I'd be derelict in my duty if I didn't go and continue to use every advantage that I can to promote New York's cause.

Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?

We've continued progress in the six months since Trump got elected, and the good thing about what we're doing is that success begets success. As we bring down greenhouse gases, for example, we've closed half of the coal-fired power plants in the country in recent years. There's more impetus to try to close the other half because you can see that it is working. So, you know, I had hoped that Trump would not do that, and it doesn't make any sense to me, but regardless, it is not as cataclysmic as it could be.

I know that many Irish-born New Yorkers are caught in the trap of our federal immigration policies. If we are going to continue to attract the best and the brightest - and Ireland has more than its fair share - we need to inject some common sense into our immigration laws, and I'm doing my best to make that case in Washington.

Government is dysfunctional.

The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry. But we live in a complex world where you're going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.

People have no confidence that Washington, both sides of aisle, are coming together to try and do what's right for the economy.