Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo: Wolf and Cuccinelli Are "Thugs" Who "Should Be Advanced for Investigation," Not Confirmation

Statement

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo responded to President Trump's nomination of Chad Wolf, Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, as permanent DHS Secretary.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

A couple of comments on national situations - the President announced that he would be nominating his Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to be the permanent Secretary. This is just a couple of weeks after the US Attorney in the Southern District refused to advance Wolf's lawsuit against New York State, where we sued them on the Trusted Traveler Program. I was former attorney general; I've never seen a U.S. attorney say that they will drop a lawsuit because the allegations made by the department are false. Chad Wolf made false allegations. He said that New York State was the only state that had a green light law that didn't allow disclosure. That was false. That was knowingly false. It had been publicly discussed. Wolf and his department very well are aware of those laws. And the U.S. attorney said that he was making false statements. Trump's response is to nominate him to be confirmed. The House of Representatives said that they were considering an investigation. Any attorney general, Attorney General Barr, if he was a real attorney general and actually serious about this oath of office, he would be investigating how a department for many months was conducting a political vendetta against New York State rather than allowing the president to advance Wolf and Cuccinelli, who are thugs. That's what we would call them in New York. Rather than advance them for nomination, they should be advanced for investigation. And I hope the House of Representatives does do the investigation and if the U.S. Senate confirms these people, it is the ultimate disregard for the rule of law, which is a continuing theme with this administration but would literally take it to a new level.

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