Former NYPD Inspector Alison Esposito slammed her congressional opponent at an event for GOP women candidates, claiming his move from the military to Congress led to a change in his tact toward public service.
In response, Rep. Patrick Ryan, D-N.Y., an Iraq War veteran, highlighted a recent trip to the southern border and bipartisan support from Hudson Valley law enforcement officials.
Esposito, a 2024 recruit by Rep. Elise Stefanik’s Republican women’s candidate group, E-PAC, said she is a cop, not a politician.
“That is what I am. That is what I always will be,” she said, adding she was in the thick of the George Floyd riots and recounting being hit in the head by a cabinet tossed out a window by protesters. She compared it to a scene in “Braveheart.”
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She claimed Ryan portrays himself as a moderate on such rule-of-law issues, while acting otherwise. Ryan later pushed back.
“He wants to play the moderate game, but then, at the same time, it’s important to remember when he was the Ulster County executive, he made Ulster a sanctuary county,” Esposito said.
“Now, I thank him very much for the service, and I respect it immensely. But I would submit that the second he took off that uniform, he stopped serving the American people.”
In 2019, Ryan enacted an order adjusting procedures involving cooperation with immigration authorities, and he noted Thursday that Ulster strenuously avoided “sanctuary city” terminology.
Ryan said he was one of 15 Democrats to demand President Biden seal the border by executive order, adding, “The No. 1…
