Republican Representative Anthony Sabatini, candidate for US Congress who has served in the Florida House of Representatives since 2018 and represents the state’s 32nd House district in part of Lake County, shared his insights with Sputnik on plans for running for Congress in 2022.
Sputnik: You say you are an America First conservative, so what is your November 2022 run for Congress about and what do you stand for?
Anthony Sabatini: For me, it's all about putting Americans first, the leaders of the parties, of both major political parties in the United States have sold out to globalism when it comes to trade, when it comes to immigration, when it comes to a lot of different things. I think we need real conservatives who are going to try to restore the rule of law and to believe in the traditional Republican institutions that this country was founded upon. And that's what America First really means, but it starts with American sovereignty and cracking down on illegal immigration - those are the biggest things.
Sputnik: In your announcement speech on Monday, you mentioned Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, using them as examples of what should change about the Republican Party. So, what's going on inside the party and what changes would be vitally important?
Anthony Sabatini: They're weak and spineless leaders that don't have the American people's interests at heart. They have been in DC most of their life and they’ve sold out to special interests such as those demanding illegal immigration, in addition to refusing to fix the actual legal immigration system, which needs to be reordered to try to help Americans get jobs versus new immigrants to our country. And they've also been weak on trade, they’ve sold out to China, and they've allowed the rise of China, which is going to disable the United States' place in the world. And they also believe in endless foreign interventions. The defence military establishment has pressed them and they’ve willfully gone into a philosophy that's allowed the United States to be stretched into 80 or 90 countries with military forces around the world, while the American taxpayer has to pay for all of it and gets nothing out of it. So, it's really just an anti-American vibe going on in DC right now.
Anthony Sabatini: Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, is the Republican Party and the people who are in power right now in the legislative branch do not reflect the values, nor do they have the support of the American people. And so the time is ticking and the clock is ticking, there's only a time certain before they're gone. Liz Cheney will not be re-elected. When I win election next year, there'll be a lot of people like me who come into the party to try to reorient the party in a new direction.
Sputnik: You proposed that US Highway 27 be renamed the "President Donald J. Trump Highway", why?
Anthony Sabatini: It's Florida's longest road, and Donald Trump is the first Floridian president, he’s also one of the best presidents in American history. And so all presidents are honored with name places or designations when they leave office. This is the most fitting one since Florida is his home and it's our longest road in the state.
Sputnik: You've been very critical of COVID-19 closings and even challenged mask mandates in court in Florida last year, why?
Anthony Sabatini: The lockdowns did nothing to stop or slow the spread of the virus, nor did the curfew, nor did the mask mandate. And I also believe that they are an unconstitutional infringement of personal liberty here in the United States. We believe in robust civil liberty. You control what you do, what you think, where you go. Local government and different government entities that will infringe on that are violating the United States' Constitution. So, that's why they're challenging them in court.
Anthony Sabatini: It's non-differential. It either doesn't exist or is exactly the same. He's done nothing new since Donald Trump tried his strategy, literally nothing at all. He’s lied and tried to claim that the vaccine that Donald Trump pushed the government to help quickly create was of his own making, and that’s just sick and disturbing. But then again, I think, Biden's got a lot of issues, personal issues going on. I don’t think he really understands a lot of what’s going on right now.
Sputnik: What's the situation with mortality rates and vaccination in Florida?
Anthony Sabatini: Florida is leading the nation, we're the third largest state in the nation and we have basically the exact same ratio of people vaccinated, which puts us way out in front in terms of the total number because we’re so large. We’re showing very well, we have over 50 percent of the eligible people, the older people who are more at risk are being vaccinated in my county, here in Lake County, Florida. Things are going good.
Sputnik: Florida will receive $17 billion dollars in federal COVID-relief funds. How might this money be spent?
Anthony Sabatini: I don't think it should be, I think a small portion of it should be used to reimburse individual people and businesses. But most of that came out of the bailout bill, is junk spending, it’s big government, and it should be rejected by the state, it should not be spent by the state because it's wasteful spending and it grows government. Government is bad.
Sputnik: How do you assess Biden's immigration initiatives?
Anthony Sabatini: They're horrible. He's created a crisis, an actual crisis at the southern border of the United States where there's tens of thousands of illegal immigrants coming in every single day or week. And he's done nothing to stop it. And he ordered the federal agencies to stop enforcing immigration law, created a lawless environment in our country. I think it's an impeachable offence.
Sputnik: You've mentioned social media censorship as one of your targets and filed the "Stop Social Media Censorship Act". What's your take on the mainstream media hunt on President Trump when he was in office?
Anthony Sabatini: It's a coordinated effort to discourage people from voting for Donald Trump and to change public opinion about Donald Trump. The media is basically a corrupt enterprise at this point, the mainstream media, and they basically coordinated to move public opinion against Donald Trump and they failed to do so because the election was as close as it was. But long story short, they were able to make a big dent in his public support by maliciously sort of characterising a lot of what he’s done.
Sputnik: How are you going to put big tech giants under control in Florida?
Anthony Sabatini: We have to make it that if they censor or de-platform people based on their political, religious viewpoint that they can be sued in a court of law. If we do that then you won’t see the censorship take place.
