The Democrat seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s Hudson Valley says America’s greatest danger is not its foreign enemies, but President Trump.
Cait Conley, an Army veteran and former senior national security adviser in the Biden administration, has repeatedly argued in speeches that the “greatest threat to America’s future is coming within our own borders”—a warning she directs at Trump and congressional Republicans.
“I never thought that I would feel like the greatest threat to our country and our future would come from within our border and that is what we are seeing with this administration,” Conley said during an April 23 address to the Rockland County NAACP.
At a July Zoom fundraiser, Conley expanded on that view, saying, “I truly believe the greatest threat to America’s future is coming from within our own border right now. The corruption, the dysfunction, the fact that we have a president that is more focused on chaos and corruption and lining the pockets of his friends to the detriment of our nation and our future and even our national security.”
Speaking at an AFL-CIO candidates’ night on Sept. 28, Conley also pointed to her role overseeing election security during the 2024 campaign.
“The biggest threat that we faced wasn’t from our foreign adversaries. It was from the consequence of the big lie that 2020 was rigged right inside our own country,” she said, referring to Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him after he lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden.
In a May 14 speech, Conley similarly said, “I never thought I’d feel that the greatest threat to its future, to its values, would come from within its own borders. And that is what we are seeing play out with this administration, enabled by a Congress that has put political ambition and political loyalty ahead of country and people.”
Lawler rejected Conley’s assessment.
“Cait Conley led counterterrorism efforts on President Biden’s National Security Council, but believes that the greatest threat to our country isn’t Al Qaeda, ISIS, or even Russia or China. Instead, Conley thinks it’s her fellow American citizens who don’t vote the way she wants them to,” the Republican incumbent said.
NEXT UP: Polanski Said His Family Fled Nazis, but Records Show They Were Born in Britain
“That’s insane and disqualifying, and a window into how she will be nothing more than a hyper-partisan hack if she ever got to Congress.”
Conley’s campaign defended her remarks and called Lawler’s response a “new low.”
“Career political operative Mike Lawler takes every chance he gets to lie about Cait Conley, but this is a new low. Cait’s comments were in reference to decisions made by the president and members of his administration like [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth that have undermined national security, such as the reckless war with Iran that has now claimed 21 American service member lives,” said Maddy Rosen, a spokesperson for Conley’s campaign.
“As someone who has risked her life to defend our country — serving 16 years in the Army under both Republican and Democratic presidents, deploying six times to combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, and yes, taking out terror threats like Al Qaeda and ISIS — Cait is especially qualified to call out our leaders when they’re jeopardizing our safety.”
Rosen added, “That Mike Lawler would even attempt to question the patriotism of someone who has always put country before any party or person is not only absurd but insulting to anyone who has ever worn the uniform. The only partisan hack in this race is the one who votes with Donald Trump 100% of the time, even when it harms his own constituents.”
The increasingly close contest between Lawler and Conley has emerged as one of the nation’s most closely watched congressional races.
New York’s 17th District is a battleground seat covering all or portions of Rockland, Putnam, Westchester and Dutchess counties.
Lawler, a former state assemblyman, is running for a third term in the House.
Conley is making her first run for public office after winning a five-way Democratic primary to challenge Lawler.
Members of Congress earn $174,000 annually and serve two-year terms.
