Local lawmakers slammed Brooklyn/Staten Island Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, the city’s only Republican on Capitol Hill, for declining to certify the results of the presidential election — arguing that her challenge helped spark the Jan. 6 insurrection of the Capitol.
“These baseless attempts to discredit the election from elected officials, including from our newly elected congresswoman, should be recognized as a spark to this fire,” said Staten Island Assemblyman Charles Fall at a Friday press conference.
Malliotakis, a Republican elected to the House in November, joined 121 House Republicans in declining to approve Pennsylvania’s and Arizona’s election results, citing allegations of election fraud.
And though a handful of Republican senators from Montana, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Tennessee decided to approve of the votes after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Malliotakis stuck to her guns, and said that the insurrection didn’t change the possibility of voter fraud.
“I voted against certification of the two challenged states not to ‘overturn an election’ but to highlight need for a proper hearing into unconstitutional rule changes, irregularities and alleged fraud,” she wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “I swore an oath to the Constitution and REFUSED to turn a blind eye.”
Most of the fraud allegations hinge on new voter accommodations that states passed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic — such as the installation of “drop boxes” and the increase in mail-in ballots. Since Election Day, President Donald Trump’s administration has launched 60 cases of court challenges based on these allegations, but nearly all of them has been tossed for lack of evidence.
Still, Malliotakis and other House Republicans have called for an investigation into the suspected “fraud” — a demand that several of Malliotakis’ fellow elected officials find disingenuous.
“Nicole Malliotakis has been an elected official for 10 years. She knows election laws are at the state level. There is no federal board of elections,” said Savino, who represents southern Brooklyn and Staten Island in the state Assembly, at a Jan. 8 press conference. “Let me be clear, those [election] results have been counted, re-counted, adjudicated, fought over, argued over, and certified in every state.”
Staten Island Assemblyman Charles Fall, a Democrat, blamed Malliotakis in part for the death of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who died after being attacked by protesters.
‘Words matter, Congressmember’
Malliotakis has repeatedly denounced the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol, and called for those participants who killed Sicknick to be prosecuted in a tweet on Jan 8.
But former Congressman Max Rose — a Democrat who Malliotakis beat in the Nov. 3 election — blasted her for her indirect description of Sicknick’s death.
“He was murdered,” he responded. Words matter, Congressmember. 6 months ago you vilified a peaceful BLM protest. Now, in the face of an insurrection you helped incite, you can’t bring yourself to say a police officer was murdered. Shameful.”
Correction [Jan. 8, 2021]: A previous version of this article misspelled Assemblyman Charles Fall’s last name. We regret the error.
