Trump rips ‘foolish’ GOP candidate who lost NY special election for distancing herself from MAGA
Fox News
Former President Trump slammed Republican candidate Mazi Pilip after she lost the special election for a U.S. House seat in New York to Democrat Tom Suozzi.
In a late night Truth Social post, Trump called Pilip a “foolish woman” and claimed she lost on Tuesday because she did not endorse him.
“Republicans just don’t learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat? I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn’t endorse me and tried to ‘straddle the fence,’ when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America,” Trump wrote.
Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Nassau County legislator, originally registered as a Democrat in 2012 before running for office as a Republican, according to Politico. While campaigning in New York, she kept Trump at arm’s length and said she would not support him for reelection if he is convicted of a crime, according to the New York Post.
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The 2024 GOP front-runner went on to say that his supporters stayed home in the closely watched special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.
“I STAYED OUT OF THE RACE, ‘I WANT TO BE LOVED!’ GIVE US A REAL CANDIDATE IN THE DISTRICT FOR NOVEMBER. SUOZZI, I KNOW HIM WELL, CAN BE EASILY BEATEN!” Trump wrote.
The special election in a New York City suburb attracted large investments from Republicans and Democrats, who saw the race as a bellwether ahead of the likely showdown between President Biden and Trump.
The Long Island district held for a decade by Democrats was flipped by Santos in the 2022 midterms. But Santos was kicked out of Congress less than a year into his tenure, after he was exposed for lying about his background and indicted for a slew of financial crimes.
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Suozzi, who represented the district for six years before running unsuccessfully for governor, repeatedly tied Pilip to Santos, as well as to former President Donald Trump.
“Who knows what she really stands for? She’s George Santos 2.0. It’s the exact same nontransparent, phony baloney, just trying to get votes instead of saying what you really think,” Suozzi charged on the eve of the election.
And Suozzi, a former mayor and county executive, argued that Pilip — who is in her second term as a county lawmaker — “is a far-right wing extremist” who is “totally in line with Mike Johnson and Donald Trump .”
Pilip, an Ethiopian Jew who fled to Israel at age 12 to escape persecution and who later enlisted and served in the Israeli military before immigrating to the United States, linked Suozzi to President Biden and blamed him for the migrant crisis.
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“You know, he is the one who opened the southern border. He voted with Biden 100% of the time. He supported squad members 90% of the time, he is the one who caused the migrant crisis,” Philip claimed in a Fox News interview on Sunday.
Suozzi, a centrist and moderate Democrat, kept his distance from Biden and his party when it came to immigration.
But the White House announced that the president called Suozzi to congratulate him on his victory. And the Biden campaign argued that “Donald Trump lost again tonight. When Republicans run on Trump’s extreme agenda — even in a Republican-held seat — voters reject them.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.