Contrasts Couldn’t Be Clearer, Zeldin Must Go
Someone check on Lee Zeldin.
In a blistering indictment of the sitting Congressman and Member of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, the Newsday Editorial Board took Lee Zeldin to task over his terrible record in Washington and his overzealous praise of the president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has put Suffolk families in danger.
“That’s where Zeldin lives something of a double life. The Shirley Republican is a Trump-ist star in the nation’s capital, defending President Donald Trump on television and embracing many of the divisive policies that have scarred the country for the last four years. At home in his district in eastern Long Island, Zeldin presents himself as a solution-seeking, bipartisan player.
The dual identity is untenable, and whatever tendencies Zeldin does harbor toward moderation are outweighed by his reckless amplification of some of Trump’s worst paranoia over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. His defense of Trump’s behavior during the impeachment trial earned him an invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention where he called Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic “phenomenal.” And he voted against boosting the U.S. Postal Service, banning flavored tobacco products, reducing discrimination against older workers, and allowing the federal government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, while supporting attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
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But Zeldin also was unable to stop the cap on state and local tax deductions in Trump’s tax cuts, which hurt many Long Islanders, and voted against a bill from Republican Pete King and Democrat Tom Suozzi to restore the deductions. Despite his touting of connections to the White House, he has not done enough to alleviate the East End’s helicopter noise problem, or get permanent federal protections for Plum Island helicopter noise problem, or get permanent federal protections for Plum Island.”
Sounds like a failure to us. And as the Editorial Board makes clear, “Goroff is an outstanding alternative.”
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