00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News. Joining me now is Congresswoman
00:07Claudia Tenney. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining me once again.
00:10It's great to be on.
00:13A lot of news has broken since you and I have last talked less than two weeks ago. But let's
00:18start with the most recent first. On Sunday, President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024
00:23race. What's your reaction?
00:25Well, I'm not surprised, although it was sort of stunning the way that we heard about this via a
00:31Twitter message not coming from the president, a national address, which I think would have
00:36probably been more appropriate.
00:37But like this is we don't know the reasons why.
00:41And it's concerning to me that the Democrats have, you know, talk on and on about democracy
00:46and undermining democracy.
00:48But my first reaction was 14 million Democrats went to the polls this year and voted for Joe
00:53Biden in the primary.
00:55And now, without any real explanation, Joe Biden is out.
00:58And, you know, we can speculate that it's because his poll numbers are bad and that's why they
01:02want him out after a very successful Republican convention.
01:06Or and by the way, the other real key thing is his donor money was drying up, which is
01:11probably one of the more compelling reasons.
01:13And secondly, maybe it's his cognitive situation, but he's not stepping down yet, although
01:18that could happen since this has been one crazy whirlwind of a of an election cycle.
01:24You know, we went from a very poor debate performance from President Biden to the
01:31assassination attempt of President Trump to the this shocking news now.
01:36So I don't I just think it's it's incredible that they're forcing him out.
01:41And I really we don't really have a clear reason why.
01:44What do you make of the argument from many Republicans that if he steps down from the
01:48race, he should then immediately resign from the presidency?
01:52Well, I have called for him to resign from the presidency long ago.
01:55Once Robert Herr put out his report that said that Joe Biden was guilty of crimes,
02:01basically, but he was worried about it, putting him in front of a jury because he was
02:06forgetful. And, you know, this has raised a huge controversy over whether or not the
02:11tapes can actually be released so people can hear the pauses and the and the actual
02:15live version of Joe Biden, not the edited transcript that's written down.
02:19And so at that moment in time, I said, if you if Robert Herr claims that you're not
02:24competent to stand trial, then the 25th Amendment should be invoked by Merrick Garland and
02:29he should be removed from office based on the 25th Amendment.
02:32I wrote that letter to Merrick Garland on the eve of that bombshell disclosure by Robert
02:39Herr. And now I stand by that.
02:41And here we are again. If the president cannot serve, he needs to step down if it's some
02:46kind of men's prison. And by the way, how do you how do you how do they how do you
02:51measure this? Well, oh, it's because he's low in poll numbers.
02:53Well, that totally undermines democracy because you're undermining the will of the
02:57voters who chose someone regardless of his poll numbers.
02:59Or is it that he is not capable of doing the job?
03:02You know, these are these are questions that don't that don't reconcile each other based
03:07on what they're trying to do. And it looks to me like it's winning at all costs, power
03:11at all costs, regardless of what the voters think, regardless of what the democratic
03:15process is. And yet what has been going on with this cover up of the president's
03:18condition, especially in the last year, we've seen him deteriorate more dramatically than
03:23even in the last couple of years.
03:25Senator J.D. Vance also said, I believe it was last night, that if President Biden can't
03:32needs to step down, he shouldn't serve.
03:34Democrats should invoke the 25th Amendment.
03:36I know you called on the 25th Amendment to be invoked before.
03:39Do you think it should be invoked now?
03:42Well, we don't have any answers about what's going on with President Biden.
03:45We know that he's allegedly has covid.
03:47So I think that Biden needs to address the nation.
03:51We need to see him come out and tell everybody what the story is.
03:54This is all cloaked in staff reports and and not official.
03:58And I've never seen anything like this.
04:00A president stepping down without actually addressing the nation, addressing his voters.
04:06The people who put him in place.
04:08And and so if it is because he's incapable of doing that, maybe he has a cough, maybe
04:13has covid, he should say to the media, he's his complete the schedule has been cleared,
04:18I guess, this week from what we hear.
04:20And remember that we're all up in the air.
04:21We don't get any answers or facts.
04:23This is the president of the United States who is running our country.
04:26Is it a bunch of staff?
04:28You know, who is it?
04:30And I think this is why people are so outraged.
04:32The cover up, the fact that Joe Biden is sick somewhere and we don't have any idea of
04:36why he's getting out, what his condition is.
04:39And I think that's why people are understandably upset.
04:42And I'm hearing that from both sides.
04:44I've heard some of my Democratic friends are concerned and want answers as well.
04:48Some Democrats were worried that with President Biden at the top of the ticket, that would
04:52affect down ballot races.
04:54Now he is not at the top of the ticket.
04:57So how is the New York delegation feeling with a replacement of President Biden come
05:02November? I can't speak for the rest of the delegation, but I can tell you what I'm
05:07thinking is that the Democrats have terrible policies.
05:11The policies aren't going to change under Kamala Harris.
05:13She is equally as flawed in terms of her policies.
05:17Yes, she is younger, but she also is not great on the campaign trail.
05:21So she may have to run a very similar campaign to what President Biden ran in 2020.
05:26You know, that type of basement campaign.
05:28She's got a lot of negative policies out.
05:30She was named the border star.
05:31We have the worst border in our nation's history.
05:33And that's, you know, her her solitary field.
05:38That's what she's been charged with as the borders are.
05:40And it's a disgrace.
05:42And she's been to the border once while we have this, you know, this raging border
05:46problems, crime, murder, rape, all these things happening across the across the country,
05:50particularly in New York.
05:51And and she also was the person who, you know, we're talking about crime.
05:55She was, you know, actually helping with bail money to get, you know, these
06:00perpetrators who were in the summer of love, you know, were violent.
06:04And then she said she was doubled down.
06:05She doubled down on a media interview and said she was going to they're not going to
06:08stop. They're going to continue to be violent.
06:10They're going to continue to cause tens of millions of dollars in damage to federal
06:14property in courthouses all across America, from Seattle to Portland, you know, to
06:18Kenosha, Wisconsin.
06:20This this is the legacy of Kamala Harris.
06:23So I'm concerned that the Democrats may try to remove her as well.
06:26Now, a lot of them have said they have supported her.
06:29But the delegates in the Democratic Party do not vote until August 19th.
06:33It is very notable that President Obama has not endorsed her yet.
06:37Others have. But it'll be interesting to see what we do with the delegate process.
06:40And will the Democrats again undermine the Democratic process?
06:44The elites will force a candidate on the people that are that are Democrat Party
06:48members. And that's who you're going to end up with.
06:51And I just think the whole thing is just incredible.
06:53I just and as someone from New York, you know, I'm very concerned about her serving
06:59as our president, especially with the problems at the border.
07:01And most of my district being by the northern border.
07:05I start north of the St. Lawrence Seaway and all the way around Lake Ontario to
07:08Niagara, the Niagara border, the county of Niagara border with Canada.
07:13And we have a 440 percent increase from people coming across our border.
07:1885 percent of the people coming across the northern border, 85 percent of the people
07:23that are on the terror watch list come across the northern border.
07:25We have dangerous laws in place because of one party rule in Albany.
07:29Our state government is just disarray and disgraceful.
07:33And it's harming the people of New York and the people I represent.
07:37The RNC was in Milwaukee last week.
07:39You were there. And a lot of the speech is centered around how the GOP's platform is
07:44better than four more years of President Biden.
07:47Now that there won't be four more years of President Biden, is the Republican Party's
07:52platform changing or are you saying, no, the message is still the same?
07:57No, I think the platform has not really changed.
07:59It's very similar to the platform of Reagan.
08:01It talks about peace through strength.
08:03It talks about all this, the principles of Republican limited government, you know, low
08:08taxes, economic prosperity, protecting life.
08:13Those are all part of the platform.
08:15But I think that it was just a little more general the way the platform was put out.
08:19We'll see, you know, it's basically Trump's America First agenda, which was very popular
08:24and bring our jobs back.
08:26That was something very popular.
08:27And that's where President Trump went on in 2016.
08:29And you've seen that it's we've completely slipped away from that since Biden was
08:33elected. And I think that going back to the principles of President Trump, had we been
08:37there today, New York, the state and our country would be much more prosperous, much
08:42more safe. And our standing in the world would be tremendously better.
08:45We would not have wars raging in Europe and the Middle East.
08:49Arguably, some of the biggest news to come out of the convention was that Donald Trump
08:53selected his running mate, and that is Senator from Ohio J.D.
08:57Vance. What do you make of that selection?
09:00Yeah, it's an interesting selection.
09:01I didn't I don't really know J.D.
09:02Vance. I think I met him once at an event.
09:04But I interesting.
09:06I did read and watch the movie Hillbilly Elegy, which is J.D.
09:09Vance's work describing his life growing up in rural Ohio.
09:14I can kind of relate. I went to law school in Ohio.
09:17I come from a state that I call upstate New York, the Rust Belt of New York, very similar
09:21to the lifestyle that J.D.
09:23Vance had, you know, knowing what it's like to lose your jobs to overseas interests, to,
09:29you know, get ravaged by high taxes and a lot of those issues that they faced in Rust
09:33Belt towns. And so I think he brings a story of coming from poverty to making it big,
09:39being successful. And I think that's what they're trying.
09:42That's the message that President Trump is trying to say, is that, you know, you can be
09:46successful in America. You can come from nothing and aspire and arise to be, you know,
09:52a senator of the United States, you know, a successful business person, you know, a
09:58successful writer with a book and a movie.
10:01And also now the nominee for vice president on a major ticket in the United States.
10:06I think it's an aspirational story and it's one that President Trump wants every
10:09American to feel, that they can also be as successful as J.D.
10:12Vance is regardless of where their roots are.
10:15Congresswoman, I appreciate your time once again.
10:18Thank you for joining me.
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