Williams spox slams Mannion as running on ‘anti-cop, pro-Hamas’ ballot line

Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., is blasting Democratic challenger John Mannion over his progressive endorsement regardless of the opponent portray himself as a average throughout Tuesday evening’s debate. 

The two are battling for management of New York’s twenty second congressional district, which Democrats write off as a straightforward pick-up of their combat to reclaim management of the House. Williams gained by one proportion level two years in the past, and since then, the state legislature’s redistricting eliminated rural areas strongly favored by former President Trump and added the school city of Cortland. The result’s a modified central New York district the place voters favored President Biden by 11 factors within the 2020 presidential election.

“John Mannion painted a rosy picture of his views in last night’s debate, oddly attempting to run to the political right of Congressman Williams,” Williams’ spokesperson Taylor Weyeneth informed Fox News Digital Wednesday. “However, he neglected to explain why he’s running on the anti-cop, pro-Hamas ballot line for the ‘Working Families Party’ and its grotesque policies. A note for John, it’s time to put actions behind your words—denounce the WFP or admit you are an extremist willing to do anything to get elected.”

The two confronted off throughout their third and closing debate on Tuesday evening. 

Mannion, although thought of a average in Albany, was endorsed by the New York Working Families Party earlier this 12 months and stays on their web site’s record of backed candidates. The progressive minority celebration’s web site says it is dedicated to “defeat fascism and build progressive power,” and is reportedly linked to the bigger Democratic Socialists of America, which endorses Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York. 

2 SWING DISTRICTS IN NEW YORK SPLIT AS GOP INCUMBENTS FIGHT TO HOLD SEATS

Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., speaks throughout a session on the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Dec. 9, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Williams is the Republican candidate in New York’s twenty second Congressional District.  (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

In December 2023, the New York Post reported that the New York’s Working Families Party requested candidates in search of their endorsement for state places of work to assist $40 billion in tax will increase, allowing migrants and non-citizens to vote and establishing extra legalized drug-injection facilities. 

Their questionnaire reportedly requested candidates, “Will you stand up for the right of all non-citizens, including undocumented New Yorkers, to vote in local and state elections, so they have a voice in the communities they live in and the schools their children go to?” 

“The WFP also asks if a candidate would back legislation or support using federal funds to provide health insurance coverage to more than 250,000 residents who are non-citizens or undocumented,” one other query posed to the state candidate learn, in accordance with the Post. 

It’s not clear if Mannion confronted the identical questions. Fox News Digital reached out to the Mannion marketing campaign for remark however didn’t instantly hear again. 

The Working Families Party, which additionally had advocated for defunding the police, has been vocal in demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and has accused Israel of finishing up “war crimes.” 

“We have to stop the global authoritarian right-wing. Trump wants to criminalize protesters for Palestine,” its account wrote in August. “He is Netanyahu’s preferred candidate, who is behind the ethnic cleansing campaign that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced and starved millions.” 

NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE SAYS REPUBLICANS ‘FEARFUL’ OF MIGRANTS ARE IGNORANT

While nationwide consideration has been targeted on districts nearer to New York City as holding the important thing to the steadiness of energy in Congress, the Democratic Party has devoted important assets to the central New York race between Williams and Mannion, sensing one among its greatest probabilities this fall.

In Mannion, a former college instructor and two-term state senator, Democrats have a candidate they’re betting can attraction to swing voters. He has substantial assist from labor unions, opposes abortion restrictions and has staked out a centrist place on adjustments to the state’s bail legal guidelines.

Williams, in the meantime, has sought to border Mannion as a liberal masquerading as a centrist.

New York State Sen. John Mannion, Democratic candidate for New York’s twenty second congressional district, meets with representatives and members of the United Steelworkers in Geddes, N.Y. on Thurs., Oct. 24. 2024.  (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

“He has all of the credentials of the far left, but he’s going to pretend to be a Republican here for a couple of weeks, and with a wink and a nod and hoping that the Democrat base either forgives him or doesn’t notice,” Williams mentioned, in accordance with the Associated Press. 

Williams, who grew up in Texas, served as a U.S. Navy submarine officer, then was a tech entrepreneur earlier than beginning a truffle farm in central New York, has spent a lot of the marketing campaign attempting to recapture the dynamic that helped him win a detailed race in 2022.

That 12 months, Republican candidates in New York outperformed their nationwide colleagues by capitalizing on a public backlash in opposition to adjustments within the state’s bail legal guidelines. The adjustments restricted the observe of requiring many individuals accused of nonviolent crimes to pay cash to be able to get launched from jail whereas they await trial.

Mannion was not in workplace when these bail adjustments handed, however he did again laws that subsequently gave judges extra discretion on whether or not to jail an individual earlier than trial, a change many progressives resisted however that moderates argued was mandatory, in accordance with the AP. 

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The race began off principally cordial however grew to become more and more caustic within the closing stretch.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.