Rep. Mike Lawler slams Mondaire Jones as radical leftist during fiery debate for Hudson Valley House seat

First-term Republican Rep.Mike Lawler and ex-Congressman Mondaire Jones slammed each other as extremists in a fiery debate Wednesday for the House seat in the lower Hudson Valley.They repeatedly accused each other of lying about his record.Lawler painted Jones as a “radical leftist” who voted with democratic socialist Rep.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the “Squad” during his House tenure while backing the Biden-Harris lax border policy and record inflation — as well as the state Democrats’ unpopular cashless bail law.He put Jones on the defensive over making disparaging remarks about police officers and ICE agents.During the News 12 debate, Jones claimed Lawler was a toady of Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans” who wouldn’t be a check on him.Both Lawler and Jones had to revisit controversies.Lawler, a Michael Jackson “super fan,” was asked about recently resurfaced old photos of him posing as the “Thriller” hitmaker while in blackface at a college Halloween party.“I recognized why people were upset,” Lawler said, noting he had apologized.“Would I do this today? Absolutely not.”Jones, who is black, wouldn’t let Lawler off the hook, saying the blackface episode was “deeply offensive” and “part of a pattern.”But he was asked to explain why he said during a recent interview that he didn’t want a “little bitch as governor” while Kathy Hochul serves as the first female governor.Jones said his comment was not directed at Hochul but apologized to her to end a “distraction.”During a discussion on abortion and women’s rights, Lawler said, “You’re the only one who called the first female governor the little “B-word” that rhymes with witch.”Lawler also suggested Jones was a carpetbagger, declining to run for re-election in the 17th District in 2022 after redistricting and instead running in the 10th District covering lower Manhattan and brownstone Brooklyn as a “progressive champion.”Jones lost the Democrat...