Austen Givens: Difference between revisions

In 2015, concerned by the ascendance of then-Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and his impact upon the Republican Party, Givens reached out to Charlie Millar, then-TCC for Oneida County, to gather more information about the Libertarian Party. He criticized Republican governors in a December 2015 column in the ''Utica Observer-Dispatch'' for attempting to unilaterally block the entry of refugees. During a November 30, 2016 interview on WUTQ, Givens lamented what he saw as troubling early indications about the incoming Trump administration’s approach to immigration. He also disclosed on the air that he was a registered Republican. In early 2017, he posed a hypothetical question on WUTQ insinuating that Trump might be working as an agent of the Russian government.  

In March 2017, he praised the Trump administration during a radio interview for launching air strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad following its use of chemical weapons on Syrian civilians.  

In 2018 Givens agreed to succeed Charlie Millar as TCC, but stepped down after less than one month.  

In a 2018 online column, he offered qualified support for Trump’s elimination of the White House Cybersecurity Coordinator position.