Democratic Long Island congressional candidate Tom Suozzi slammed his Republican opponent, Mazi Melesa Pilip, on Wednesday for helping to kill a bipartisan border security bill that would’ve also aided Ukraine and Israel.
Joined by several fellow moderate Democratic lawmakers, Suozzi trashed Pilip’s GOP allies for killing the bill at the behest of former President Donald Trump.
“My opponent has taken the ‘My way is the highway approach,’ ” Suozzi said. “The result of this extremism is endangering Israel, it’s keeping the border open and it’s benefiting [Russian strongman Vladimir] Putin. Those are all bad things.”
“This political game-playing is what is sickening America,” Suozzi added.
The finger-pointing came hours after Republican senators killed Wednesday a compromise border security bill that included many of the policy changes they have demanded for months.
GOP lawmakers abandoned the bill under pressure from Trump, who has demanded that they avoid giving President Biden a political win in an election year.
Senate Democrats worked Wednesday to push for a new bill backing Ukraine and Israel without the border provisions that Trump objected to. But it was unclear if that would have the 60 votes needed in the Senate, let alone get through the fractious GOP House.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), a leading supporter of Israel, praised Suozzi as “one of us” while accusing Republicans of undermining Israel with their mercurial policy stances.
“The dysfunction and extremism of the Republican Party is no friend of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Torres said. “This is dangerous because it tells the world that the U.S. cannot get its act together to help Israel.”
Pilip did not immediately respond to Suozzi’s most recent attacks. She accuses Suozzi and Biden of failing to support tough enough measures at the border, a line that echoes that of House Republicans.
“Tom Suozzi owns the migrant crisis, along with Joe Biden,” Pilip tweeted.
Pilip countered by unveiling the endorsement of the hard-line Border Patrol agents union, even though it supported the compromise bill that she opposed.
The back-and-forth comes as early voting continues in the district ahead of the Feb. 13 special election to replace disgraced ex-Rep. George Santos, a Republican.
Suozzi is a three-term former lawmaker from the district while Pilip is a political newcomer and GOP rising star with an inspirational life story as an Israeli immigrant with roots in Ethiopia.
The race for the suburban swing district spanning the North Shore of Nassau County and northeast Queens is considered a bellwether with potential national implications as the parties joust for control of Congress in the fall election.
