This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated January 12, 2024
With the new year, races for southern Brooklyn elective offices will heat up. Republicans will look to maintain gains they made in the competitive Assembly races two years ago, while Rep. Malliotakis will aim to defend her seat in a congressional district which is set to be redrawn within the next two months after the state’s top court ruled last month that house district lines for the rest of the decade must be established by the Independent Redistricting Commission, as per the state constitution.
In a presidential cycle, there will be a lot of attention on the top of the ticket. Following the Brooklyn Republican holiday party in December, The Brooklyn Eagle asked many of the prominent attendees for their thoughts on Trump and whether they would support his candidacy for the top office in the country while he faces multiple federal and state criminal and civil legal cases. Many were very forthcoming in their enthusiastic support for the twice-impeached, four-times-indicted former president who is currently facing over 90 criminal charges.
Former state Sen. Marty Golden predicted, “Trump will be the next president of the United States.” He added, “You wouldn’t see any of what’s going on in the world now if he were at the helm,” as he went on to reference the wars in Ukraine and Gaza specifically.
Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny acknowledged that “Sure, some people dislike him because of his character,” but ultimately asserted that, in his view, “we need not only a republican with a hammer, but we need one with a big hammer.”
Assemblymember Novakhov also said he understands why people are unhappy with Trump’s character, but stated, “…we are not choosing a person; we are choosing a president.” Novakhov said that “the bills he passed when he was in the White House were the most amazing bills ever signed by an American president.”
It is to be expected that prominent Brooklyn Republican political figures will be supporting their party’s presumptive presidential nominee, even with Trump’s controversies and legal woes, but it is hard to know where to begin with their justifications for that support.
Assemblymember Lester Chang, in offering his thoughts on the subject, felt that Trump “represents strength.” Chang said that “we need a younger, healthier” president.
According to what was said following the Brooklyn Republican event, nothing bad would be happening in the world if Trump were president, as if those involved in protracted conflicts in other parts of the world, like in Israel and Gaza, would simply resolve their differences immediately if Trump were president of a country 6,000 miles away from their own.
From what was said after the GOP holiday event, Trump’s character is a problem, but voters do not need to consider who he is as a person when deciding if they should vote to place him in the most influential position in the world because being full of bravado is what is most important.
As per commentary from local Republicans that night, The Civil Rights Act and the G.I. Bill pale in comparison to the bills Trump signed into law during his presidency because the legislation he signed was the most amazing in the 246-year history of the United States.
“The bills [Trump] passed when he was in the White House were the most amazing bills ever signed by an American president.”
Assemblymember Michael Novakhov (AD45) following the Brooklyn Republican Party Holiday Event, December 11, 2023
Though President Biden is the oldest president ever, if elected in 2024, Trump would be in his 80s for most of his term and he certainly does not adhere to a healthy lifestyle, but according to what was said after the annual Republican get-together, he is the younger, healthier choice America needs.
Again, it is to be expected that Republicans will be in support of the policy positions of their party’s nominee, but believing that Trump needs to be president because all the problems around the world will then disappear, that the most consequential bills passed in American history are all the ones signed by Trump, and that a man pushing 80 with unhealthy habits is young and healthy, is just bizarre.
When asked on CNN about Trump’s remarks that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country – a term straight out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf – Rep. Malliotakis brushed it aside, saying, “he never said immigrants,” contending it was not about people but about policy. In his comments, Trump literally referenced people “poisoning the blood; from South America, Africa, Asia.”
Malliotakis, defending Trump, said, “He married immigrants.” Between his own marriages and past comments, Trump has been clear that he supports immigration from Europe, but not from South America, Africa, Asia, which begs the question: what about Europe does he find so preferable to these other parts of the world?
When choosing a president, character is most definitely important. Not echoing words of the worst dictator in human history, once used to justify the extermination of entire groups of people, is important. Not making excuses for those things is incredibly important.
