Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., on Tuesday chided Gov. Andrew Cuomo for “finally seeing the light” on restrictive business lockdowns around the city and state — declaring Democrats’ “blame game” will have to come to an end with the incoming Biden administration.
In an interview on Newsmax TV’s “John Bachman Now,” Malliotakis — whose district includes Staten Island, where pushback on restaurant and bar closures triggered massive protests — said she and other conservatives have long advocated for the reopening of restaurants in particular.
In a tweet Monday, Cuomo lamented that “we simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high,” adding: "We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely."
“He’s finally seeing the light that we can’t continue to shutdown our economy,” Malliotakis said. “We need to have a balanced approach … now the governor is willing to do the same. Part of that is ensuring we vaccinate as many people as possible.”
The lawmaker also derided the Democrats, saying ”their blame game is coming to an end.”
“We’ve been pushing for this for some time,” she said of efforts to loosen restrictions in New York, noting the state and cities' economy now are “in a jam, there’s an enormous deficit” and that “people no longer are paying the taxes.”
The lockdowns “are driving a lot of the taxpayers out of New York … because of arbitrary restrictions,” she said.
The lawmaker asserted restaurants were never a source of a significant spread of COVID-19 — and that gatherings inside homes are far more dangerous.
“I have so many restaurants that have been shutdown since mid-December,” she said of her district. “[Yet] the infection numbers have not come down.”
“Now [people] are gathering at their homes,” she lamented. “We’re actually pushing people [to a situation where] 74% of the infections are happening.”
Malliotakis also pushed back on what she derided as Democrats’ “impeachment stunt” against President Donald Trump, saying they are “trying to politicize at every opportunity.”
“This is a chance to come together, work together,” she said. “By impeaching the president they are only going to further divide the nation. Let’s move forward as a nation to… overcome this pandemic, vaccinate as many people as want it … restore jobs.”
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