The White House touted New York Democrat Tom Suozzi's victory over Republican Mazi Pilip as a "devastating repudiation" of former President Trump and Republicans in Congress on Wednesday.
Suozzi defeated Pilip in a special election to replace disgraced former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. White House spokesman Andrew Bates highlighted Suozzi's support for the bipartisan border security bill that crashed and burned in Congress last week, saying he put it at the "forefront of his campaign."
"When President Biden worked with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to deliver the toughest, fairest border security legislation in decades, Speaker Johnson killed it – choosing politics, Donald Trump and fentanyl traffickers over the Border Patrol Union and America’s national security," Bates said. "Yesterday, voters proved him right with a devastating repudiation of congressional Republicans. Tom Suozzi put support for the bipartisan border legislation – and congressional Republicans’ killing of it for politics – at the forefront of his case."
"The results are unmistakable. And right now, House Republicans are yet again putting politics ahead of national security – siding with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Tehran against America’s defense industrial base, against NATO, against Ukraine, and against our interests in the Indo-Pacific," he added.
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Meanwhile, Trump himself denounced Pilip as a "foolish woman" on Wednesday and claimed that she had tried to distance herself from Trump during her campaign. Pilip did not endorse Trump and said she would not support him in the general election if he was convicted of a crime, but she did not criticize him.
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"Republicans just don’t learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat? I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn’t endorse me and tried to 'straddle the fence,' when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America," Trump wrote on social media Wednesday.
"I STAYED OUT OF THE RACE, ‘I WANT TO BE LOVED!’ GIVE US A REAL CANDIDATE IN THE DISTRICT FOR NOVEMBER. SUOZZI, I KNOW HIM WELL, CAN BE EASILY BEATEN!" Trump added.
Both Democrats and Republicans flooded cash into the race. The district had long been held by Democrats before Santos flipped red in 2022. He was ejected from Congress less than a year into his term.
The White House says Biden called Suozzi personally to congratulate him on his victory Tuesday evening.
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
