Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney officially endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign for president Tuesday, slamming New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for not doing the same.
“We need an economy that’s generating wealth again, or people who are working hard, and that’s what Hilary Clinton is talking about this week and I’m very proud to see it,” Mr. Maloney, a Democrat representing New York’s Hudson Valley, said on WAMC Public Radio, adding, “You can consider this a formal endorsement right now.”
Mr. Maloney took the opportunity to blast Mr. de Blasio for refusing Sunday to endorse the former secretary of state, arguing that the mayor of all people should want a candidate who has New York’s best interests at heart.
“Well, I think Bill de Blasio should have his head examined,” Mr. Maloney said. “I don’t understand why my friend Bill de Blasio would have any reservations about a person he worked for, about a champion for New York, about someone who is going to do more for hard working families in the Hudson Valley than anybody else who is running. I just couldn’t disagree with him more.
“I think this is a person who has her headquarters in New York, who is always going to have New York front of mind when she’s in the Oval Office. I think we ought to get behind her, and I think we can have all the conversations we want about what she ought to emphasize,” he continued. “The alternative is the team that wants to go after Medicare, and go after Social Security, that wants to give huge tax cuts to multimillionaires through some trickle-down theory that has never worked.”
Mr. Maloney added that Mr. de Blasio should probably come out and “clarify his comments a little bit.”
SEE ALSO: Bill de Blasio ‘not yet’ ready to endorse Hillary Clinton
The mayor said Sunday that Mrs. Clinton is “a tremendous public servant” and “one of the most qualified people to ever run” for president, but argued he’d like to see more substance and “an actual vision of where she wants to go.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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