The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. Pat Ryan, D-New York, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on August 25, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Congresswoman Lee, thank you for your perspective. For a slightly different perspective from a Democratic colleague, we now have Congressman Pat Ryan from New York. Good morning.
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: Hey, how are you, Margaret?
MARGARET BRENNAN: I’m fine. You came to the DNC this week, you spoke on stage. You were one of the first Democrats in the House to speak out and say publicly that Joe Biden needs to pass the torch. You’re in a tight race in the Hudson Valley of New York. Do you think that having Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket would make it easier for you to win than if Joe Biden had stayed?
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: Absolutely. I mean, coming out of the DNC and over the last month, we’ve seen such energy and enthusiasm and joy and optimism at a time when, even this morning, in your reporting, it’s a difficult, dark, divided time, and that’s what people in my district are desperate for. That’s what we’ve been working on. When Kamala Harris talks about freedom, patriotism, reproductive freedom, economic freedom, freedom to breathe clean air and clean water. That’s what people, regardless of party, want to believe in something, want to stand for something. And she’s been able to do that. And I think over the next 72 days, we’re going to see that momentum continue to build.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The former Speaker of the House pointed out that five seats in New York state were crucial to whether Democrats were in the minority or the majority in Congress. You’re one of those seats. Do you think Democrats now have a better chance of winning the majority?
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: Yes–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Absolutely.
PAT RYAN: Definitely. It’s just a radical change. I mean, I won my last race by 1.3%…
MARGARET BRENNAN: Exactly.
PAT RYAN: I pay close attention to what’s going on in my riding and I talk to people all day, every day. It’s like putting fuel in a jet engine and watching it take off. It’s so important, I think, to understand that it’s one thing to be against a set of things.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s right–
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: But, but being in favor of a set of fundamental things and freedoms that bring people together
MARGARET BRENNAN: So let’s put this in concrete terms, because some of the policies are not that different from Joe Biden’s. In fact, they’re exactly the same at the border. And you, when you put out that statement calling on Biden to step down, you asked him to restore order at the border. Your district has been hit by a lot of migrants being sent from New York to the Hudson Valley. How is Harris’ agenda different at the border?
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN 2:35
I served 27 months in combat. I know what it means to secure a border, and I believe that border security is a core responsibility of a nation-state. This is not a partisan issue. This is a widely held view. So I called on President Biden for not doing enough…
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: -but it was a Biden-Harris policy
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: They took charge. And what we heard from Vice President Harris at the convention in her speech was exactly what the people in my district wanted to hear. That is, we’re going to secure the border, restore order to the border. But without losing who we are as Americans, to welcome people who want to come here, to make their lives better, to serve our country, to make it better and stronger. We can do both. We will do both.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it hasn’t been articulated as a different policy in detail yet. We haven’t heard the vice president at least say things in detail. But on the issue of abortion, which is already protected in New York state up to 24 weeks. After that point, the mother’s life has to be in danger for that procedure to be performed. But that’s going to be up for a vote in some form in November. Do you think it’s just about increasing turnout?
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: The entire foundation–
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s already protected.
REPUBLICAN PAT RYAN: The founding ideology of our country is based on freedom. Let’s not forget that two years ago, Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court took away a fundamental freedom. More and more states across the country have now taken away the freedoms of Americans. You want to piss off the American people? Take away their freedom. So this is not a political thing. Again, this goes to the very essence of who we are. So in New York, things like the Comstock Act are in the 2025 project. Even without congressional action, the Trump administration, the hypothetical Trump administration, is saying that they can implement a national abortion ban through the back door. We oppose that as Democrats, as Americans, and it’s going to be a huge issue in my district.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Trump and Vance have been very unclear on the Comstock Act. I asked J.D. Vance a lot of questions about that a couple of weeks ago. But just to put that aside, I want to ask you about Afghanistan, because in your call for Joe Biden to withdraw, you also emphasized that this was a Biden-Harris issue. In fact, you called this withdrawal a “strategic and moral failure.” The vice president says she was the last person in the room to make that decision. Is that failure hers as well?
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: We have to stop assigning partisan blame for fundamental things like our national security.
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: You said that
REPUBLICAN PAT RYAN: I said it as an American, as a warfighter, as a friend who served in Afghanistan. If we can’t make mistakes and fight against this, we have to give ourselves some breathing room to do better in the future. How can we hope to continue to be the great country that we are for the next 250 years? We have to do it, and I’ve appealed to presidents of both parties when I disagree with them, on behalf of my constituents, on behalf of what I think is good for the country. So we have to be able to do it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I bring this up because we’re coming up on the third anniversary of that withdrawal and the deadly attack at Abbey Gate, where 13 service members lost their lives in that ISIS suicide bombing. Family members of some of those service members came up on stage at the RNC and said that President Biden didn’t say their names and how much that hurt them. Do you think the vice president should speak out about that now, this week?
REPUBLICAN PAT RYAN: I’ll let the vice president make her decisions on these kinds of things. I think we have to recognize that you want to talk about how we talk to veterans and military families. Just 10 days ago, Donald Trump stood up and talked about Medal of Honor recipients, the most revered heroes in our country’s history. There are only 62 Medal of Honor recipients left in the United States. He directly denigrated and insulted them. On top of years of insulting Gold Star families, calling our troops morons and losers. This is something I talked about at the convention, and I think we’re in a place where the Democratic Party is a party of patriots. People who vote for Kamala Harris can feel like they’re doing, and I certainly do, their patriotic duty to bring our country together. Stop insulting veterans and military families who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and Kamala Harris has done so, and will continue to do so.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But would it mean something to the people of your constituency if that loss were recognised this week?
REPUBLICAN PAT RYAN: I think it would mean a lot to the families, of course, to acknowledge their loss. And we have lost far too many veterans, not just active duty, but we’ve talked about this before, coming home. We’ve now lost more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to suicide than we’ve lost active duty. So we have to properly fund the VA, which is another thing that Donald Trump has failed to do. So these are important and difficult choices to make. Congressman.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Deputy, I am delighted to have you here.
REPRESENTATIVE PAT RYAN: Thank you, Margaret.
