As Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) scramble for the one seat left on New York’s new district map, the attacks are getting personal.
Seventy-six-year-old Maloney suggested during a Saturday meeting with reporters in Manhattan that Nadler is senile by referencing a recent editorial that pointed out Nadler’s debate gaffes.
“They call him senile,” Maloney told reporters. “They cite his performance at the debate where he couldn’t even remember who he impeached. He said he impeached Bush.”
The New York Post editorial that Maloney referred to described 75-year-old Nadler as “this close to senile in that epic NY1 debate,” when he said he voted to impeach former President George W. Bush instead of former President Donald Trump.
Nadler told a reporter on Tuesday that he would not dignify Maloney’s remarks with a response.
.@JerryNadler tells me he won’t dignify Maloney’s insinuation that he’s senile with a response. pic.twitter.com/TFwX2LGC3U
— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) August 23, 2022
Maloney is not free from gaffes herself.
During an on the record conversation with the New York Times editorial board, Maloney said of President Joe Biden, “off the record, he’s not running again.” The publication had never agreed to her terms and thus printed the remark.
And during a CNN hit in early August, Maloney praised Biden while suggesting he wouldn’t run again in 2024.
“Mr. President, I apologize,” Maloney said during the hit. “I want you to run. I happen to think you won’t be running, but when you run or if you run, I will be there 100%. You have deserved it. You are a great president, and thank you for everything you’ve done for my state and all the states and all the cities in America. Thank you, Mr. President.”
Neither Nadler nor Maloney immediately responded to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. Their rivalry has developed, after three decades of the lawmakers serving peaceably side by side, after the re-drawing of Manhattan’s East and West Sides into one district.
While Nadler seeks to portray himself as a staunch progressive and one of the last Jewish congressmen who represents one of the most Jewish cities in the world, Maloney has accused him of playing identity politics (though she has focused her campaign on the importance of re-electing a powerful woman post Roe v. Wade).