Fireworks Erupt at New York AG Debate

Fireworks erupted in last night’s debate between New York Attorney General Letitia James and Republican nominee and former assistant U.S. attorney Saritha Komatireddy.  

At one point in the debate, James seemed unable to answer the question: “Name one former New York Attorney General you admire.” 

And when attempting to explain her recent controversial comments regarding a current case, James stated, “Those comments demonstrate empathy. And what we need now more than ever in our body politics is more empathy. . . . Politics stops at the door in my office.”

That’s a curious claim given what we’ve recently learned about her political prosecution of President Donald Trump.

We just told you how the ACLJ’s FOIL work uncovered bombshell emails from a former James staffer who bravely stepped forward to expose an alleged witch hunt to prosecute President Trump seemingly by any means necessary.

As reported by the New York Post:

James had the same answer when pushed to defend her investigations of Trump and his various businesses, especially as she’s under fire for firing a whistleblower who says he was forced to continue an insider trading case against the president despite findings that he didn’t break a law.

“It undermined the work that we were doing,” James said of an email former Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld blasted to the whole office.

So James’ claim that “politics stops at the door” is hard to swallow based on what we’ve seen. She even repeated the phrase later in the debate.

Maybe it was an intentional wink and nod to those who support the way she doggedly pursued any sort of crimes she could dig up against President Trump, his family, or any of his associates. To now claim that “politics stops at the door” feels more than a little disingenuous.

As for empathy, it hasn’t appeared that James has shown much empathy for the targets of her political prosecutions over the last several years. And honestly, I’m not so sure that showing empathy is the job of an AG.

It’s fair to say many, if not most Americans – including New Yorkers – want to see you be tough on crime.

One would hope an AG would be more concerned about protecting the citizens of their state from real crime than they would be with trying to piece together specious charges against political enemies.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more analysis of last night’s debate between Attorney General Letitia James and Republican candidate Saritha Komatireddy, as well as the fiery debate in Michigan between Abdul El-Sayed and former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers.

Watch the full broadcast below: