The New York Democrat vying to fill Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R.) seat successfully pushed the Library of Congress to remove a damning interview calling his would-be constituents lazy alcoholics who couldn’t replace his migrant farmhands.
Blake Gendebien, who’s running for New York’s 21st Congressional District, said during a 2013 interview that local upstate residents "show up late" and "drink too much," while his Hispanic employees work 12-hour days. But that interview, conducted by the Library of Congress for a special project documenting the culture of contemporary American workers, was recently taken offline at Gendebien’s request, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
"In this case, the subject of the interview requested that it be taken down from our site," a Library of Congress representative told the Free Beacon on Tuesday morning. "We are typically generous in honoring these requests since they are personal narratives, however we keep the descriptive information online and make the collection accessible onsite in our reading room. That is what we’ve done in this case."
The precise date of the interview’s removal is unknown, but internet archives indicate that the audio was accessible on the Library of Congress’s website until at least Feb. 2. The Free Beacon noticed it was missing Monday after the New York Post reported Gendebien’s remarks Sunday.
Gendebien’s attempt to scrub the interview hints at an effort to mitigate potential damage to his campaign, given that most Americans approve of President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the country. Since taking office, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has intensified its efforts to deport dangerous aliens, with 11,000 total arrests reported as of Monday. This includes targeted operations in New York.
Stefanik plans to vacate her seat if she’s confirmed as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations. In 2024, she won her district with 62 percent of the vote, making Gendebien’s campaign a longshot.
In the interview, meant to document his life as a dairy farm owner, Gendebien argued local residents in upstate New York could not replace his migrant workers for a variety of reasons.
"It’s hard to find one local person that doesn’t have domestic abuse problems, alcohol problems, wage garnishments," Gendebien said. "So you have all these plans and these [local workers] leave for court all the time because they are in custody battles and child-support battles. It’s just awful."
"They show up late. They drink too much. There is just no labor force out there," he added.
By contrast, Gendebien said his Hispanic farmhands work about 12 hours a day, "six and a half days a week," calling it "their choice."
"Three Hispanic employees. They would need to be replaced by probably six local people," Gendebien said.
The congressional hopeful even admitted that he once paid $10,000 to bail out a farm worker that ICE had detained. He claimed that agents "profile" people based on "skin color."
While the Library of Congress allows the removal of content containing "personally identifiable information" from its online platform upon request, items may still be accessed onsite in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday morning, the Free Beacon confirmed Gendebien's interview was indeed still available onsite. A library employee also told the Free Beacon that the interview would be reinstated online "certainly by next week," suggesting that Gendebien regretted his initial decision to have it removed.
Gendebien did not respond to a request for comment.
Jessica Schwalb contributed to this report.