New York congressman on reelection campaign and AI legislation

(CBS, KYMA) - Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about his reelection campaign.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), according to Brennan, singled out his district as a top target for Democrats, leading her to ask Rep. Lawler where does he see this heading, and the congressman said:

"I think we're going to be victorious on Tuesday night...I've done the work, over the last four years, between my staff and I, we've closed over 10,000 constituent cases, brought back over $140 million to the district, passed over two dozen bills, 17 of which have been signed into law. Ask AOC how many she's had signed into law. The fact is, I show up, and my constituents know me. And unlike my opponent, who parachuted into this district from Virginia, I own a home here. I pay taxes. I'm raising my family here. And I think my constituents respect the fact that I've consistently been rated among the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress. I'm the only sitting member of Congress endorsed by a member of the opposing party. Jared Golden endorsed my re-election just a little over a month ago, and I think people know that I've delivered for them, especially when it comes to the issue of affordability, delivering the largest tax cut in American history, including lifting the cap on salt and leading the housing bill, which will increase supply and bring down prices."

Brennan then said affordability remains a top issue for voters, "no matter what party they're in."

This prompted her to ask why he deserves reelection, and why the GOP deserves trust when prices have continued to climb, to which Lawler said:

"As we saw under the prior administration, inflation cumulatively rose 21%. So the baseline price of everything went up. Obviously, with the war in the Middle East, it has caused volatility in the oil markets, which- which has resulted in a- in a spike in inflation. But as you just pointed out, we saw significant growth in Q3, 3.4%. Over a million private sector jobs have been created over the past year. We are seeing purchasing power rise, but there's still work to do. And that's why I have focused extensively on what we can do to bring down prices. Number one, we did deliver the largest tax cut. Number two, we did pass the largest housing bill in 36 years to increase supply and bring down prices and increase access to capital. Before the end of this Congress...we will finalize a permitting reform bill, which will increase domestic supply of energy, which directly impacts the prices of everything from manufacturing to transportation to groceries. And one of the problems in New York...utilities are up 58% under Kathy Hochul because they shut down nuclear power, they ban natural gas, they blocked pipelines. We are working to rectify that. That will drive down energy prices significantly, which is critical if we're going to bring down inflation and bring down costs."

During the interview, Brennan and Lawler talked about regulation with artificial intelligence (AI), with his opponent, Cait Conley, saying he was refusing to legislate AI to protect Elon Musk, whose political action committee "has put hundreds of thousands of dollars to support him," Brennan said.

When asked how he responds to the allegation, Lawler said:

"First of all, Cait Conley is the AI candidate for the AI industry. She's the one being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by two AI companies that she won't even tell the voters what she did to earn those contracts...it's an outside group, so I've had no communication with anybody that's spending in this race. Second of all, I'm the one leading on these issues with Josh Gottheimer, the Stop Rogue AI Act to set national standards with respect to these rogue agents and bots, and secondarily for the frontier models to require mandatory testing. Third, Cait Conley has violated federal election law by setting up a JFC with the House Super PAC, the House Democrat Super PAC, and she is spending out of that on campaign ads, millions of dollars. And lastly, Margaret, in the last week, a Democrat Super PAC popped up. They have not filed with the FEC in clear violation of election law, spending millions of dollars saying that I support amnesty for criminal illegal aliens. It is a straight-up lie...they are trying to drive down Republican turnout. These are Democrats supporting this. They did this two years ago, and they're doing it again. American Forge Group. This is a straight-up fraud perpetrated on the voters, like they're doing in Alaska."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Lawler, click here.