Cait Conley calls Mike Lawler a Trump puppet while dancing to Hakeem Jeffries tune

“Speaker Jeffries!”There’s a contradiction at the heart of Democrat Cait Conley’s campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th congressional district.“Speaker Jeffries!”On the one hand, Conley is making the case that Lawler, or, as she calls him, “MAGA Mike,” is a Trump puppet, a partisan tool whose cynicism compares unfavorably with her fair-minded patriotism.“Speaker Jeffries!”On the other, there’s the reality confounding that messaging.Saturday afternoon on the beautiful banks of the Hudson River, Conley led an adoring crowd in the aforementioned chant with their shared muse in attendance.“By winning, we have the opportunity to make Hakeem Jeffries the next speaker of the House of Representatives,” cooed Conley before turning the floor over to the apparent man of the hour.Both the candidate and her powerful backer’s remarks focused their attention not on the district they were standing in, but their party’s broader quest for power in Washington.“It’s not simply Election Day, it’s Judgment Day … because on Judgment Day we’re going to run these MAGA extremists out of town,” declared Jeffries.“Beginning on day one of the new Congress, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable … In the minority, we ran Pam Bondi out of town.In the minority, we ran Kristi Noem out of town.

And in the majority, we’re going to run Pete Hegseth out of town!”Conley, an Army veteran with the delivery of a drill sergeant, struck a similarly combative chord while promising to hold Lawler “accountable” for “his loyalty to Donald Trump.”“This fight really is not about Democrat versus Republican, or right versus left.This is about right versus wrong,” she submitted before asserting that “democracy itself” is on the line in November.The scene, with its high-profile surrogates, whistles, music, inflammatory rhetoric and hyper partisan, nationalized focus made for quite the contrast with Lawler’s m...