FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In case you missed it, House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik joined 77 WABC radio to discuss a potential campaign for New York governor, the terror attack in Boulder, and antisemitism in higher education.
View highlights from Chairwoman Stefanik’s interview:
On Boulder Terror Attack:
ELISE STEFANIK: It is a disgrace. What has happened, and this is the result of the antisemitism that has been fueled and flamed and not addressed by the radical left, and now we have an illegal pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas terrorist on US soil, throwing Molotov cocktails at peaceful pro-Israel advocates who were advocating for the release of the remaining hostages. It think about this. This is on American soil. What do we know now? This illegal was allowed to stay here by Joe Biden. So, policies have consequences, folks, we need to have a zero-tolerance policy in this country when it comes comes to antisemitism or any violent targeting of any American, and this is why one of the many reasons why I’ve been so strong and led the effort to combat antisemitism on our college campuses, because this is the future leaders, unfortunately at these universities and they’ve been brainwashed by pro-Hamas professors and cold frankly, to accept what is morally morally wrong. And if you go back to that, that committee hearing said it was really a watershed moment. It set off an earthquake where people, not just even within the higher-ed community, but society at large, really open their eyes to the scourge of antisemitism that is growing, and what is very sad and scary is New York City. If you look at the state of New York, there are more antisemitic crimes in New York City than any other place in the country. We need to have strong leadership at the city level, at the state level, to push back on this radical, pro-terrorist, dangerous violence that is not only existing on college campuses. But now you have it targeting seniors, including a Holocaust survivor in Boulder, Colorado.
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I’m so glad the appointments were incredibly strong appointments and, Sid, one of the programs that I’m sure you’re either already aware of or will learn now that you’re on that board is I passed a bill I co-led. It was bipartisan and it was called the never again Holocaust Education Act this is booked before October 7 and this is to provide grants from the Holocaust Museum to K through 12 schools to make sure that students are taught the horrors of the Holocaust. So I have a very long policy record on leading on this issue and of course, this is before the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust on October 7, and all of the strong leadership since then. But, you know, pay close attention, because we need to do more of those types of programs.
On Antisemitism in Higher Education:
ELISE STEFANIK: They still don’t get it, and President Trump is right for these executive actions he’s taken. These schools had an opportunity to save themselves. They failed to do so, and it was important for President Trump to step in to defund. These schools are not entitled to US taxpayer dollars. First of all, if you look at their endowments, and then they are funded by billions of US taxpayer dollars – their values do not represent US taxpayers across this country. It is very sad for me. Look, I went to Harvard. I was the first member of my immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college. It is unrecognizable to me what is happening at that college campus, as well as other “elite” college campuses. This is about leadership and it’s multifaceted, Sid. They’re taking foreign dollars, which is why I’m working so hard to expose the foreign donations that are anti-American on universities. They’re increasingly admitting foreign students taking the place of American students. There was a long expose on the number of Communist Chinese students that are at Harvard. It’s becoming the front university for the CCP. That’s absurd. If you look at the number of foreign students at Columbia. That’s a major problem as well. You have the moral rot of DEI, which, at its core is antisemitic, and then you have the problem with tenure with professors when it’s increasingly becoming group think and so radically progressive that it’s moving away some actual academic excellence. We need to – and there is there – I mean there is an earthquake in higher ED. People are voting with their feet. You’re seeing increases in enrollment and matriculation in schools down in Florida and Vanderbilt and elsewhere, who are leaving these, you know, Ivy League schools who have lost their way.
On Why We Must Fire Kathy Hochul:
ELISE STEFANIK: What is most interesting in the last 24 hours is Kathy Hochul’s handpick lieutenant governor just announced that he was primarying her. That is supposed to be her closest political ally. That is how much she has failed the state of New York. She is a feckless, failed leader and leads the New York Democrat party that has brought us the crime crisis, the sanctuary cities crisis and those failed policies, the economic crisis, the fact that we’re the highest tax state of the nation, the fact that we leave the nation in population exodus. So I’m always up for a fight. We need to save New York and I’m taking a very strong look and I’m going to make a decision in the coming months, Sid.
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If we run Sid, I’m going to run to win. I do not run for second place, and if you look back to when I first ran for Congress in 2014, that was quite a long time ago. I’m the dean of the New York delegation, the longest serving New York Republican member. We flipped the district. It was a district that was held by a Democrat. It’s hard to remember because this is the north country. It was a Democrat that only won by a point or two. It was one of the mostly contested districts in the nation that Republicans didn’t even win in 2010, and there were few like that in New York State. We flipped that district by 20 points. What have we done since then? Democrats have sent more against me than any other Republican in New York State, and yet we have continued to rise up and outperform, winning independents and democrats as well. So this gubernatorial is not just about winning Republican voters it’s about winning independents and peeling off Democrat voters as well and being able to build a grassroots or action as well as a war chest to take on the desperation of today’s Democrat party, which is totally rudderless, and Kathy Hochul is just a failed candidate who does not excite voters even in her own Democratic party, even for her own lieutenant governor. So we are putting the pieces together. If we do this, this will be the most well-funded, the most well organized statewide campaign since when we last won with George Pataki.
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Hochul is spending her little political capital that she has to advocate for congestion pricing, which is wildly unpopular, and it is an attack on working New Yorkers. If she is spending her time with the president advocating for wind projects that no one supports in those regions. That shows how deeply out of touch she is. I have the strongest relationship with President Trump in the delegation. Obviously, I was the first one to endorse him in 2024. I led on his impeachment defense team, and I’m stepping up in the House and have an open line of communication. He is deeply focused on issues of New York. Look, he may live in Florida now, but he’s a New Yorker at heart. He follows New York politics very, very closely. He’s a frequent guest on your show, Sid, he’s a friend of yours. So, this is going to be a race where Trump moved New York more to the Republican direction than any other state in the country if you look at 2024. He turned out a historic vote in Queens and the Bronx, uh, as well as doing that Madison Square Garden rally, which as you remember, the media and the left and the political prognosticators smeared him for it ended up being brilliant because he was able to surge New York turnout. We are going to need those Trump voters and it needs to be a candidate who excites those voters and is a close ally of President Trump.
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It goes back to the economy. President Trump is exactly right. It’s energy exploration. You go to parts of the Southern Tier, Sid, you go across the border to Pennsylvania. Small towns are booming. Income is rising, and yet in the Southern Tier, there continues to be mass population exodus, because we have a moratorium on fracking put into place by today’s New York Democrat leaders led by Kathy Hochul. You have the highest tax state in the nation. You have the most bureaucratic red tape. So people who wanna start a small business in New York State, which is the backbone of our upstate economy, it is crushing to get that done. The taxes are crushing. You have farms that are going out of business because the anti-agricultural policies put into place by Kathy Hochul and Democrats in Albany. So the economy is the key message in upstate New York. People understand that while President Trump’s policies are working across the nation, we are getting crushed by failed leadership from Democrats in Albany who have governed like radicals, who are also corrupt for years. Look at the budget. Look at this disaster of a budget. How fiscally irresponsible it is. It continues this trajectory of increasing taxes. It includes a $10 million taxpayer bailout for Tish James. It is a disgrace. We need to look at strong leadership to cut taxes to slash the bureaucratic red tape, and actually put New Yorkers first and be a boom, a beacon for manufacturing, farming, small businesses and investment.
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