Former Rep. Lee Zeldin ripped New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday.
Gillibrand is “one of the laziest, most forgettable unaccomplished senators in the country. It is a wasted Senate seat,” Zeldin said during a CPAC panel focused on how Republicans can more effectively campaign for office.
“Senator-what’s-her-name is wasting a senate seat inside New York — and New Yorkers are getting rolled and screwed, because we have a senator who is not doing a good job representing all of us in New York,” he added.
Gillibrand, who has long faced accusations of being MIA from her job, has already been fundraising off the possibility of a Zeldin fight in her 2024 re-election campaign.
“Our potential Republican opponent, Lee Zeldin, just attacked Kirsten Gillibrand on Twitter. As we gear up for the tough reelection fight ahead, we know this is only the beginning,” read a January email.
Zeldin has been coy about his plans, but has not ruled out a run.
“Senator-what’s-her-name is wasting a senate seat inside New York,” Zeldin said of Gillibrand. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images“I have nothing to announce,” he told CPAC attendees.
The one-time Long Island Congressman and 2022 Republican gubernatorial candidate received a warm reception at the annual confab, this year in National Harbor, Maryland.
“This man ran one of the best races I’ve ever seen,” said panel moderator Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House deputy press secretary, of Zeldin’s tough gubernatorial run. He credited Zeldin with providing the lift for Republicans to narrowly reclaim the House in the 2022 midterms.
Lee Zeldin is expected to possibly challenge Gillibrand in 2024. Newsday via Getty Images“Zeldin’s lies are a sad attempt to distract from the fact that in his entire career in Congress he accomplished basically nothing” Gillibrand spokesman Evan Lukaske said.
On the other hand, Senator Gillibrand just passed the first federal anti-gun trafficking law in history, delivered health benefits to 9/11 first responders and our veterans, and brought home hundreds of millions of dollars for New York jobs, health care and education. She’ll put her record against his any day of the week and twice on Sundays,” he continued.
