Following her victory in the Republican primary, Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis (Bay Ridge, Staten Island) did not mince words while grilling incumbent U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island), who she hopes to unseat in November.
Malliotakis asserted that Rose was a far-leftist who duped the constituents of New York’s 11th Congressional District. “In 2018 Max Rose ran for Congress as a moderate, but over the last 18 months he’s proved to be anything but that,” she said.
“He deceived his constituents by voting in lockstep with [U.S. Reps.] Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Adam Schiff to release convicted felons from federal prisons, use tax dollars to fund political campaigns and give amnesty to gang members who are here illegally. He supports closing Rikers, eliminating bail and defunding the NYPD.”
Rose guffawed at Malliotakis’ accusations, calling her integrity into question.“I’m happy to welcome career politician Nicole Malliotakis to the general election as she’s a fraud who represents everything we hate about our politics,” he said.
“In just my first term we passed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, the Seawall project is finally getting going, I led the fight to save our Port Authority toll discount and passed split-tolling to get Jersey trucks off our expressways, and we secured millions to combat the opioid epidemic and finally punished China for flooding our streets with fentanyl.”
Malliotakis retorted, citing her own policy accomplishments during her time in Albany and asserting her lifelong connection to the district. “Unlike Max Rose, I grew up in the district and I’ve represented Southern Brooklyn and Staten Island for a decade; standing with my constituents during the recovery and rebuilding from Super Storm Sandy and the current battle against COVID-19,” she said.
“I’ve taken on the Port Authority to gain transparency, the MTA to restore bus service and stopped Mayor de Blasio from bringing heroin injection centers to our city.”
Rose responded with his own list of accomplishments during the pandemic, doubling down on his assertion that Malliotakis is uniquely dishonest.
“When I was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on the front lines, setting up a COVID-only facility, bringing the first drive-through testing site in New York City right to our district, and securing billions of dollars in funding and materials to beat the pandemic and save our economy— what was Nicole doing? She was sharing photoshopped pictures of herself delivering supplies and cutting half a billion dollars from our health care providers,” said Rose.
“And in her ten years in Albany she hasn’t passed a single piece of substantive legislation, but has taken all sides of just about every single issue—whether it be Donald Trump, Sanctuary Cities, vaccines, keeping our kids safe from gun violence, and split tolling. At some point in her life she committed to being a fraud, and I admire her commitment to it.”
Amid the partisan bickering, Malliotakis asserted that a vote for her would provide a check on the excesses of the Democratic Party.
“In Congress, I’ll continue to fight to create jobs, cut taxes and keep our community safe,” she said. “New York City needs at least one Republican voice in Washington to stand up to the radical left and provide a much needed alternative viewpoint.”
The NY-11 Congressional District race is nationally considered a battleground district – the only one in the city – where both Democrats and Republicans have equal shots at securing. As such both the Democratic and Republican National Committees are pouring money and resources into the race.
The General Election is Nov. 3.
