“Here we are at the end of summer,” she told reporters at
her weekly press call, “and out my window right now I hear crickets. That is
exactly what we're hearing from Tom Reed.”
Mitrano pointed to an Atlantic article in which unnamed
sources quoted the president as calling military personnel “losers” and
“suckers.”
“Tom Reed’s failure to stand up and say something is nothing
less than appalling,” she declared. “He could say, “We may not yet have full
confirmation, but it just needs to be said that this country should devote full
glory to those soldiers.’ Yet Tom Reed remained silent.”
Reed has also been silent about intelligence reports that
Russians put bounties on American soldiers in Afghanistan.
“Tom Reed should have stood up and said, ‘While we are
awaiting confirmation it needs to be shouted from the rooftops that we will
never tolerate another country putting bounties on the heads of our men and
women in service.’ And yet all we hear from Tom Reed is crickets.”
Silence on Social Security
Even as Trump talked publicly about suspending or even
eliminating the payroll tax that funds Social Security, Reed’s newsletter
assured constituents that he would never harm the program.
“He doesn’t stand up and say, ‘Mr. President, we need to
help people through this economic crisis of the pandemic, but this is not the
right way to do it,” said Mitrano. “All we hear from Tom Reed is a red herring:
‘I haven't brought any legislation to dismantle Social Security.’ Does he think
that’s the only thing that would matter? He is supporting the undermining of
Social Security by failing to stand up to the president.”
Trump is also reeling from a new book, Rage, and a recording
in which he told author Bob Woodward that covid-19 was a lethal virus back in
February. At the time, Trump publicly downplayed the danger and maintained a
full schedule of indoor rallies—and golf.
“Tom Reed retweeted all of what we now hear from the
president himself were false declarations of confidence and comfort,” said
Mitrano. “All he did in March and April was talk about how there was nothing to
worry about, and we're all going to be back in our church pews by April. And
now, having found that he has hoodwinked by this president along with everyone
else, Tom Reed does not stand up.”
Asked if she would support investigations into Trump’s
handling of the pandemic and Governor Cuomo’s responsibility for covid nursing
home deaths, Mitrano said yes—but they aren’t at the top of her To Do list.
“I am interested in lessons learned as a matter of history,
but after that I don't want to spend another moment thinking about Donald
Trump,” she said. “I'm going to Congress to help the people of the 23rd
district. My priorities will be to get affordable healthcare, to stabilize
pre-K and K through 12 education, to get interest rates on college loans down
dramatically and to get the internet in this district.”
Mitrano noted that almost 30 percent of the district’s
population has inadequate internet service. “Children can't learn that way.
People can't retool for jobs. You will not get investment anywhere in the 23rd
unless you have the basic utilities that investors expect to be there for their
factory or processing center.”
She stated that the region lost more jobs during Reed’s
tenure than at any other time in its history. “Tom Reed can say, ‘Jobs, jobs,
jobs,’ as he has for ten years. He does not seem to understand the fundamental
components of how you would attract investment: healthy people, educated
people, necessary infrastructure, good use of the environment. He's on the
opposite side of all of those factors.
“Crickets will not do,” Mitrano said. “If Tom Reed thinks he
can avoid the responsibility of neglecting this district for ten years, it's
not going to work. If he thinks he can get all the benefits of a President
Donald Trump and none of the responsibilities, he cannot hide from it.”
And if Reed thinks throwing lies about her is like throwing
cooked spaghetti against a wall hoping some of it will stick, that won’t work
either.
“I have a message back for Tom Reed,” said Mitrano: “Don't
throw spaghetti at an Italian. It doesn't stick.”
