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President Biden telephoned a prominent New York rabbi and offered him free entry to the White House in exchange for his support of Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democrat campaign arm who is in a tight race.
Charged with leading Democrats in their fight to keep the House, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and New York Rep. Maloney will now focus on his own race against Republican Councilman Mike Lawler on Nov. 8. -up’ race, despite Biden carrying the district by 10 points.
“You get an open door to my administration,” Biden promised Rabbi David Twersky in a 15-minute phone call, according to Rockland Daily. Jewish Forward reporter Jacob Kornbluh confirmed the call.
Twersky is the chief rabbi of the Hasidic sect in New Square, NY in the 17th congressional district.
Biden called a prominent New York rabbi and offered him free entry to the White House in exchange for his support behind Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney
“You get an open door to my administration,” Biden promised Rabbi David Twersky in a 15-minute phone call
New York-based political strategist Hank Sheinkopf said Twersky is revered by Hasidic Jews in New Square and that they will take his advice and vote for Maloney if he tells them to.
Sheinkopf also said the call indicates trouble for Maloney.
“You don’t have to ask the President of the United States for support unless you’re in trouble during a political campaign,” he told the New York Post. “If you’re ten points ahead, you’re not asking the president for help.”
“Despite all his false bravado, Sean Patrick Maloney is definitely acting like a very scared man,” Samantha Bullock, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Campaign (NRCC), told DailyMail.com. “Maloney’s vulnerable Democrats are probably not happy that their DCCC chairman is using the political capital he has left to save himself.”
Maloney’s campaign could not be reached for comment on the matter.
Earlier this month, Biden ran into Democrats in Poughkeepsie, where he was joined by Maloney and New York government Kathy Hochul. Hochul faces an increasingly competitive challenge from GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin.
On Sunday, Hochul met with ultra-religious Jewish leaders in Rockland County as she fights for the Orthodox Jewish vote against Zeldin, who is Jewish.
Jewish groups praised Maloney’s victory over progressive challenger Alessandra Biaggi in the August primary, because Biaggi had expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Charged with leading Democrats in their battle for the House, DCCC chairman and New York Rep. Maloney must now focus on his own race against Republican Councilman Mike Lawler on Nov. 8. It’s turned into a ‘throw-up’ race
Meanwhile, Republicans are pouring money into defeating the Democratic Party leader. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with House Republican Leadership, has dumped $6 million into the race, including $4 million announced last week.
They’re shifting focus back to crime, with ads highlighting Maloney’s 2018 comments that ending bail reform is a “top priority.”
The race for the newly drawn district comes after a messy reclassification process that saw the DCCC chairman’s district split in two. Instead of running in the current version of his district, he ran in the more democratically oriented new district where his home is located, leaving progressive Rep. Mondaire Jones was expelled. Jones then ran in a New York City primaries and lost. Maloney’s handling of the trial sparked sharp criticism within the party.
Complaints also poured across the country about Maloney over the DCCC’s choice to elevate far-right candidates in Republican primaries, who they believed would have an easier time beating in general elections.
New GOP funding for Lawler prompted the DCCC to buy $600,000 worth of TV ads, with some other vulnerable Democrats expressing frustration that the party had to dive into the coffers to save its seats rather than focus on helping. from others who are underwater.
Maloney also raised questions when he paid his and his husband’s personal trainer more than $7,000 from campaign and tax dollars, as DailyMail.com first reported. A spokesman for Maloney said the trainer, Erick Ramos, was paid as a part-time driver for the congressman.
Maloney’s staffing choices have raised eyebrows as to whether he has previously used campaign funds for personal use. In July the New York Post reported on Harold Leath, Maloney’s former “body man” or as Maloney’s office calls it, “executive assistant.”
“I was pretty much everywhere with the congressman in the district where he went—when he went to a meeting, when he went for a run. I would take him wherever he needed to go,” he told The Post.
“When I first started out, my main responsibility was to make sure the congressman and his family never needed anything,” Leath recalls. “I’d be there.”
“All I was paid for in the beginning was either for his campaign or doing something for him.”