FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Saratoga N.Y., – In case you missed it, House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik joined Cats & Cosby with John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby on 77 WABC about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s dangerous sanctuary state policies that puts illegals first and New Yorkers last, and antisemitism in higher education.
You can listen to the interview in full here.
View highlights from Chairwoman Stefanik’s interview:
On Fght to Save New York:
I’m getting a lot of encouragement all across the state, and I’m grateful for that outpouring of support. And the important thing here, John, is it’s not just from Republicans, it’s from Independents and Democrats as well, who have seen that Kathy Hochul has failed New York and she is truly the worst governor in America. Just look at that hearing that Rita just played. You had a sitting governor of New York State try to defend her record of being a sanctuary state. Meanwhile, you have violent crimes being committed against hard working New Yorkers. As I pointed out, you’ve had NYPD cops who have been targeted, and violently assaulted, and you had that poor woman on the subway who was burned alive by an illegal here because of Kathy Hochul state policies. And what was her response? She didn’t even know the name of that illegal criminal. She didn’t even have any type of empathy for these New Yorkers who have suffered at her hands, and just today, breaking news today, there was an illegal who had a knife, who chased the sitting US Attorney for the Northern District down the streets of Albany. That is Kathy Hochul’s New York. She owns this because of the failed policies, and she signed the executive order not once, not twice, but three times to extend sanctuary state policies.
On Migration:
We proudly support our law enforcement, and you have a very strong border policy from this president, and these deportations have to happen of these illegal, violent criminals who are here. Tom Holman, who is, of course, President Trump’s borders czar. He is actually from my district in the North Country. He is a proud New Yorker. He is working every day with the president to make our communities more safe and to secure the border once and for all. But now you have the governor in our home state on top of the millions of dollars that New York state taxpayers have had to give these illegals because of Kathy Hochul. She went out there and announced $50 million of New York taxpayer funds that are going to be used as legal funds for illegals. Think about that. New York citizens are now having to pay the lawyer fees for illegal migrants here.
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We need a governor who puts New Yorkers first. And what we’re seeing in Kathy Hochul is she’s putting illegals first, New Yorkers last. She’s putting criminals first, and New Yorkers last, and people are fed up with it. And you know, right now the state of the Democrat party, you referenced this. We’re seeing this play out in the New York City mayoral Primary among Democrats. You have a radical communist, Marxist, who is antisemitic, who is one of the top two leading candidates. This is unrecognizable to hard-working New Yorkers of all political stripes who realize this is the opposite of common sense. It is the radical Far Left that is destroying our state.
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And I have to credit Nicole. Nicole has seen the issues in New York City front and center. She put up this strong fight when she ran for mayor against de Blasio and has been a key part of building this coalition of common sense, safety and security, affordability, and standing up for American values. And it really you never thought you could get worse than de Blasio, but boy, these candidates make it seem it can get worse. And Nicole had it exactly right. The fact that you have Kathy Hochul running to one of these candidates’ side who assaulted a police officer rather than supporting law enforcement. That is unbecoming of the governor of New York. And again, it’s putting criminals first and New Yorkers last.
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I’m deeply concerned about the impacts of Joe Biden’s open border policies, and we know because of President Trump’s executive action that Joe Biden could have closed the border and taken these actions. He chose not to. That was a policy decision they made to have wide open borders, and that was a decision Kathy Hochul supported. So in addition to the illegals committing crimes against law-abiding New Yorkers, I am deeply concerned, and I represent a border district. Don’t forget, many of the illegals, including those on the terrorist watch list, have crossed our northern border in the Swanton Sector, which is right along my district between New York and Canada. So I am very concerned about that national security threat that we have internally, and we see that in terms of our briefings that I get on the House Intelligence Committee.
On Issues with 2020 Election’s integrity:
This is deeply, deeply disturbing. We have been very concerned about the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to influence our elections, the attempt to influence people, including in Kathy Hochul’s office, which they effectively have become a part of. And of course, that has been in the news, but I’m deeply, deeply concerned. We need to have election integrity. President Trump is exactly right, and we need that in the state of New York. We need that in the City of New York. Remember, it’s the Democrats who wanted illegals to be able to vote in municipal elections in New York City. And Nicole Malliotakis, who I know is on the show, she was one of the leaders that we worked with to defeat that in the courts, and she was very active, and we were proud to work with her. My good friend, Nicole, is with you in the studio, I know.
On Asking SEC to Investigate Harvard:
This is about holding higher education accountable. And you all remember that hearing where you had the presidents, now former presidents of Penn and Harvard as well as MIT, and they failed to condemn antisemitism. What’s worse, they refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews violates their University’s code of conduct. They said it depends on the context. That hearing set off an earthquake in education policy that was sorely needed, and it’s the most viewed testimony in the history of the United States Congress. All of this oversight work we have done, whether it’s foreign dollars flowing into these universities or whether it’s Harvard’s refusal to work with the administration to abide by the law – and this is important for us to know this information – that if they did not disclose this information as required to the SEC, that’s a serious, serious legal problem for Harvard. So I am demanding an investigation, and this is part of our oversight to make sure that these schools who receive billions of dollars of US taxpayer funds, are not abusing them, which we know they are.
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First of all, these universities are American universities, and our priority needs to be educating the next generation of American leaders. And it has come to the forefront that the CCP is utilizing our most elite universities to train its next generation of communist leaders. We should not have let it got this far. We need to make sure that we are addressing this national security threat. That’s why the President’s decisions regarding these foreign visas for students is incredibly important. So I would go a step further to ensure that these are American universities that have predated the founding of our country. They need to get back to America First values and academic integrity – most importantly – and academic excellence. We want to be teaching skills and academia for our kids to succeed after they graduate, not brainwashing, which is what is happening, unfortunately at these institutions. And I, myself, graduated. I was the first member of my family to have that opportunity. It was just a huge honor for my family to be able to have me attend college. And Harvard is not what it was when I was there. It is unrecognizable to me.
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