Fmr. New York Governor George Pataki (R) declared that he was “very interested” in running for president in 2016 and said “I may well be running” on Monday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.
“I’m very interested in this. I talked about it in the past, the campaign laws are such that I can’t say that I’m running, but I would expect that I may well be running. The reason is very simple to me. This is the worst condition I’ve seen the globe in and our government in, certainly since the fall of the Iron Curtain” he said of a 2016 run.
When asked whether he would say he was running if his lawyers allowed him, Pataki responded “I don’t know that the lawyers would let me say that, but this is a different time, and I am far more committed to being actively involved to take back our country, and to be more active to protect our citizens globally than we are right now.”
He also said that Mitt Romney deciding not to run for president was “the right decision” and “it’s time to look at another person.”
Pataki also attacked President Obama, arguing “there’s one part of America’s economy that’s booming…and that is Washington, DC, that is where growth is, that is where the jobs are. There are now over 7,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, DC. It is a disgrace that this government has become so big, so powerful, so intrusive that there are literally billions spent every year influencing it to get special breaks, but the taxpayer doesn’t get that break.”
When panelist Donny Deutsch defended President Obama’s record, Pataki argued “5.6% unemployment is great? Almost a half a trillion dollar deficit, adding to a record deficit is great, no middle-class income improvement in probably 20 years, that’s great? Save the oil industries? The private sector through fracking, and technology, and in spite of Obama created this energy boom in the United States.”
Pataki was then questioned on whether he would give Obama credit for any economic figures, to which he stated “having high unemployment and such a low workforce participation rate.”
He concluded, “he inherited a bad situation, but this is the worst recovery since they started keeping records in the 1930s, from the standpoint of job growth, unemployment decline, and from the standpoint of improving the standard of living of middle-class families, nothing has happened. Washington is booming, New York is booming, but the middle class family in America is not benefiting because we do not have the job growth, the investment, the opportunities that Americans should feel entitled to, simply by being American.”
Pataki also criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) saying his administration was “anti-police since before they even get elected. Their entire campaign was that the police are brutalizing low-income, African-American New Yorkers, when in fact they were responsible for the greatest reduction in violent crime in low-income neighborhoods in America.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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