ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) - Republican congressman Nick Langworthy and democratic challenger Tom Carle faced-off in a live studio debate Thursday night on WETM.
Langworthy is seeking a second term representing New York's 23rd Congressional District, which covers most of the Southern Tier, Western New York and parts of Buffalo. He was elected to Congress in 2022 after defeating democrat Max Della Pia, 65% to 35%. Langworthy previously served as Chairman of the New York Republican State Committee.
Carle, a political newcomer from Chautauqua County, is a retired plant manager for food and beverage manufacturers and a former human resources manager.
The debate started with the top issue on New Yorkers minds as shown in a recent poll by PIX11, The Hill and Emerson College: the economy.
"Is the economy in good or bad shape, and why do you say that?"
"Well, the economy's in very rough shape," Langworthy said. "I mean, you see that every single day. I talk to constituents every week in the grocery store. I still do the family grocery shopping because I think it's very important to be in touch with people in our district."
"We have an affordability crisis in America, and it's really pinched the middle class here in the Southern Tier, in western New York the most," Langworthy added. "A trip to the grocery store is a major economic decision for families. It started with gasoline, and the prices skyrocketed. Then it was groceries. Now it's housing and rent and insurance. Every element of your life has gone up at least a third in the years that Joe Biden has been in the white House. This is something that we have to get under control, and it starts with putting Washington on a diet."
"We have to shrink, Washington spending," Langworthy said. "We have $35 trillion in debt, and we have to tackle this immediately in order to get relief for our people here in Western New York, in the Southern Tier."
Democratic challenger Tom Carle said he believes the economy is heading in the right direction.
"Well, I look at it like, a little different," Carle said. "The economy is actually doing very well. Unemployment's down, wages are up. Stock markets up. Every time you look around, things are on the up and up."
What started the rise of inflation?
"Inflation actually started back in the Trump administration with an unwarranted tax cut back in 2017 that we all witnessed. Then you take the mishandling of the pandemic creating a supply and demand issue where we had high supply and no demand. So, prices went down. And then after the normalization, after the pandemic, during the Biden administration, we actually had the opposite effect, where we had high demand and low supply."
"So, when it comes down to it, inflation actually started in the previous administration," Carle added. The pandemic handling also had a lot to do with it. I won't begin to say that groceries are not higher than they were. Of course they were. But if you take the grocery business and retailers just like fossil fuels, they actually all are kind of together."
Mr. Langworthy took aim at the Biden-Harris administration for driving up prices.
"The first thing that we have to do is get to work on energy policy in this country, because that's where this inflation started," Langworthy said. "In addition to the extreme spending, when President Biden took office, he shut down the Keystone pipeline on day one. That was a signal to the entire American energy sector that we were closed for business, and it stifled growth. Gas shot up, cost of everything rose very quickly thereafter."
"Kamala Harris is running on a platform, to increase taxes across the board," Langworthy added. "I mean, every American has $2,600 more in their pocket because of the tax cuts that were implemented under President Trump."
"Well, actually, I just want to correct one thing," Carle answered. "Kamala Harris's plan is for taxes to be increased over $400,000 per year, and anybody below $400,000 would not see an increase. But when we talk about taxation, we really need to think about we don't want to cut programs. We don't want to take everything that's good about the American system out because we have to always favor the wealthy."
What would you do to bring inflation down?
"We need to harness an all of the above energy program," Langworthy said. "We actually passed a bill which is an all of the above energy strategy for the country, which harnessing our great American resources, whether it's our oil reserves or the natural gas, like we have right in the Southern Tier, we have the Saudi Arabia of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale."
"Our state doesn't let us harness it because we've kowtowed to an extreme environmental left that has stopped that exploration," Langworthy added.
"Well, first of all, I'd like to know which Keystone pipeline you're talking about," Carle answered.
"The one Joe Biden shut down," said Langworthy.
"All right," Carle said. "Well, anyways, the one that was shut down by him was never actually intended for domestic use. That was to be crude oil of the crude oil coming down from the tar sands, coming down the like the Gulf of Mexico and it was going to be shipped to other countries because we don't actually process that here."
"As far as energy policy, policy, we are having like a boom time with energy exploration and mining, there is no slowdown of that. We have basically been energy independent for the last ten years or more and it really has nothing to do with Trump."
Do you support eliminating federal taxes on tips?
"And from where would the money come in to replace the tax income that would be lost?" Carle said. "Well, I've never really thought the tip should be taxed anyway, so I can get behind a philosophy like that, even though that would create a deficit even further for us."
"I wholeheartedly support eliminating tax on tips," Langworthy said. "I think it will create great growth in our economy. We will have people that will have more money in their pocket and more ability to put that to work in our economy, spending money in stimulating other businesses. It will also increase the quality of service everywhere as people will be more likely to tip higher for those service workers that work very hard."
"So, I think it is an excellent program. It's one I've co-sponsored already in Congress. And we look forward to it."
Should Social Security income be exempt from federal taxes?
"I would wholeheartedly support, taking that burden off of our seniors," Langworthy said. "They've worked their whole lives. Social security is a contract and a promise with the American people that you will receive this benefit to help you in your golden years, and for the tax man to come in and take a slice of that is just wholly unfair. I've thought that for some time."
"My opponent is not going to protect Social Security," Carle said. "Project 2025 calls for reductions, eliminations, privatization of a lot of those social safety net programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Snap, and go right down the list. Veterans' benefits, and that is really a playbook for the second Trump administration if it would happen. So basically, it comes down to if you and President Trump win, America loses."
"That is a very dishonest answer by my opponent," Langworthy said. "I'm unfamiliar with project 2025. President Trump has denounced President Project 2025. It is it is simply, noise from the Democratic sound machine, to try to distract you from the real issues, which is they cannot live up to the record that they've laid out. I mean, the Biden administration has been a disaster for the middle class, that he promised to grow and to grow it from the middle out."
The candidates continued to spar over Project 2025, a conservative "Presidential Transition Project" published by the conservative think tank "The Heritage Foundation."
"I want to make sure that we straighten out about you walking away from project 2025," Carle said"
"I've never read it," Langworthy said.
"Well, maybe you didn't read it, but you know of it," Carle answered. "So, it was disingenuous for you to say that you don't know anything about it. But J.D. Vance wrote the preface for it, and he's the vice-presidential candidate, and he is the vice-presidential candidate with Donald Trump and 200 of the closest people in the Trump administration were the people who actually authored project 2025," Carle said.
"So, you can't really walk away from that and say you don't know anything about it, because you do. Now if you want to live up to, you know, Trump's record, go ahead. But make sure you include the criminal side of it too," Carle said.
"Can we go back to the original question?" Langworthy answered.
"The original question was," moderator Jim Turpin said, is what you would do as a member of Congress, to stop inflation from growing as so rapidly as it did over the last three?"
"The first thing that we have to do is get to work on energy policy in this country, because that's where this inflation started," Langworthy said. In addition to the extreme spending, when President Biden took office, he shut down the Keystone pipeline on day one. That was a signal to the entire American energy sector that we were closed for business, and it stifled growth. Gas shot up, cost of everything rose very quickly thereafter."
Corning Inc. also came up and led to a testy exchange.
"The people on the left are very quick to vilify corporations in this country," Langworthy said. "You know, corporations are companies like Corning Incorporated that puts an awful lot of paychecks on the street right here in the Corning Valley. It's critically important that we have the best economic environment we have. The problem New York faces is we have a lousy business climate because we tax too much, we regulate too much."
"You just spoke of Corning Incorporated, and I know that you're a recipient of contributions from Corning Incorporated," Carle answered. "So, I know that you would back up anything that you would say with that."
Are you satisfied with the way the United States is currently handling immigration?
"Absolutely not. We have a raging inferno at our southern borders," said Langworthy. "President Biden has taken 94 separate executive actions, with Kamala Harris at his side, weakening the southern border. It's a willful decision. They chose to open the borders, and we have 10 million illegal encounters across this country. We have 2 million people that are gateways. We don't know who they are, where they are, or why they're here."
"There's people from 160 different countries in the world that are here," Langworthy added. "And we have thousands from the terrorist watch list that have been apprehended. You know, we have an Afghani national, just this week that was apprehended, that was planning a terrorist attack on election day. You know, threatening the sanctity of our elections. I mean, these are this is the reality of this situation, and we have a blind eye from the borders ourselves."
"Kamala Harris, who all of a sudden wants to talk tough about the border when she knows she's failing in the polls. We need to finish the wall. We need to stop, catch and release. We need to reinstitute, remain in Mexico and get serious about the southern border. The border is on the ballot on election day."
Carle said he was also unhappy with the current state of the border.
"Oh, absolutely not," Carle said. "And I think I'd be stronger on the border than my opponent because. Initially, I would probably I would be the one who would have signed the bipartisan agreement that we recently had proposed. And it came down from very conservative people in the Senate in conjunction with the House, and that got stopped by President Trump."
"So, when my opponent says he wants to be tough on the border, he is nowhere near as tough on the border as I would be. I'd keep the people out. We don't want I deport the people that got in that shouldn't be in instead of like, complaining about it and whining about it all the time. Like I hear Republicans."
"What you need to do is take action," Carle added. "I actually read what you proposed for the border as well, and it had no teeth in it. All it really was, was we're going to monitor and surveil. If you really think we have a problem with the northern border, what we need to do is actually take action, like adding agents, just like the bipartisan bill on the southern border, was adding judges. It was adding agents. It was putting in fentanyl machinery to detect. There was teeth in it, and that's what we need to do with the northern border for concerned with it."
Congressman Langworthy said the bill never had a chance.
"The bill that my opponent speaks of was absolute trash," Langworthy said. "It couldn't even pass the Senate, let alone come to the House. I mean, this made normal illegal immigration. Up to 5000 people a day could sneak into the country. No questions asked, no changes made. By the end of the week, there would be greater, population of illegals that have come into the country than the population of Elmira where we stand today."
"That's unacceptable," Langworthy added. "We should be at zero tolerance on illegal immigration. We need to seal the border, and then we can address immigration as a whole. Legal immigration. But we're slapping those legal immigrants in the face every single day. That bill never had a chance, because no one other than one senator was in that room to negotiate with him."
Do you support so-called sanctuary cities and states?
"Actually, I'm a little bit curious as to why we keep getting all the Republican talking points," Carle said. "We don't talk anything about, you know, reproductive services. We're not talking about firearms. We stay right on these Republican talking points. But let me go with this anyways. The sanctuary city is, you know, it's a designation where we could show humanity for people who are displaced from their countries."
"Now, does it always work? No. Sometimes we need to do something about it," Carl added. "We're taking baby steps in immigration and how to assimilate people into the American culture. And I think everybody just needs to take a step back. If we need to do something about sanctuary cities, let's legislate. Let's do the right thing. But sanctuary cities are an absolute necessity for people who are new to our culture, and we need to bring them along."
Congressman Langworthy disagreed. "We need to ban sanctuary cities. I mean, it's just as simple as that. You look no further than our, own state in what has happened in New York City as they tried to be all things to all people and create a sanctuary city that says, we have all of the illegal immigrants that want to come to New York because, you know, there's a gravy train to get on, there's free housing, there's free, you know, health care, there's debit cards, you name it."
And guess who's paying for it? You are folks," Langworthy added. "It's coming out. You know, Governor Hochul appropriated billions of dollars in our state budget to fund this migration crisis that's found its way here because we put up a big beacon saying, come on in. We'll take care of you. That is what's wrong. We have to enforce the laws of the land we have in New York State alone."
"The green light law, the driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, prevents local law enforcement from sharing the New York State DMV database with our federal partners. I knew that when I sat with Customs and Border Patrol agents who have not been able to do their jobs because they can't run tags on cars of illegal immigrants, this is the failure of a sanctuary city."
Should abortion be protected by a new federal law?
"President Trump has said that he would not support a federal standard," Langworthy said. "Kamala Harris wants the New York Standard, the unfortunate standard of abortion up to the moment of birth. And, you know, those on the left, in my opponent's party, they celebrated that moment when they legalized abortion up until the moment of birth in New York."
"They lit up the Brooklyn Bridge, pink and Niagara Falls and in the Empire State Building. And they thought that was a great moment while they clink champagne glasses," Langworthy added. I believe in a culture of life. I'm pro-life and I and I'm proud of that fact. But row was bad law, and now it is at the state level, and you're seeing states go in many different directions on, what standard they set, for the time of birth in, in New York. It's anything goes in California, it's anything goes. Other states have seen differently in those states have the freedom to put up, referendum to their people to make that decision."
Mr. Carle said late-term abortions are a false republican talking point.
"It's a Republican hoax about this whole thing about late term abortions," Carle said. "They happen very infrequently. If you look at the data, 90, 93% of abortions happened in the first 13 weeks. Another 5.2% happened in the next seven weeks. So, by the time you get to the 20-week barrier, you've actually hit 99.3%. The rest of them are exceptions."
"But the problem with it is with the Republicans. It's the Republican opinion on this is they don't want to take into exception, you know, incest, rape. They don't care if, you know, young kids have to give birth. And then, you know, mother, that child, there's so many things about it that doesn't make sense. 86% of the people who are abortion seekers are unmarried, so their life hasn't even really begun," Carle added.
"75%, they're below the poverty line. So, it's really discriminatory and trying to create a dependent class that they can complain about if you try to help them. So, I think when it comes down to, you know, this, we have to have pro-choice," Carle said.
