Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Newsmax TV's "John Bachman Now" on Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will pursue more progressive legislation to fend off a challenge from the left.
Schumer is "going to try to move more and more to the left to placate people like [New York Democrat Rep.] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the socialist squad because there's rumors that AOC maybe running against him in a primary and he's trying to protect himself."
She added that the Senate majority leader "shouldn't be focused on self-preservation, he should be focused on doing what is the right thing. And right now there's a trillion dollars that remains unspent in the last COVID relief package."
The New York Republican said, "To authorize another two trillion of spending when you haven't even spent a trillion dollars from the last package that just passed in December, that to me is problematic, but of course he's gonna be looking to kind of make those announcements and throw that money around, and I think that is not fair to the taxpayers, and we need to have a tailored approach to addressing this COVID issue."
Malliotakis also took aim at President Joe Biden, saying that in his first few weeks "it's a closed economy and open borders, he's even backtracked on his commitment to reopen schools within 100 days."
Important: See Newsmax TV now carried in 70 million cable homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, CenturyLink 1209, Mediacom Ch. 277, Frontier 615 or Find More Cable Systems – Click Here.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.