Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Carolyn Maloney held a Praise Biden Contest at a debate — one week after they both threw President Joe Biden under the bus at the last debate.
Tuesday night was the setting for a rematch between Democratic congressional candidate Suraj Patel and the two incumbents he’s trying to beat in New York’s 12th congressional district, one week after this stunning exchange in the “lightning round” of the last debate:
ERROL LOUIS: Should President Biden run again in 2024?SURAJ PATEL: Yes.ERROL LOUIS: Mr. Nadler?REP. NADLER: Too early to say. It doesn’t serve the purpose of Democratic Party to deal with them until after the midterms.ERROL LOUIS: Ms. Maloney?REP. MALONEY: I don’t believe he’s running for reelection.
This time around, Patel wasted no time in reminding viewers of the WPIX debate about the debacle. In response to an unrelated question about experience, Patel noted “the rookie on this stage is the only one who didn’t just spend seven days embarrassing themselves by throwing President Biden under the bus for reelection in 2024.”
“I mean, from Tucker Carlson to Sean Hannity, Democrats across the country are being asked about President Biden’s future now, thanks to the comments made by the two people on this stage with decades of experience,” Patel said.
Minutes later, moderator Ayana Harry circled back, and asked each candidate “Should Joe Biden be the
First up was Maloney, whose early attempts at damage control last week were ostentatiously terrible. This time, she stuck to praising Biden and ticking off a list of his accomplishments:
I am supporting Joe Biden. He has announced that he is running and I am really going to be supporting him this Friday when we vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a transformative legislation that will help our economy, help people and combat climate change. In addition, he passed the American Rescue Plan that brought over $5.8 billion to New York City and the infrastructure plan that is building our Second Avenue subway up to 125th Street. Also, the CHIPs bill that is bringing manufacturing back to our city, including personal protective equipment and others.
Mr. Patel essentially repeated his original answer, and concluded by saying that President Biden “has accomplished so much in the first two years. Why are we asking this question?”
Nadler drafted off his opponents’ answers, and added a “magnificent” for good measure, then tried to explain his response from last week:
Absolutely. I’m not going to repeat all his all his accomplishments that my two colleagues here have, have, have pointed out. Absolutely, he should be the Democratic nominee and he should be reelected president. He’s done a magnificent job. What I said in the debate last week was not to cast doubt on that, what
I said in the debate last week was that it does not, does not serve the purposes of the Democratic Party to be talking about to 2024 until 2022 is over. Let’s get past the midterms. Let’s worry about the midterms. Then we can worry about how to win the election in 2024.
A recent poll has the race at 40% for Nadler, 31% for Maloney, and 11% for Patel.
Watch above via WPIX.