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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Coming up today we'll look closely at the conviction of Senator Bob Menendez. Also, we'll continue our WNYC Centennial series, 100 Years of 100 Things. Today, as we're in Republican Convention week, we'll have thing number four, 100 years of notable moments from Republican Convention speeches. We'll also have our usual Wednesday segment with our lead Eric Adams, Reporter Elizabeth Kim after the mayor's weekly Tuesday news conference.

We've got a few minutes now with one of our local members of Congress joining us from the Republican Convention in Milwaukee. It's freshman Congressman Anthony D'Esposito, the former New York City police detective who flipped the 4th District on Long Island from blue to red in 2022 and hopes to defend it with Long Island and the northern New York City suburbs being major battlegrounds for control of Congress overall this year. The race is assumed to be competitive, if for no other reason than that President Biden won the district in 2020 by double digits. Congressman D'Esposito, thanks for some time this morning. Welcome back to WNYC.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Hey. Good morning. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Can I ask you first, as a former NYPD detective, from a security standpoint, what's your best take so far on how Saturday's assassination attempt managed to happen with the shooter getting up on that roof with his gun?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: I think there was clearly a security breakdown, one that the House Homeland Security Committee is going to thoroughly investigate. We've been in constant communication since the incident happened on Saturday evening. Our chairman, Mark Green, has been in contact with the committee each day. We plan on hopefully taking a visit to the site, as well as, when we convene back on Capitol Hill on Monday evening, immediately get to work and investigating the situation and finding out where the issues lie so that most importantly this never happens again.

Brian Lehrer: Investigation to come. No theory from you, really. I was wondering if, as a former member of local law enforcement, with some of the talk being that, that part of rally security, generally the areas outside the perimeter of the event being designated to local law enforcement, if you had any take on that aspect.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Well, for me, for someone who spent a career in the NYPD, I think what's most important is to never Monday morning quarterback law enforcement agencies until you have all the facts right in front of you. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to wait until I have all the facts in front of me from how Saturday played out, make sure that the resources that were needed and requested were there to really investigate how the communication went between the locals and the federal agencies, and then I'll make my decision.

Brian Lehrer: Fair enough. Since the shooting, there have been calls from Speaker Mike Johnson and from President Biden and others to turn down the temperature in American politics. I wonder if you think that's important, and if so, how would you say it should apply to your party side?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Listen, turning down the temperature is important, and I think that's why, over the last three days, the Republican Party, led by our next president, Donald Trump, has made it very clear that our party is unified, that we want to tone down the rhetoric, that the extremism is not helpful, that it's dangerous, but unfortunately, by the looks of my social media feed and many other elected officials, the comments and the threats to our offices continue.

I think the Democrats need to really take a look at themselves in the mirror when they're calling out extremists and calling out stopping the rhetoric, and needs to call upon themselves to do the same.

Brian Lehrer: You're calling on the other party, they're certainly calling on you. By most people's assessments, I think it's fair to say not just partisan Democrats, Donald Trump himself has been the temperature raiser in chief for the last eight years, which includes winking at political violence. He made fun of Nancy Pelosi's husband being attacked. He watched the January 6th riot on TV with glee, according to his staffers who testified at the January 6th Committee. Here's one more. The Washington Post reminds us Trump warned last March of "potential death and destruction" if he were charged by the Manhattan district attorney. He also mocked those who urged his supporters to stay peaceful saying, "Our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful." Is he not the temperature raiser in chief?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: I think calling President Trump the temperature raiser in chief is a little bit unfair. When you have people in the Democratic Party, take, for instance, members of the squad like AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, who have called for the devastation and destruction of Israel, when you have people like Maxine Waters, when you have staffers of people that lead committees like Benny Thompson who have said, "Next time they shouldn't miss," in calling on the assassination of President Trump. It's actually absolutely ridiculous to say that President Trump is the one leading the rhetoric in this country.

I serve with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and from everything I've seen, both in my district, on Capitol Hill, and across this country, the extremism and the calls for violence as we've seen in the aftermath of October 7th, as we saw in the Black Lives Matter, the ones who are leading the violence, the ones that are calling for the rhetoric, the ones that are calling for violence are the Democrats.

Brian Lehrer: Those you mentioned would certainly have their versions of things they said, and I'll take that up when I have a Democrat on the show, but is there nothing you would say to President Trump in terms of his rhetoric?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: I think that President Trump and what he's talked about over the last three days speaks for itself. He's calling for the unification of this country. He wants to make this country better than it's ever been. He chose a vice presidential candidate, someone who's been critical of him in the past. I think that tells the story of exactly where the Republicans are. Whether we're in Nassau County, whether we're representing the entire United States of America, we are a unified front.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, I'm seeing that staffer for Benny Thompson did tweet something like that about next time don't miss. I hadn't heard that before. We just looked it up. I see that staffer was also immediately fired. You mentioned Trump and J.D. Vance unifying. Vance will address the convention tonight. I see the Democratic National Campaign Committee put out an attack on you that says, "At the Republican Convention, Anthony D'Esposito celebrates anti-abortion extremist J.D. Vance as Trump's VP." It cites his position against legal abortion even after rape or incest, under the premise that two wrongs don't make a right. Your response to that?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Well, the Democrats have been working for the last three years to try to completely tell the American people false truths, especially when it comes to me. There has no one who has been more upfront in saying that when they disagree with their party, they have no problem calling it like it is. Take, for example, I was the one with other New Yorkers who made sure that the Agriculture Appropriations Bill never made it to the floor.

Why? Because it had stipulations in there that would restrict the women's ability to get mifepristone in the United States Postal Service and shipped by mail. That bill never made it to the floor. I was one of few Republicans who signed a discharge petition, signing on to in vitro fertilization legislation. To say that I'm an extremist, to say that I'm anti-women-- I spent a career in the New York City Police Department investigating and hunting down people who violated women's rights, and I continue to be someone who, when needed, speaks against my party to make sure that women have the right to choose.

Brian Lehrer: President Biden says he wants to have Congress codify the old Roe versus Wade standard into federal law now that the Supreme Court has given it back to the political sector. That would be until viability of the fetus to live outside the womb, generally considered a limit of about 24 weeks. Would you vote for or against such a measure?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: I'd have to read the entire legislation, but right now, the right to women, as was decided by the Supreme Court, is in the state's hands.

Brian Lehrer: One more issue. I know you have to go in about two minutes. The number one issue for voters is generally inflation, according to the polls. I've read the Republican Party platform, congressman, that was approved last week, and it says, "Defeat inflation and quickly bring down all prices." The only specific I see for that is to ramp up fossil fuel production to control energy prices through supply and demand. What else does the party have because many economists are seeing this promise as relatively empty?

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Well, I think that under President Trump, we saw when people went to the supermarkets, things were more affordable. I think that we're going to focus on placing tariffs against--

Brian Lehrer: That was before the pandemic, but go ahead. Go ahead.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Placing tariffs on countries that are costing us more money, especially when it comes to energy prices. I think that it's important that we focus on energy here in the United States of America. I think that President Trump has shown during his tenure that he has the ability to make this country more affordable. While I disagree with President Trump on some of his tax policies, we've had conversations, elected officials in New York and other blue states that are held by Republicans, that we want to make sure that we restore that SALT deduction to make life more affordable.

There are many things on the table that Republicans are talking about to make this country and make the lives of the American people more affordable. I know President Trump is open to it. He's willing to work with all of us, and that's our commitment to America.

Brian Lehrer: One follow up, and especially because you mentioned the tariffs. Some of the party's core economic policies have been reviewed as essentially inflationary by many economists. The big increase in tariffs, in particular, which are really taxes on imported consumer goods, prices would presumably be passed along to buyers. Also, the deficit hawk Peterson Institute flags the promise of mass deportation. It says deporting 1.3 million workers could cause the size of the US economy to shrink by 2%, essentially creating recession.

Others say the big tax cut extension Trump wants, not just SALT, but the big tax cut. Well, SALT was a tax increase. The big tax cut extension he wants would balloon the deficit by trillions over time, which is also inflationary. How do you respond to that? How does the party propose to counteract all those arguably inflationary policies of its own? You can also say anything you want, else you want in closing as I know we're running out of time with you.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Well, I think that when Democrats are talking about deportation as an issue focused on the economy is absolutely ridiculous. What they should be focusing is on the fact that under President Biden's failed leadership, and obviously Kamala Harris, our so-called border czar, there's been well over 12 million people that have come into this country illegally.

When you take places like New York, it's costing us billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars in order to deal with this migrant crisis. You have Democrats, like Mayor Adams, who have said this issue will destroy the City of New York. To take this migrant crisis, the one that Biden created on his own, and say that deporting those who came into this country illegally, those who are part of illegal gangs, those who are smuggling narcotics that are killing millions of Americans each year, to focus on that and not the actual issue of the fact that Joe Biden has failed the American people is absolutely ridiculous.

Brian Lehrer: Congressman Anthony D'Esposito, freshman from the 4th Congressional District of New York in Nassau County, thank you very much for giving us some time from the convention today. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Congressman Anthony D'Esposito: Take care. Bye-bye.

Brian Lehrer: Of course, we will have his Democratic opponent, Laura Gillen, at another time.

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