Former New York Gov. George Pataki confirmed in a video early Thursday that he would seek the 2016 Republican nomination for president.

The three-and-a-half-minute video posted to his campaign website featured an anti-big government message, "Washington has grown too big, too powerful, too expensive, and too intrusive," and highlighted Pataki's role as governor of New York following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"We have always understood that we have a common background and a common destiny, and when we stand together, we can accomplish anything," Pataki says in the video. "I saw that on the streets of New York in the days and weeks after September 11."

At the end of the video, a graphic says, "Pataki for President."

Pataki would be the eighth Republican candidate to announce his run for the White House, and does so one day after former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum launched his second presidential campaign. Pataki was scheduled to speak Thursday in Exeter, N.H., which served as the state capital during the Revolutionary War and claims to be the birthplace of the Republican Party.

Pataki, 69, has worked as a lawyer and opened a consulting firm since leaving office in 2006. He's been a frequent visitor to the early nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire over the years, and has made more than half a dozen trips to New Hampshire this year alone as he explored a 2016 campaign. His earlier efforts never resulted in a full-fledged campaign, however.

Clearly a longshot in the GOP field, Pataki has cited his electoral success in a heavily Democratic state — he knocked off liberal icon Mario Cuomo to become governor in 1994 — and ability to work with Democrats as among his strengths. But he's spent recent months promoting his conservative credentials.

In an earlier trip to New Hampshire, he campaigned against President Barack Obama's health care law, criticized Obama's executive order to offer protections against deportation to millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, and said the nation can't afford another Democratic president.

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I would honestly prefer to vote for Hillary Clinton than this asshole.

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He just wants attention so that he can charge more for speeches, etc.

He knows that he can't get the nomination.

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He just wants attention so that he can charge more for speeches, etc.

He knows that he can't get the nomination.