Aside from taking a hardline stance on New York’s crime wave, Republican gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani presses on traditional conservatism through his populist appeal.
“I think more than anything, this has been a problem with our institutions. I’ve positioned myself as an America First,” said Mr. Giuliani. The son of the former New York mayor went on to express his disgust with the politicizing of the January 6th committee, which he claimed violated House rules.
“Where’s the congressional investigation about the 270 plus riots that happened between May of 2020 and January 5 of 2021?” Questioned, Mr. Giuliani. “Parts of cities on the West Coast literally being taken over as autonomous zones is pure chaos.”
Regarding academia, Mr. Giuliani plans to take on private universities. He said, “They should pay their property tax. They have an exemption on their tax status.”
“We’re talking about universities that have multibillion-dollar endowments. They can afford it. They can do it,” said Mr. Giuliani. “It will take some relief off of New York taxpayers.”
With CRT in the “progressive” mix, he plans to enact legislation similar to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act. “If that did not pass, I would do everything I could from an executive fiat perspective to pass it by executive order.”
He also mentioned a tax credit system, so monies go directly into teachers’ unions. New Yorkers would then be able to decide which school they want their child to attend. Mr. Giuliani said, “It’s bringing the free market and more choice into education. If you do that now, all of a sudden, the curriculums become accountable at that point.” He said he would push back against the Justice Department’s labeling parents attending school board meetings as domestic terrorists.
Mr. Giuliani insisted the lockdowns were harmful to our children’s growth educationally and interpersonally granting a susceptibility to drugs like many of the opioids filtered through the southern border. He commented on the hypersexualization and gender education, saying we can’t be teaching this and to “let our kids be innocent again.”
Pivoting to economic woes, he compared Florida’s budget to New York’s. He plans to cut the state’s budget by 20%. “Florida actually has a million more people than New York. Florida state budget is $98 billion. New York’s is $220 billion,” he said. “New York is going to be right on the path, unfortunately, of Illinois. And that’s not a place where we want to go,” commenting on New York’s population flight, particularly to Florida. Mr. Giuliani has also promised no property taxes for residents older than 60 and under the salary cap of $100,000.
With Big Tech, he plans to push Congress to repeal Section 230, protecting social media outlets from being responsible for published material. “That needs to be done on a federal level, but I would look at from a state-level how we can hold social media companies accountable,” said Mr. Giuliani, commenting that Twitter and other like platforms have “become publishers and that [Section 230] protection should no longer exist.”
Mr. Giuliani vows to secure our elections and make voter ID mandatory. He will make voting machines obsolete and maintain and update voter rolls annually.
Regarding the state’s mandates, Mr. Giuliani plans to eliminate all unconstitutional COVID-19 mandates, hire a new Health Commissioner, and rehire all state workers with backpay. He intends to end a 2019 Andrew Cuomo law that ended religious exemptions in New York.
If he loses the Republican primary, he plans to keep fighting for the America First agenda as long as he has breath. “We need to do everything we possibly could so that way we could leave a better country, a better state for our children than was left for me.”
New York’s gubernatorial primaries are Tuesday, June 28 and early voting started June 18. There are currently four Republican candidates: Mr. Giuliani, GOP designated nominee Lee Zeldin, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, and businessman Harry Wilson.
Brian J. Pfail 