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NY Republican candidate said she regrets voting for Trump, is sorry now that she needs his base’s support

July 27, 2019 | | Print Article

A Republican politician vying for a congressional seat in New York is hoping President Trump’s supporters have a short memory.

New York Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis is opposed to many of Trump’s policies, including the border wall, and even said she regretted voting for him. But in her current primary race for a congressional seat, the former mayoral candidate is suddenly seeking the support of the president’s base.

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Republican Assemblywoman, the daughter of Cuban and Greek immigrants, was first elected to the state Assembly in 2010 and represents a district that Trump carried by nearly 10 percentage points in 2016. She lost a mayoral challenge to New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio in 2017 and is now running for the seat held by freshman Rep. Max Rose, a Democrat.

Facing off against Malliotakis is the unusual Republican candidate Joey Saladino, a pro-Trump YouTube star with millions of social media followers.

Malliotakis has been ramping up her pro-Trump rhetoric since launching her congressional campaign, defending the president’s decisions and touting his accomplishments.

She even celebrated his recent surprise visit to a wedding going on in his New Jersey golf resort.

But not too long ago, Malliotakis was singing from a different soundtrack.

During her race against de Blasio, Malliotakis revealed that she wished she could have changed her 2016 vote.

“I’d write in Marco Rubio…I’d write in Marco Rubio so that I could tell you I voted Marco Rubio,” Malliotakis told the Daily News about

She reiterated that “Marco was my choice” in an interview with Spectrum News NY1, as seen in a video posted by former Republican New York congressman, Michael Grimm.

Asked what was Trump doing well in that 2017 interview, the then-mayoral candidate said, “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you.”

She also slammed Trump’s policies during a heated exchange with de Blasio in the 2017 New York City mayoral debate.

And while she regretted her own vote for Trump in 2016, she hoped to get an endorsement from him the following year when she ran for mayor. Trump, who was registered to vote in New York City, did not oblige.

She has disagreed with the president on issues such as the ban on transgender service members, plans to suspend DACA, efforts to build a border wall and his travel ban. But, facing a staunch and very vocal pro-Trump opponent has shifted the candidate’s perspective.

YouTube star Saladino, known as “Joey Salads,” has had no hesitation touting his apparent lifetime support of Trump, recently tweeting that he has been “MAGA since day one.”

The controversial internet star is a Staten Island native who has taken aim at the current leadership in New York.

Unlike his opponent, Saladino is very much on board with Trump’s agenda.

And it seems he is using his sense of humor in a way that has Malliotakis doing a strong backpedal on her comments.

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Frieda Powers
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