Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript Interview with Lee Zeldin

Interview

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CHAFFETZ: All right. So, Congressman Lee Zeldin, you don't represent Baltimore. You -- I find you to be one of the most responsible members of Congress. But you have some colleagues over there that have for decades represented these same areas, gotten the same results working with Democratic mayors, Democratic governors.

And it's shameful. These cities are falling apart. You can't even walk down the street.

REP. LEE ZELDIN, R-NY: Yeah, as long as they get theirs, as long as they get reelected, they're OK. It's their own political calculation that they might do, and quite frankly, you know, taking for granted votes that are out there. Many of these different communities, they weren't going in there to help because a lot of these people would vote for them anyway.

And I think it's really important for voters to take control of their own cities, in their own states. I live in New York where we have one-party rule in New York City. We're seeing an erosion of public safety not just in New York City but throughout New York state, where earlier this year, they enacted cashless bail -- defunding the police in New York City, not standing with NYPD as a result in a surge of shootings and deaths, of retirement packets, and even suicides, by the way.

So we should be supporting our law enforcement more, not less. And to your point, though, unfortunately, it's a consequence of politicians getting re- elected and getting the votes of some of these people in these communities even if they don't help them.

CHAFFETZ: Leo, what is -- what does the Democratic Party offer going into 2020, up and down the ticket, jobs, the economy, safety, security, law enforcement? I mean, they're nowhere on these issues that I see.

TERRELL: Oh, first of all, let me just be very clear, Kim is more qualified to hold political office than Senator Harris.

What are the Democrats offering? Nothing. They're hiding their policies.

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They don't want to talk about their extreme liberal policies. They offer (ph) fear, fear as to what's been going on for the last four months because you have had chaos, total annihilation of Democratic cities.

And I want to applaud President Trump for holding back federal funds. We as taxpayers are paying for all this rioting, looting, all this chaos in these Democratic cities.

And you got the worst mayor in the nation, Bill de Blasio, who's destroying New York. You have the biggest ego governor, Cuomo, who is threatening the president.

Donald Trump is the only person who could provide law and order in this country. We need him now more than ever.

CHAFFETZ: Kimberly, walk us through real quickly what needs to happen in big inner cities like Baltimore in order to turn it around and turn it into a place where families can thrive, jobs can thrive, people can feel safe and live the American dream.

KLACIK: Absolutely. It's all about career opportunities. That's what you see lacking in so many cities. In Baltimore, we used to be a manufacturing powerhouse. Unfortunately, those manufacturing jobs went overseas, thanks to NAFTA.

But we didn't do anything to replenish those career opportunities so I say bring back the medical equipment industry right back through the port of Baltimore and get these people real careers that come with health insurance. You know, talk about school choice, talk about -- doing something as far as a crime and violence. You know, we don't even have a plan right now.

So, there's a lot of things that we could be doing and I think Republicans are on board. We just need Democrats to get on board as well.

CHAFFETZ: Well, you need to replace those Democrats with some Republicans in order to get that done so that we don't have Nancy Pelosi in place.

Go ahead, Leo.

TERRELL: Can everybody -- can everybody see my hat? Can everybody read this? I want to make sure everybody can read this.

I want to make sure -- we have no choice, we have 60 days to elect President Trump. We have to work day and night because as you asked me earlier the Democrats are selling fear, pandering.

We cannot let this country lose the American values and a civilized society. We are a nation of laws. The Democrats are lawlessness.

CHAFFETZ: Well, Congressman Zeldin, I wish I had more time for you but Kimberly was on fire. I wanted to hear from her. I hope that's OK. I'll have to make it up for you another way.

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