{"id":91338,"date":"2026-07-16T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/trump-ally-hailed-as-an-anti-drunk-driving-hero-admits-to-dwi-arrest\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:45:00","slug":"trump-ally-hailed-as-an-anti-drunk-driving-hero-admits-to-dwi-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/16\/trump-ally-hailed-as-an-anti-drunk-driving-hero-admits-to-dwi-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump ally hailed as an anti-drunk driving &#8216;hero&#8217; admits to DWI arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>Congressman Mike Lawler, a top Trump ally who is locked in a critical reelection race in New York, has revealed that he was &#8216;arrested for DWI&#8217; in his younger days.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler, 39, disclosed the 2012 incident for the very first time on Wednesday in an <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/newjersey.news12.com\/i-let-my-dad-down-rep-mike-lawler-opens-up-about-past-dwai-arrest-in-exclusive-interview\">interview<\/a>with local New York news outlet News12.<\/p>\n<p>He said that when he was 25 years old, he &#8216;went down to [New York] city, and proceeded to drink, and ultimately, you know, made a decision to drive home.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>He then failed a breathalyzer test before being arrested by local police.<\/p>\n<p>Lawler also added in the segment that it was &#8216;certainly not&#8217; his &#8216;proudest moment&#8217;, noting that he was deeply disappointed in himself for making that decision, and for letting down his father, a former recovering alcoholic who was sober for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Worst&#8217; decision of his life<\/h2>\n<p>He also said that the incident came after he learned his father&#8217;s<a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/cancer\/index.html\" id=\"mol-d5e69a80-812c-11f1-b3dd-d504973a9bbc\">cancer<\/a>had spread to his brain.<\/p>\n<p><span>He went further in a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/v\/1C5qRv97Rk\/?mibextid=wwXIfr\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook post<\/a>explaining one of the &#8216;worst&#8217; decisions of his life, saying he &#8216;got behind the wheel after drinking and was arrested for DWI [Drinking While Intoxicated].&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I ended up getting in my car, and I drove home, from New York City to Rockland County. I was on the Palisades Parkway, I was driving impaired. I was pulled over by police and arrested,&#8217; Lawler shared with a group of high schoolers in a video that he posted to Facebook on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The irony is that since coming to <a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/us-congress\/index.html\" id=\"mol-f369db90-8086-11f1-a4ff-eb3f01ad668a\">Congress<\/a>, Lawler has been a vocal advocate for ending drunk driving.<\/p>\n<p>In July of 2024, Lawler was given the&#8217;Legislative Hero Award&#8217; byMothers Against Drunk Driving. The Daily Mail reached out to MADD for comment and did not immediately receive a response.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Nothing is more important than the safety of our residents, and that will continue to be my highest priority,&#8217; Lawler noted in an X post that shows him posing with the award. Lawler is currently a father to two young daughters.<\/p>\n<h2>Lawler backed legislation to prevent drunk driving<\/h2>\n<p>This past January, Lawler championed the issue again, cosponsoring theDrunk Driving Prevention and Enforcement Act alongside Democrats Debbie Dingell and Laura Gillen.<\/p>\n<p>The bill would take &#8216;significant steps to prevent impaired driving and save lives&#8217; with technology and law enforcement resources.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Mail approached Gillen&#8217;s office for comment on whether or not she was aware of Lawler&#8217;s transgression, and if they ever came up for discussion during their work on the bill, and did not receive an immediate response.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, Lawler and Dingell sent a joint letter to the Secretary of Transportation urging the &#8216;swift implementation&#8217; of the HALT Drunk Driving Law, which &#8216;requires new motor vehicles to be equipped with advanced anti-drunk driving technology that prevents a car from operating if the driver is illegally impaired.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>When asked for comment by the Daily Mail, Lawler sent a link to a video of his speech to a local high school on Wednesday, where he went into the story in more detail.<\/p>\n<p>In that video, he notes &#8216;throughout my time in the state assembly, and now in Congress, I have worked alongside organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and local advocates to promote roadway safety.&#8217;<\/p>\n<h2>Trump endorsed Lawler and praised his bipartisan work<\/h2>\n<p>Lawler has also in the past championed deporting illegal immigrants who commit DUI&#8217;s, stating in an interview during his 2024 re-election campaign that one migrant who was charged with murder should have been &#8216;handed order to ICE&#8217; after &#8216;his arrest for drunk driving in Yonkers in 2018.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Lawler also called out his opponent, Mondaire Jones, for wanting to &#8216;prevent the deportation of anyone arrested for DWI [Driving While Intoxicated].<\/p>\n<p>In 2026, Lawler is running against Democratic challenger Cait Conley, an army veteran, who bested a field of primary opponents in a bitter fight last month.<\/p>\n<p>Trump campaigned with Lawler in May, when he praised Lawler&#8217;s bipartisan efforts, while Lawler voiced pride in his working relationship with the President.<\/p>\n<p>The two also spent time boasting about last year&#8217;s GOP tax bill that expanded the state and local tax (SALT) deduction to $40,000, a move Lawler championed.<\/p>\n<p>Per the Cook Political Report, Lawler&#8217;s seat is rated as a &#8216;toss-up.&#8217; He won his last race in 2024 with 52.1 percent of the vote.<\/p>\n<p><span>Share your thoughts with us in the comments<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congressman Mike Lawler, a top Trump ally who is locked in a critical reelection race in New York, has revealed that he was &#8216;arrested for DWI&#8217; in his younger days. Lawler, 39, disclosed the 2012 incident for the very first time on Wednesday in an interviewwith local New York news outlet News12. He said that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}