The Republican candidate for the House of Representatives, Tina Forte, who is running against New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said in an interview with Just the News that the city has become "a mess" and that Democratic politicians are making a mistake by blaming the rise in crime nationwide on gun use.
The candidate denounced the wave of events that have been occurring around the city. "There's a lot of crime in New York, carjackings, deaths, everything, it just keeps rising and rising, and the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, wants to come out and they want to make speeches about gun control so you know what? I don't think they're getting it."
They are not blaming woke policies. They do not blame them at all. They do not blame the bail reform. They don't blame letting violent criminals back out on the streets, no matter what they do. They are brought before a judge and allowed to leave again.
Fear of opening the doors
"I know store owners are afraid to open their doors, not only because of the closures they've created and these mandates, but you could walk into a store and rob someone at night at knifepoint and walk out," he said. Forte further detailed that people who immigrated legally are seeing their "American dream crumbling in front of them, and that has to stop."
Forte noted that she believes that immigrants in Ocasio-Cortez's district are ready for a change of leadership because they are unhappy with New York City's attempt to allow non-citizens to vote in elections, a move that was ultimately rejected by a judge for being unconstitutional.
Forte's entry into politics
Tina Forte rose to fame online as "Tina from the Bronx" in a series of combative anti-establishment and pro-Trump videos. The fame she gained made her consider running in the Republican Party primary on August 23 in New York's 14th Congressional District. She won 67% of the votes.
Candidate Forte criticized Ocasio-Cortez for advocating against Amazon's HQ2 coming to New York, where the tech giant hoped to create up to 25,000 jobs. Forte also accused Ocasio-Cortez of being hypocritical for supporting facility closures during the months of the Covid lockdown, while at the same time traveling to Florida, a state that had a more flexible policy during the pandemic: "She [Ocasio-Cortez] chose not to wear a mask. She lives a lavish lifestyle."
