Jim Bognet, a former Donald Trump administration official, told Breitbart News Saturday swing district Democrat Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) is “out of touch” on the coronavirus pandemic as well as the George Floyd protests and riots.
Bognet (pictured) hopes to unseat Cartwright in Pennsylvania’s eighth congressional district, a pivotal swing district that could help Republicans recapture the House in 2020. The eighth district Republican primary is on June 2.
Bognet said his campaign has garnered significant momentum ahead of the congressional primary.
Bognet told Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle, “We are in great shape, we’re gaining a lot of momentum, you can feel the energy and excitement. People are really enthusiastic about coming out and voting for President Trump to get him more votes than ever before in Pennsylvania. We know we are going ahead looking into the fall, that we are going to be ground zero. We need to win Pennsylvania; the campaign can feel the energy, reaching thousands of voters every day on the phones.”
Boyle noted Bognet had been ahead of the curve on many issues, such as calling for a travel ban from China in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
Bognet said Republicans need to take back seats such as Pennsylvania’s eighth district because a Republican-controlled House will protect President Donald Trump from future impeachment shams.
“I ran for this office to protect President Trump,” Bognet said. “If we don’t get a Republican House, he will be impeached again in 2021. We can never let that fiasco, sham, and tragedy happen again. So that is my mission.”
Bognet said Trump has worked to improve the lives of the black community and the death of George Floyd was a tragedy; however, he cautioned rioting would not heal the nation’s wounds.
He said, “It is a tragedy, national tragedy, George Floyd died. It made me sad; it was very disturbing. I was so glad that President Trump reached out to his family, to offer some solace. And Trump has done amazing things for the black community,” including criminal justice reform. Bognet continued:
But there is no excuse for rioting. There is no excuse for burning down your own city. There is no excuse for Antifa agitators to come in, whip people up and try to have mayhem and destruction happen. It’s so sad because you know who it hurts, Matt? It hurts the people in that community. It hurts their brothers and sisters who poured their lives into building laundromats and small shops and businesses, and they burn, and then I saw a guy crying as his business was burning down last night. That was horrible.
Bognet said this moment could serve as a catalyst for future criminal justice reform. He added that in a similar manner to the coronavirus response, Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf and Cartwright have not led on criminal justice.
Bognet said, “This can be a moment where we get some really positive reforms done. You see police misbehavior? We have to go after it. Because it besmirches the name of the 99.99 percent of good cops. And what I saw the other day was disturbing to a large degree I’m very glad that they brought charges. We cannot allow our neighborhoods to be burned down and when these blue state governors and blue state mayors, instead of taking decisive action, like I think President Trump would have if he was a governor, you know Matt, we’ve seen it with Gov. Wolf, and we’ve seen with Matt Cartwright, they are so out of touch they don’t even know what’s going on in the ground. We’ve seen it with coronavirus, and now we’ve seen it with these riots, the people in these communities are going to feel the pain from this.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Eastern.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.