The Daily Signal - New Congresswoman Vows to Stand Against Radical Agenda of Leftist ‘Squad’

Episode Date: January 25, 2021

Freshman Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., is one of several new members of Congress who have formed the “Freedom Force.” The group of conservative Republican leaders say they will stand against the far left agenda being promoted by the so-called "Squad” led by fellow New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other liberal Democrats.  Malliotakis is the daughter of Greek and Cuban immigrants and says she decided to run for Congress when she saw the damage progressive policies were having on her state and across America. She joins the podcast to explain her policy priorities and how she plans to stand up against the left's agenda.  Also on today's show, we also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about an Anglican priest who started a small bike-repair charity in his backyard after his own bicycle was stolen.  Check out the links below if you are interested in reading more about the flaws of the "1619 Project." History Comes to Call: The 1619 Project Cannot Deny Its Own Past Awarding of Pulitzer Prize to the Deeply Flawed ‘1619 Project’ Highlights What’s Wrong With Many of Our Institutions Creator of New York Times’ 1619 Project Changes Tune to Insist It’s Not History Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, January 25th. I'm Robert Blewe. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we talk with Representative Nicole Malio-Otakis of New York. Representative Maliotakis is one of the many new, wonderful conservative members of the House, and she joins us to explain her policy priorities and how she plans to push back on the left's progressive agenda. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about an Anglican priest who started a small bike repair charity out of his backyard after his own bicycle was stolen.

Before we get to today's show, Rob and I want to tell you about our favorite way to get the news every morning. It's called the morning bell. And each weekday, the Daily Signal delivers the top news and commentary directly to your inbox for free. You'll be able to read about the policy debate shaping the agenda, analysis from Heritage Foundation experts, and commentary from leading conservatives like Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, and Cal Thomas. It's easy to sign up. Just visit dailysignal.com and click on the connect button in the top right corner of the page. We'll start sending you the morning bell tomorrow.

Now stay tuned for today's show coming up next. I am so pleased to welcome Representative Nicole Malitakis of New York to the show. Welcome. We are so pleased to have you here with us. It's great to be with you. I appreciate your interest. And I want to wish we want a happy new year. Well, Representative Maliatakis, we want to begin by just talking a little bit about your background and your story.

You are the daughter of Greek and Cuban immigrants. So could you just explain a little bit about how your background and your family history really impacted your political views? Sure. Well, both my parents, immigrants, they came to New York City. They didn't have any money. They didn't have any friends. They came alone. and, you know, they didn't even speak the language at that time, but they came with a dedication to work very hard and to pursue the American dream.

My mom is a Cuban refugee, and she left to escape the Castro regime of Cuba in 1959. My father came in the 60s, and they met here in New York, and in many ways, is your basic quintessential New York story, because New York is, as you know, a city that is attracted people. from all over the world since the beginning. And what I will say is that they certainly instilled in me a patriotism, a love for this country, an appreciation of this country, and a dedication to preserve the American dream for future generations. My mom was always very passionate about the ability to elect your leaders. And so she got me involved in a very young age. I was in high school when I first got involved in a campaign for Congress.

At the time, it was New York City Councilman Vito Ficella, who ran for Congress and won in a special election. And here I am 23, 24 years later, in that very seat. And so that was sort of what had initiated my involvement in politics. And my father comes from Greece, which is the birthplace of democracy. And so he and his own right also very passionate about our ability to elect our leaders. And so certainly they've influenced me and the values that I hold. Well, and you have been very involved in policy and politics in your own state for a number of years. You ran for mayor of New York City in 2017.

You were the Republican nominee. Explain a little bit, though, about why you said, okay, now is the time when I know. need to run for Congress. Sure. Well, I've been in the New York State Legislature. I ran in 2010. I defeated a two-term incumbent, Democratic incumbent then. And I ran simply because, you know, as a tax-paying citizen who was commuting to work every day, I was very upset with the fact that our buses were being eliminated and fares were going up and tolls were going up and taxes were going up. And yes, we weren't getting the services that we deserve. And so I decided to run against the local assembly member and we were able to win that campaign. For me, running for office,

it's always been about ensuring that we have proper representation. And if you noticed and you look at my races, you'll see that I've always run against an incumbent. I've never run in an open seat. I ran against a two-term incumbent for the state assembly. We won that race. Then in 2017, I took on Mayor Bill de Blasio because I felt the direction he was taking our city was wrong one. And quite frankly, I was right. I mean, you look at the rising crime, the rise in taxes, the ridiculous spending that has left no rainy day fund to deal with the current crisis that we face. And the quality of life that is deteriorated under Mayor de Blasio, certainly we could have used a change in direction in 2017. And although I wasn't successful in that election, I did win this

congressional district with 67% of the vote. And so I decided to, you know, return to the assembly. And after, after this current term, I decided not to seek re-election and instead run for Congress against another incumbent who I felt wasn't representing our community well. And that was Congressman Max Rose. And so, you know, two or three ain't bad. But here I am and I'm ready to get to work. I think we're facing so many issues right now, not only as a community, but in a city and a state, but as a nation. And this is a pivotal moment, pivotal moment in the direction of our country.

I believe that we need individuals who are willing to stand up and fight to preserve our freedoms, our liberties, to preserve the American dream for future generations, get government back to the basics of what they're actually supposed to be doing, keeping the public safe, securing our borders,

making sure that our children are getting a good education. These are the things I think people expect from their government and yet government has somehow gone in all sorts of areas where they don't belong. So I think that my immediate priorities, making sure that we overcome this pandemic, we reopen our economy. I've been pushing for that very strongly, locally in New York. A lot of the arbitrary restrictions we're seeing coming from our mayor and governor

or hurtful have been very hurtful to the economy and those I represent. And making sure that we get this country back on track economically and restore the American and jobs we've lost over the last several months. Well, I think so many Americans, that's exactly what is on their mind. They're realizing this is such a critical moment in history. We're still dealing with the pandemic, like you say. There's all of these issues arising. And for conservatives especially, I think there's some deep concern that now we're

saying that Congress is fully controlled by the left. We have a Democratic president in office. So they're wondering, okay, what comes next? We saw, you know, on Biden's first day, he signed a number of executive orders to unravel former President Donald Trump's legacy. What would you want to say to the American people as far as, all right, this is the projection for, you know, at least the next two years. This is honestly what we're looking at.

But also, as a conservative, this is how I'm going to be standing up and pushing back against that left agenda. Well, they are rightfully. concerned with what's going to happen under one-party democratic rule. And as somebody represents New York, I could tell you, when state Senate flipped from Republican to Democrat in New York, became under one-party rule. And beginning in 2019, we saw what a mess it became radical policies, whether it be, you know, late-term abortion to the ninth month, whether it be radical changes to our bail system that released criminals back onto our streets, whether it be

laws that gave free college to illegal immigrants, laws that protected those who are here illegally that commit crimes are convicted to protect them from deportation. You know, there are a number of bad policies that have come out, and I'm afraid that a lot of those policies may now become federal policies, and we need to be vigilant. And what I would say is there is hope in knowing that our freshman class has a dynamic group of people who are just as passionate as I am about preserving our freedoms and liberties and pushing back against socialism. For me, it's personal. Doer of a Cuban refugee.

I don't want to see, I know what it's like in other countries, and we don't want to see that happening here in the United States of America. The fact that a country like Venezuela, which was the richest nation in South America, and all of a sudden, look where it is today, we need to be vigilant about that. We need to push back and expose what they're doing. And that is why I've teamed up with a number of my colleagues like Carlos Jimenez and Maria Salazar. and also Victoria Sparts, all families who came to this country, as mine did, to achieve the

American dream, but also to escape bad governments, in this case, communism or socialism. And so I think we need to do our work in pushing back, exposing what their policies mean, and hopefully we can protect the nation for two years, where we can then take back the house and restore some type of balance. So that, that I think, is something that we need to be very mindful about. We need the people, the American people's help. I mean, they need to phone their legislators. They need to have petitions. They need to make their voices heard. They need to speak out and let their members of Congress know that they shouldn't be going along with the socialist policies being proposed by people like Alexandria or Casio-Cortez. And that's the only way we're

to see some type of balances if they hear from the constituents that elected them. Representative Meliotakis, you have been so vocal about doing just that, about pushing back against representatives that are so far on the left, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, other members of the squad. And you reference that yourself and other new conservative representatives are really teaming up to push back on that agenda. And you're calling yourself the freedom force. Could you just explain a little bit about kind of the idea of the freedom force and how that came about that you also teamed up and said, okay, we need to be this force for liberty and our nation? Well, you know, it was sort of a natural alliance that had occurred and formed during our first week of freshman orientation.

You know, Carlos Jimenez, I've known him for a couple of years now. He was the mayor of Miami, and he actually came to this country as a six-year-old boy from Cuba. He escaped communism and he knows exactly what it's all about, as does Victoria Sparse, who left the Ukraine, grew up under Soviet Union rule. And then Maria Salazar, like me, as a daughter of Cuban refugees, and we had this similar bond,

similar experiences, our family's experiences that sort of brought us together. And we kind of just, you know, in a natural way, form this alliance that is sort of taken off. We've gotten a lot of meetings, coverage in the media is, I believe, is the one that named us the actual freedom force. But the bottom line is we are people that love this country, we appreciate the opportunity

that this country has given us to think about Carlos Jimenez or Victoria Sparse to come here as immigrants and to become members of the United States Congress. The fact that I, the daughter of a Cuban refugee, can become a member of the United States Congress. That is the American dream that we want to preserve for future generations. In order to do that, we have to keep what's so truly special about this nation. Well, and I'm really glad that you all have embraced that term freedom force. I think that's a perfect way to describe you all.

What should we expect to see from the freedom force over at least the next two years? Well, you're definitely going to see us teaming up and speaking out and pushing back against some of the radical policies that we see come from. the Democrats. We are going to be individuals that introduce legislation that support our law enforcement, that push for more for our freedoms, that make sure that, you know, we are, we are speaking out in unison when we need to, both for and against policies that benefit the American people and preserve what is so great about this nation, which is freedom and liberty. So I think that you can look to us, certainly when we see some of the crazy ideas that we are expecting to come from the left to be there, pushing back and being vocal about it and making sure that the people in this country

know what exactly these policies are. Because sometimes you introduce bills or you introduce concepts that may be really, really great ideas or great names, but when you actually look at the details of the legislation, you see how horrible it is. And people don't understand what it means that President Biden's first action was to rejoin the Paris Accord. And actually, his first action as president benefited the people of China, communist China, more than it did the Americans. And to me, that's unconscionable. But we need to expose that because people don't understand.

I support energy efficiency. I am an environmental person. I do cleanups. I support my local waterfronts, making sure that we're, We're teaching out children about energy efficiency and not littering. I want to curb gas, greenhouse gas emissions. But to support a policy that would put America to disadvantage, we have to meet certain standards by 2025,

where China and India don't have to do anything until 2030 doesn't seem very fair. And it is not fair. And the fact that he just signed back onto this without even trying to get additional concessions to make it more, equitable was, I think, not in the best interest of the American people. So in between that and the Keystone Pipeline, which will kill tens of thousands of jobs, you know, union jobs, good-paying jobs, you know, that to me are not policies that serve the best interest of America. So that's just like the first day. It's just the first day. And there's a lot more that we're expecting, right,

with amnesty for illegal immigrants and some other policies and rollbacks of some of the good things that President Trump did. No, in the first day, it was disheartening to see how quickly President Biden is taking these actions. You mentioned illegal immigration. I know that's an issue that affects New York. It affects our whole country, but it's something that you all have definitely dealt with in New York.

Could you talk a little bit about your concerns over Biden's moves on the front of illegal immigration? We were making so much progress in border security, in controlling. illegal immigration over the southern border, and he just went and is now looking to dismantle all of it. I'm the daughter of immigrants, and as such, I have a deep appreciation for individuals who want to achieve the American dream as my parents did, and I think that we do need to modernize that immigration system so people don't have to wait many years and in some cases decades to become a citizen of this great country. People that want to come here and work hard and contribute

and have a good life, I support that. We have laws and we have procedures and they need to be followed. And I think that, you know, one of the things we see in New York is that our state government and other states have been doing the same are incentivizing illegal immigration, and whether it be, you know, by policies that give free college tuition or driver's licenses or health care or any other benefits, you know, you're incentivizing individuals to come here illegally and rewarding that behavior. And I think that that is not something we should be doing as a nation. We have to make sure we know who is coming in and out of our country. We need a visa

entry, exit tracking system. We want to make sure we should be implementing and verify. And we should be working to modernize our system, of course. And I think that that has to be something that we hear all sides and come up with something that is a good policy, not just this knee-jerk response that we're seeing from President Biden in his first day. One of the issues that I know is on the mind of so many Americans is that of election integrity, and you recently co-sponsored a piece of legislation called the Save Democracy Act. Could you just explain what that is and its agenda? Yeah, the Save Democracy Act is a bill.

A number of us have co-sponsored where, look, we want to address the concerns and the irregularities that took place in the 2020 election. We want to make sure that Americans have confidence that the system that we have is one that is secure and there are safeguards put in place. And so things that we've heard from our constituents, you know, they want to see voter ID laws. They want to make sure that, you know, we strict certain types of ballot harvesting tactics. We want to make sure that individuals, if there are automatic voter registration laws and states, that they're not automatically registering people who provide a foreign identification. Like, for example, New York just changed its law where individuals who apply for a driver's

license, and now keep in mind that non-citizens apply for driver's licenses and illegal immigrants can have driver's licenses in the state of New York. So when they come with a foreign document to apply for that driver's license, their information is automatically sent to the Board of Elections to automatically register them to vote unless they do the due diligence of opting out. And that is a major issue. And where's the safeguard of that? So we want to make sure that any automatic voter registration laws only take effect when an individual comes forward with a proof of citizenship, and that's another safeguard in place as well. And also when it comes to tabulation and audits and making sure that we restore faith

in the tens of millions of Americans who feel that things went wrong in this election cycle. And so that is the goal of this. And I think it's a very worthy goal, and we need to work toward that, especially at a time. Remember, Nancy Pelosi had attempted to insert all sorts of radical election law changes into the COVID relief package of all places. She wanted to have the automatic voter registration and ballot harvesting and eliminating, banning states from having voter ID laws. These are just some of same-day voter registration. Imagine that. You come to a polling site on election day and you can register and vote without giving board of elections the proper time

to vet you, you make sure you're a citizen that you actually live in the jurisdiction and that you meet the requirements. So, you know, these are the things that we need to be mindful of as we're going forward. And I think it's a good bill. And I'm proud to be a co-sponsor and we're going to continue to advocate for it. Representative, before we let you go, I'm going to ask, over the next two years, what do you really hope your legacy to be? Well, you know, I ran my campaign on ensuring that we push for public safety, that we support our law enforcement. that we give them the tools that they need to do their job. So certainly any way that I can support public safety for the people that I represent,

border security for our nation, making sure that I men and women in blue have support and the resources and tools to do their jobs is very important to me. And also, you know, transportation infrastructure, I think it is important that we start focusing on this because there is investments that do need to be made for dealing up dealing with population growth and economic growth in various cities and states. I could tell you, coming from New York, where we have such aging infrastructure, subway signals that are a lot of pre-a-lawing on pre-World War II condition equipment. We need to look at modernizing where we can and investing in infrastructure, I think, is a very important, worthy thing.

So I think that between those two policy points, plus somebody who is going to stand up against socialism and make sure that we do preserve this nation and what makes it truly special. So I think the American people can count on me to be somebody who will be that voice against Alexandria Casio-Cortez. The squad is personal to me. And I know that we do have a fight ahead of us. and we're going to have to continue forging ahead because I know it's the right thing to do. Representative Maliotakis, all the best to you in that fight. Thank you so much for joining the show today.

I appreciate your time. Thank you. This is Virginia Allen, host of the Daily Signal podcast. I don't know about you, but YouTube is certainly one of my guilty pleasures. I really enjoy watching short videos on a variety of topics. So I'm always looking for videos that are actually educational and beneficial to me in some way. and the Daily Signal YouTube channel never disappoints. There is so much binge-worthy content from policy and news explainers to documentaries. If you're not driving, go ahead and pull out your phone and subscribe to the Daily Signal YouTube channel so you can be in the know on the issues you care about most. You can also search for the channel by going to YouTube.com slash Daily Signal.

Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? In response to my recent piece, President 1776 Commission's report defending nation's history draws leftist fire. Al Burke writes, solid article on the left critique of the 1776 Commission. Keep pushing back. A great follow-up would be to highlight the gross historical inaccuracies of the 1619 project. Well, and for Mr. Burke and any of our listeners who are interested in reading some of those daily signal pieces that do,

just that that highlight the inaccuracies of the 1619 project. I'll be sure to put several links in today's show notes so that you can read those stories that has been a top priority here at the Daily Signal to make sure that we're pointing out those inaccuracies that are in the 1619 project. Well, it certainly has, Virginia. And the Reverend John Warnocki writes, Dear Daily Signal, I'm very concerned about the nation and culture my grandchildren will inherit. I appreciate the work it is being done by the 1776 Commission and pray that the truth we hold dear will find open hearts and minds with the courage to continue to transmit them and live them in spite of the foolish ideas of cancel culture. May God bless your compassionate and critical work.

Your letter can be featured on next week's show, so send us an email at letters at dailysignal.com. I'm Zach Smith. And I'm John Carlo Canapara. And if you want to understand what's happening at the Supreme Court, be sure to check out SCOTUS 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast. We take a look at the cases, the personalities, and the gossip at the highest court in the land. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you find your podcasts. It's SCOTUS 101. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you.

Thanks so much, Rob. Robbie Pruitt is an Anglican priest, a Virginia local, an avid bike rider, and a mentor to many young people. His love of cycling has opened doors for him to do ministry in Haiti, fixing bicycles for the needy, but now also to do that same ministry in his own backyard, literally. It all started last fall when Prince Mountain Bike was stolen. Like anyone would be, he was frustrated at first. But instead of allowing the anger to get the better of him, he decided he would instead act in a spirit of love, thinking that whomever had stolen his bike may have truly needed the transportation.

So Pruitt posted in a local Facebook group offering to fix broken bikes for free or receive old bikes in need of repairs, which he would then fix and donate to those who couldn't afford a new bicycle. The priest spoke with the local Virginia news station WDVM and explained why he wanted to help his community in this practical way. So one of my favorite verses of the Bible is Revelation 21-5. it says, Behold, I make all things new. And so it's like I feel like I'm a part of making something old, new again, or something abandoned usable again. Many of the kids and youth in Pruitt's community saw him fixing the bikes in his yard and wanted to help. Now the priest is teaching the youth a practical skill and providing them with a place of community

while students are still learning from home during the pandemic. Honestly, it feels great, you know, being able to help people during my this whole situation. It's just, you know, really great experience. It's kind of gratifying. I mean, knowing that you have like this new skill that you've learned that can be used for forever. Pruitt and his young helpers have restored more than 70 bikes so far. He told the Washington Post in a recent interview that you're certainly providing a service, but it's not the bikes. It's the relationships in the community. It's the impact you can make with people. And isn't that the truth. At the end of the day, it's all about that impact that we can make with people and building

those relationships. So encouraging to see someone taking on just a practical need in their community and getting others involved to help as well. That's right, Virginia. It certainly is. Thanks for bringing us that story today. We're going to leave it there for the Daily Signal podcast. You can find us on the Rurkishay Audio Network and all of our shows are available at daily signal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. And be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review into five-star rating. It means a lot to us and it helps us spread the word to even more listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the Daily Signal News. Have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million

members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Rob Blewey and Virginia Allen. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.