‘Do You Feel Safe?’: Anthony D'Esposito Asked Point Blank Amid Threats Of Political Violence

4 months ago

Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-NY) joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss turning down angry political rhetoric and the bomb threats made against him and his office.

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Transcript

00:00You've worked across the aisle before and I am curious as someone with a law

00:04enforcement background, how do both sides of the aisle turn down the

00:09temperature on this rhetoric? Well I think it's it's got to be a step that

00:16that is taken that's actually believed. You can't just come on radio shows, you

00:22can't just come on TV, you can't just post Facebook and Twitter posts and say

00:27that we should calm down the rhetoric but then not actually calm down that

00:31rhetoric and unfortunately that's what we're seeing. I mean again you know the

00:35the arguments that some people are making on on our social media feeds I

00:40mean the things the calls that we get to our offices, the letters, the threats I

00:43mean it just doesn't seem that that it is calming down and as people get again

00:50closer to the election you know we just finished our our convention a week or so

00:55ago and the Democrats will have theirs in a couple of weeks you know it's

00:58unfortunate but I think that that rhetoric continues and if not we'll

01:02only get we'll get worse and and I have a strong concern and I know many of my

01:08colleagues do as well especially in places like New York where we you know

01:12get back into the school season I think we're going to see those encampments

01:16we're going to see those protests start kicking up again on our college campuses

01:20which were which were which are only going to hurt the attempt to to calm

01:26down the rhetoric. You said that your office receives multiple bomb threats

01:30former President Trump survived an assassination attempt when you see all

01:35of these incidents on a personal note do you feel safe? Well you know I feel safe

01:41by the the measures that I've taken to make sure that myself my family and my

01:46staff are safe it's the you know and I have you know I'm very thankful for the

01:53men and women of the Nassau County Police Department as well as the Village

01:56Police Department's all that protect and serve New York's fourth congressional

02:01district so yeah I am confident I am comfortable and but that's one of the

02:05reasons as to why I work so hard to deliver funding back here to the

02:09district you know we're building I just visited this past weekend we're building

02:13a state-of-the-art and I would argue probably one of the finest training

02:17facilities anywhere in the country right in the heart of my district and I was

02:20able to deliver close to four million dollars as part of the tactical village

02:25that we're building to give law enforcement professionals throughout our

02:28county and the Village Police Department's a hands-on approach to how

02:32to handle incidents we are going to have in that tactical village a mock place of

02:38worship a bar restaurant a bank so they can actually pull into a tactical village

02:45they can engage with suspects using simunitions so that that's that you know

02:51so to answer your question do I feel safe yeah I do but that doesn't mean

02:56that we let our guard down it doesn't mean that we don't keep our heads on a

02:59swivel and it doesn't mean that we you know we get complacent we need to make

03:05sure that we stay the course we need to stay vigilant and we need to make sure

03:08that our law enforcement professionals have the resources they need and we need

03:12to you know continue to take proactive approaches just like we are right now

03:16with this legislation in providing training and education to to the

03:20workforce on Capitol Hill and those who work in our district office to prepare

03:24them better for what's unfortunate in this political rhetoric

‘Do You Feel Safe?’: Anthony D'Esposito Asked Point Blank Amid Threats Of Political Violence

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