Putin Loves GOP's 'Sedition Caucus'

Nicole Malliotakis

New York Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, a charter member of the “Sedition Caucus” who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results, stumbled her way through a five-minute interview on Jan. 27 with Steve Inskeep, host of NPR's "Morning Edition."

As a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Inskeep invited her to talk about how the Biden administration is handling the crisis in Ukraine.

Biden was slow to act but is now moving a little better in the right direction, responded the Staten Island/Brooklyn representative.

Malliotakis, who is my Congresswoman, faulted Biden’s hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan for making the US look weak overseas.

That opened the door wide open for Inskeep.

He asked whether Malliotakis was aware that America’s adversaries overseas may have been watching as she voted to object to the election without any evidence of fraud.

He then aired an audio of a European political analyst who said Russian strongman Vladimir Putin became convinced that democracy was dying in the US after he watched the trashing of the US Capitol.

Malliotakis decided to run out the clock.

She began talking about her Constitutional duties and then started blabbering about two states that might not have abided by the Constitution but that would not have overturned the results of the election. Go figure.

As Inskeep warned her that time was running out, Malliotakis shifted gears to the Paris Accord, blaming Biden for restoring America’s place in the agreement without demanding that China and India up their anti-pollution effort.

She then brought up the US reentering the United Nations human rights council, of which Russia is a member.

Malliotakis probably would have started blaming Biden for the hefty tolls on the Verrazzano Bridge, but luckily for her, Inskeep ran out of time.

Her time in Congress also may be running out as redistricting may add a slew of Brooklyn Democratic voters to her district.

Lighten up, Democrats. A poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov found that Democrats are downright gloomy about America’s state in the world when it comes to income inequality, immigration, gay rights and religious tolerance vis-a-vis Republicans.

E.g., forty percent of Biden voters say America ranks among the worst nations in the world on minority rights, compared to 11 percent of Republicans.

C’mon. What about China, Russia, India and Iran?

The magazine noted that “though Republican voters are sometimes caricatured as provincial, many Democratic voters seem unaware of their comparative good fortune.”

The bad news for Democrats is that the poll found that Independent voters tracked more closely to Republicans.

A reason Dems may be down in the dumps: the progressive wing of the party uses “doom and gloom” to attract funds and allies.