The Democrat who is challenging Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) for his House seat is claiming that the greatest threat to the American people is not any of our nation’s foreign adversaries, but the man sitting in the Oval Office: President Donald Trump. Cait Conley, an Army veteran who once served as a top national security adviser in the Biden administration, has delivered a number of speeches making this claim.
More specifically, Conley says that the “greatest threat to America’s future is coming from within our own borders –” meaning President Trump and the GOP that supports him. “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 went on to say in a speech to the Rockland County NAACP in April.
Conley made similar statements during a July Zoom fundraising event, 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.”
According to a report from The New York Post, the Democrat spoke at an AFL-CIO candidates’ night event toward the end of September, where she said that she oversaw election security during the 2024 presidential campaigns. Again, she stated her belief that President Trump and the MAGA movement within and without the government is a major threat to the country.
“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,” Conley said, making a reference to Trump and his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Another comment came from a speech made on May 14.
“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,” the New York Democrat went on to say.
Lawler has not remained silent about the claims, challenging the characterization Conley made in her speech. “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 explained.
"*" indicates required fields
“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,” Lawler added. Conley’s camp stood by her statements and waved off Lawler’s criticism as being a “new low.” Conley campaign spokesperson Maddy Rose replied, “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,” Rose added, before going on to tout Conley’s military service record.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
The Conley rep then said, “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.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video