Zeldin makes excuses for skipping out of 2/3 of congressional committee hearings that focus on countering ISIS, addressing Syria conflict
Instead of taking responsibility for blowing off ISIS/Syria hearings in Congress, Congressman Lee Zeldin is avoiding accountability and keeping up his ‘tough talk’ appearances on cable news.
Recently, the New York Post reported that while Zeldin has “positioned himself as a foreign policy firebrand with his tough talk on taking out ISIS,” the Long Island Congressman has skipped out of two-thirds of “full committee and subcommittee hearings focused just on ISIS and the Syrian crisis – issues Zeldin regularly lectures about on cable news.”
Overall, the report found that Zeldin “missed more than half of full [Foreign Affairs] committee hearings last year.”
Zeldin made another appearance recently on Fox News to talk tough on ISIS and Syria as a member of the Foreign Affairs committee – the committee he has been skipping out of hearings.
Despite blowing off congressional hearings that focused on countering ISIS and addressing the Syrian conflict, Zeldin declared on the recent Fox News segment, “The average American public gets that this is a real threat to our homeland and it’s an important need for us to evolve our foreign policy.”
“Instead of apologizing to his constituents for blowing off work that focused on countering terrorism threats from ISIS and addressing the conflict in Syria, no-show Congressman Lee Zeldin is making excuses and continues to keep up his ‘tough talk’ on cable news,” said Bryan Lesswing at the DCCC. “Real leadership means accepting responsibility for your actions. But Congressman Lee Zeldin would rather shift blame and gloss-over his no-show record than come clean with voters.”
In addition to keeping up his Fox News appearances, Zeldin continues to make excuses and shift the blame for blowing off work in Congress.
In response to the initial news of Zeldin’s no-show record, a Zeldin spokesperson argued that, “The congressman is never truly absent from any committee or subcommittee hearing.” And in a follow-up Newsday story, Zeldin’s spokesperson referred to the Long Island congressman’s record as “exceptional.”