Lee Zeldin at CPAC: Kirsten Gillibrand is ‘Forgettable, Unaccomplished’ 

By:  Hadassa Kalatizadeh 

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin slammed New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, in his speech Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 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 discussing how Republicans can campaign for office more effectively.  “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,” Zeldin added.

As reported by the NY Post, Gillibrand has oft been called the absent senator, and she has already started fundraising her re-election campaign– which includes the possibility of Zeldin running for her seat in the 2024 election.  “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,” a Gillibrand campaign email read in January.

Zeldin, the 43-year-old Republican, who had run for governor in the recent NY election, had formerly served in congress from 2015 to 2023 representing NY’s 1st District,  and had served as a senator for the 3rd senate district from 2011 to 2014.  Though he lost in the general election to incumbent governor Kathy Hochul, he got the highest percentage of the vote for any NY Republican gubernatorial nominee since 2002, and he received the highest raw vote total for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 1970, as per Politico.

At the annual confab, held this year in National Harbor, Maryland, Zeldin received a warm welcome.  “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.  He applauded Zeldin, giving him credit for carrying Republicans to win the narrow midterm victory, reclaiming the House majority.  Per the Post, Zeldin has not confirmed that he will run for Gillibrand’s senate seat, but he hasn’t denied it either.  “I have nothing to announce,” he told CPAC attendees.

This is hardly the first time Gillibrand has faced criticism.  In January, she had been publicly roasted by a former-staffer, saying she would lose an election against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Longtime city Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf had agreed: “AOC can beat Kirsten Gillibrand. AOC will raise the money. She can beat her because Kirsten Gillibrand is the invisible senator. She has done very little to cement that incumbency and the electorate is angry and she has done nothing to address the issues that matter — which are COVID, crime and job loss in New York State.”

Gillibrand’s spokesman was quick to comment on Zeldin’s harsh words.  “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 added.