Longshot congressional candidate Suraj Patel is claiming primary rival Rep. Jerrold Nadler has publicly turned his back on fellow Democrats like President Biden and former President Barack Obama.
Patel slammed Nadler in a new campaign ad Tuesday for saying during a debate earlier this month that it was “too early” to determine whether he would support a potential Biden reelection bid in 2024.
“It was reckless,” the ad’s narrator says of the Biden gaffe.
Suraj Patel accused his opponent Jerry Nadler of abandoning both Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Paul MartinkaThe spot then references comments Nadler made during the 2008 controversy surrounding Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
“He didn’t have the political courage to make the statement of walking out,” Nadler said at the time, before the then-Illinois senator resigned his membership in the Chicago-based Trinity United Church of Christ.
Even though Obama shrugged off the controversy to win the White House, Patel argued the lack of support from veteran Dems like Nadler led to the GOP taking control of the House in 2010.
“We’ve seen the history,” he told The Post in a phone interview. “It’s inexplicable to me in both cases why you would provide ammunition to … Republicans.”
Nadler has scored a pair of coveted endorsements in the 12th Congressional District primary in recent days, winning the support of the New York Times editorial board and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
But Patel insists Nadler and Rep. Carolyn Maloney – who has said twice that she doesn’t even think Biden will launch a bid for a second term – are fair weather Democrats.
Nadler faces Patel and House veteran Carolyn Maloney in their primary. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag“Those two have been touting their seniority, when they made the most rookie mistake in politics and threw their president under the bus!” he said of the two septuagenarians – Nadler is 75 and Maloney is 76.
“I think Democrats need to focus on their wins and act like winners.”
Neither Nadler nor Maloney’s campaigns immediately returned a request for comment.






