles on purpose. They put their weapons stockpiles near churches and near mosques and near people's homes so that if you try and take out their weapon stockpiles or their terrorist organizations that civilians are going to be killed in the process.
They do it on purpose so they can say, "Oh, you're killing civilians." They have got to be stopped. I'm Mr. Negotiate with anybody. I'll work with anybody to try and make a deal. Some people can't be negotiated with. You can't negotiate with Hamas. They're terrorists trying to kill us.
Brian Lehrer: One more question from a listener, and this one also comes from texts the way it turned out this time, more the focused questions. We asked for well-focused questions, came in text messages than phone calls, so most of the questions we've taken for Tom Suozzi have been from your texts. Here's one that picks up on a Mazi Pilip ad against you that's been on television a lot. It says, "Tom, do you deny saying that you kicked ICE out of Nassau County, or are you claiming that that was just an AI-generated video soundbite?" Now, for people who haven't seen it, there's a political ad running that does show Tom Suozzi boasting, "I kicked ICE," Immigration Customs Enforcement, "out of Nassau County." Explain.
Tom Suozzi: Let me make this very, very clear. In 2007, nine years before my opponent was even registered to vote, even voted in an election, I was the county executive of Nassau County who'd reduced the crime rate to the lowest crime rate in the United States of America for any community over 500,000 people. ICE came to Nassau County. They refused to cooperate with our police department. They had 96 warrants. They did pre-dawn raids, knocking down people's doors, coming in with shotguns, wearing cowboy hats, scaring the hell out of people.
Of those 96 warrants, 90 were for the wrong addresses. They pulled their guns, not only on these families at the wrong addresses, but they pulled their guns on two Nassau County police officers. My police commissioner came to me and said, "Mr. County Executive, we can't work with these guys. They're not coordinating with us. They're coming in here like a bunch of cowboys. They're not properly trained. We're trying to do community policing here in Nassau County. That's why we've been successful in reducing the crime rate. We can't work with them. Please don't let them come here again."
I sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security at the time, Michael Chertoff, and said, "You guys can't do this. You can't come in and work like this. Unless you follow the rules and work with our police department, we're going to kick you out of Nassau County," which we did. They came back a couple of years later. We've worked with other agencies like the FBI and others. I've always been pro-law enforcement, but pro-law enforcement, as you were trying to point out earlier, also includes having police officers or law enforcement agencies follow the rules.
I've always stood up for following the rules and treating people properly in the process. You can be both pro-law enforcement and pro-justice and pro-community policing. They all go hand-in-hand.
Brian Lehrer: There we leave it with Democrat Tom Suozzi, running in this special election to replace George Santos in Congress. Early voting continues today through Sunday with election day itself next Tuesday, February 13th. Tom Suozzi, thank you very, very much.
Tom Suozzi: Hey, Brian, thanks for having me on the show. You got me all hyped up because I never get to debate anybody anymore. It's good that you let me on the show. I appreciate it very much.
Brian Lehrer: One moderator's tough question is as close as you're going to get. Well, there is going to be a debate, I should tell people if they want to see it, and if they have access to it, Thursday night on News 12 on Long Island, on cable. That's going to be the one Mazi Pilip-Tom Suozzi debate. Okay, thank you very much.
Tom Suozzi: Thanks so much. Bye.
Brian Lehrer: Again, we have invited Republican candidate Mazi Pilip for this week for this show, and we'll see if she accepts.
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