Grimm romps through solo appearance at candidate forum
It wasn’t a debate but a soliloquy for Republican Congressmember Michael Grimm, who romped through his allotted time at a candidate’s forum sponsored by the Bay Ridge Community Council which his opponent, former Democratic Councilmember Domenic Recchia, did not attend.
Without an opponent on stage, Grimm, who faces trial beginning in December on a 20-count federal indictment that includes charges of tax evasion and mail and wire fraud, had free rein to define the differences between himself and Recchia, who missed the forum because of a scheduling conflict, according to his campaign.
During the Tuesday, September 23 forum at Our Lady of Angels, Third Avenue and 73rd Street, Grimm positioned himself as a Reagan Republican, while characterizing Recchia as being aligned with Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Barack Obama, excoriating the latter repeatedly as a weak commander in chief with “a policy of appeasement,” while also panning the Affordable Care Act, which he characterized as “a disaster called Obamacare.”