Cea Weaver, New York City's recently appointed director for the newly revitalized mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, is "absolutely insane," Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told Newsmax Monday.
"There's no other way to describe it," Lawler said on "National Report."
"They're talking about seizing control of private property and repurposing it for the so-called collective good."
His comments came after a clip of Weaver recently resurfaced in which she argued that property has been treated for centuries as an individual good and said society should transition to a model of "shared equity" that treats property as a collective asset.
"Well, why don't they start with Gracie Mansion?" Lawler said.
"Why doesn't [New York City Mayor] Zohran [Mamdani] give up Gracie Mansion and let homeless veterans stay there if they're serious about the collective good?"
Lawler said his district, just north of New York City, is primarily single-family residential, and "I don't think any of my constituents will go along with the concept of having their private property seized by the government."
"This really ties to what we witnessed over the weekend with the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his collective good down in Venezuela," he added. "There's a reason the Venezuelan people are cheering in the streets."
"There's a reason the Venezuelan people that are here in the United States are cheering at his arrest, because socialism does not work. Marxism and communism do not work," said Lawler.
"And what we've seen in Venezuela, a country that has more oil reserves than anywhere in the world, a country that has more minerals than just about anywhere in the world and should be an economic powerhouse, has been destroyed by collectivism over the last 15 years under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro."
In the clip, Weaver said treating property as a collective good will mean that families, "especially white families, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one we currently have."
In another resurfaced post, Weaver said on June 13, 2018, "Seize private property!"
Mamdani's office in a statement announcing Weaver's appointment said that she was a "nationally recognized affordable housing and tenants' rights advocate and the Executive Director of Housing Justice for All and the New York State Tenant Bloc, sibling organizations that work to strengthen tenant organizing, advance pro-tenant legislation, and elect tenants and their allies to public office."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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