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Welcome back to power and politics. We're talking about the big debate that took place right here in our Beth Page studios this week between Tom Suozzi and Mazzie Philip ahead of the special election in New York's third congressional district, which is just now days away. And back with us is the former NASA county executive, Laura Curran, former NASA legislator Josh Laa and former state assemblyman Mike Lape. All right, Mike make your quick point on the migrant crisis and then we're gonna talk abortion because that was another heated display just real quick on it. If Swazi was the reasonable uh politician, as he says, he is, then he would have been supportive of the secure the Border Act that the house passed in the last year in 2023 instead of focusing on the Senate deal that's just meant to prop up Biden now when it hasn't even passed the Senate, that's all it doesn't make sense. Ok, let's move on to abortion because this is an issue where Mozzie Pip especially got really heated. She essentially demanded Tom Suzie apologize for what has been said about her and some of the ads that are playing on TV, on social media. Take a listen to this one. Are you saying that you're pro choice? Every woman should have that right? It is a personal decision, a personal choice. Every woman should have that choice. I'm not going to tell her what to do. All right, Laura, I wanna go to you here because we get wrapped up in you labeled pro life pro choice. She's saying personally I'm pro life, but that doesn't mean I'm going to take my beliefs and put them on you another person living in the district. Did she thread the needle enough in your view? Well, threading the needle is a very difficult thing to do on this issue. It's yes or no. Right. And our voters, as I said before, tend to be pretty moderate, pretty sensible, generally pro choice, even when they're demo, even when they're Republicans. And this is a losing issue for Republicans. And I do not think that she, she thread the needle needle. I think, you know, she, Tom made a really good point at the end of the debate. We still don't know where she stands on abortion. And Tom's been very clear, safe, legal accessible pro choice. But Josh, she doesn't come off here, at least in my view as an extremist on the issue. Sure she tried her best to moderate. But in a Post Dobbs world, it wasn't enough. In my opinion, Tom Suozzi asked her two pointed questions. Are you pro choice and will you codify Roe into law? She did not answer and she demurred on both and a post Dobbs were where many states as Tom Suozzi pointed out, have completely outlawed abortion in many states where somebody who as young as 12 was forced into childbirth because of these arcane and draconian laws. Uh People are more concerned and quite frankly, what Tom mentioned is as a member of Congress, you have to vote on these bills and there is a bill to codify Roe into law and will you vote for it? And she demurred? And so I think that Tom Sua campaign will hit on this in the final weeks. This is a district as Laura mentioned, is overwhelmingly pro choice and polling shows as a strong overwhelming preference to codify Roe into law. I thought it was a mistake and I think Tom Swazi will hammer on it in the final weeks, Mike, it seems that she has different constituencies that she needs to appeal to. On the one hand, as you both point out, this is a purple district, no doubt about it. On the other hand, she is, she is a registered democrat running as a Republican. She has to assure conservatives that she is also gonna follow the Republican line on many of these key issues. This district is diverse. Nassau uh Nassau County with the North Shore and the South Shore. But what's ironic here is so is she you have, uh I, I find it crazy that if the roles were flipped, you have a black Jewish woman running on the Republican line and a white man running the democrat. If this was flipped and he was doing that to her, the press and media would go off. What do you mean doing that going, pointing at her, grilling her, going at her uh so aggressively when she's saying is I'm never going to infringe on women's rights here. This is where I stand. I'm a mother. I have seven Children. I'm somebody that, this is my body. That's what I do. But that's different from what I'm gonna compel people in, in government. So that should have been plain and simple. There's your answer. There we go. But he kept growing because he wanted to get points because he's so desperate right now to win in the coming days for Tuesday that he's gonna try to push her in any way into that corner. If that was, if the roles were flipped, this would be you'd be criticized more than he did agree with that. I think they were equally poised and, you know, attacking in ways that were not really inappropriate, but we pretty equal. I didn't see one bullying the other, I thought, and I said, I mean, she's a tough cookie. She can, she could handle, she could handle this debate. Um So I, I don't think that he was as aggressive as you're portraying him. In fact, at one point, she was like walking towards him and he's like, whoa, what is this, Rick Lazio? Well, when she leaned in, that's a tough spot for a candidate, right? Because she loves him right in the eye. And the gender thing too because you know, you eat a can't react. I mentioned this was their first debate and so rich kudos to you for letting the candidates ask questions directly to each other. They hadn't had a chance to do so. And so I think the public deserves that. And I think it was a clarion moment in the debate. When Tom Suozzi asked these pointed questions, you are a member of Congress, you will vote on a bill to codify Roe. Will you vote? Yes or will you vote? No. And there was no answer. Anyone who's gonna represent the third congressional district. It's gotta be a strong yes. All right. Let's go to the salt tax deduction very quickly. Listen to this. I passed it through the house three times despite enormous opposition. If I go back to Congress, I'll be a senior member of Congress. I'll get my seniority back and I'll go back on ways and means he promised us he's gonna bring salt deduction back. He felt. And when I'm gonna go to Congress, I will fight and I will work very hard to make sure to bring salt deduction for New Yorkers because I want New York to be more affordable for people. Mike. This sounds like one of those issues that would be very much in the weeds, the state and local tax deduction, but it's not, not in Long Island people know exactly what you're talking about. 100%. I mean, Mozzie is coming in and saying that, listen, when I make a promise I'm gonna deliver and that's the case. You had your shot, you had your chance, you didn't do it. You had a full Democrat legislature in the House and Senate with the presidency. It never happened. So now is my turn. And I think that's justifiable and enough for the people to hear that and saying, yeah, why not, why not have that new blood and that new opportunity, Josh, quickly. Sure. I think Tom made a great point. We had three members of Congress who are from the Republican caucus who I haven't even gotten a floor vote. And Tom Swazi passed salt through the house three times and the point he made was, I've done it three times. I can deliver again. The Senate filibuster is an obstacle that he's not responsible for, but he's our member of Congress. He's passed it and he said, are you better than these three? That was a pretty good response. Laura very quickly. Can anyone get this done because it's a regional conflict. Representatives in other states said you're all rich in New York and New Jersey. Don't worry about salt. It was under a Republican president that it was passed. But now when the money's coming in you're milking that cow. It's really hard for the government to let it go. All right, we're gonna leave that issue right there. We'll see if it gets solved. It's not an easy one. When we come back here on power and politics, we're gonna look ahead to Tuesday. What do these three expect to happen on Election day? What did the candidates have to do here in the final stretch? Power and politics is back right after this?

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She is pro Israel. Um, she's former ITF, she's a Republican. I want somebody in there who's gonna do a job and do a job for people on Long Island that I don't think anybody has done in a really, really long time. And I think the best person for that job is Sua, all right. Long Islanders making up their minds ahead of the upcoming special election in the third congressional district. It's in your hands now as we are down the final stretch here in this race. Welcome back to power and politics back with the panel now. And Laura, we are here. We, it's a sprint in a special election six weeks and we're there. Uh, where does it stand in your mind right now? GE O TV, get out the vote. You know, Tom's got strong labor, uh, support. So, boots on the ground. He's got women's groups. He's got a lot of uh support in our very diverse communities in this district and the Asian communities. So it's time now. If you're concerned about this world, if you're concerned about what's happening in Washington, what's happening in the world, this is your chance to actually have a say in what happens. This election really matters and honestly, it could set the tone for how the house goes, how the president presidential election goes. This is a very high stakes election and my personal opinion just to proselytize a little, I think we need someone with the experience with the ability to anger their own party and to work with the other party to actually get things done. Our world sorely needs that. Now, Josh, do you sense that there is enough motivation for people to go out there on a Tuesday in February and cast their ballot? I do. And I think George Santos again the most prolific liar. I call him the lebron James of lying, right in the history of American politics. This district was embarrassed on the national scale. This district is angry about what George Santos did to us. It's enough motivation to stand rain, sleet or snow. And I think the closing segment of the debate was the clarion moment of looking at how these candidates will make their closing argument. Tom Suozzi drew a distinction. I've served in government for 30 years. She's served in government for two years. I've passed bills through the House of Representatives. Her Republican colleagues can't even get a bill to the floor, right? And I'm someone, you know, you're someone you don't know. And what he said, which was unique is he said, uh the rightful successor to George Santos, you have to have full transparency and my opponent hasn't given it. And so I believe at the end of the day, this is gonna be a close race. The best thing you can do is watch this debate, inform yourself and get out and vote. All right, Mike, I'll give you the last word. Here. It all comes down to how you're feeling right now. You have Mazzi Pip who's there? Echoing the concerns, echoing the sentiments of the average person in Nassau County in this district. That's just feeling hurt. It's feeling hammered down. You want the Biden Swazi campaign by all means you can vote that. But if you want real change, you want a difference, you wanna make sure we have a check on that Biden administration, the Senate as well, then you're gonna have a balance of power and you're gonna push Mazi to make sure we have secure borders, a great economy and making sure that we have our law enforcement taken care of and fixing this migrant problem. I wanna ask you each quick in like 10 seconds. End of the day. Do voters look at Swazi versus Philip or they look at Democrat versus Republican on Tuesday? Oh, that's the question. I think too much. Now these elections are R versus D as opposed to the person versus the person. And that's a shame, Josh, if you asked me two years ago, I don't know the answer to the question you asked me today in the wake of George Santos, everyone going to cast their ballot is doing extra research because they don't want what happened to us to happen again. I think they're looking at these people very closely and the national issues usurp the the candidates. This is all about the national issues. So then what do we do this for, for the, that's what the candidates may be asking themselves, but we will see how it plays out on Tuesday. Thank you all. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for being here for the debate as well. That's all for power and politics. This week, I'm Rich Kabi. Thanks for joining us. We'll be back here next week for another edition of the show and we'll have results for you on that election.

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The candidates vying to represent District 3 faced off in an exclusive News 12 debate. And it was personal.

Power & Politics: Key takeaways from the Suozzi/Pilip debate

The candidates vying to represent District 3 faced off in an exclusive News 12 debate. And it was personal.

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