Democrats are calling for the immediate resignation of Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY, 1) for, “delegitimizing our electoral process, thereby undermining our faith in our democratic institutions,” according to Jay S. Jacobs who’s the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee.
A petition has been created, demanding Zeldin, along with Congressmembers Chris Jacobs (R-NY, 27), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY, 11) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY, 21), step down.
This comes after last week’s unprecedented storming of the Capitol building by Donald Trump’s supporters, leaving five dead.
“On Wednesday, we saw the grave consequences of supporting such divisive and false claims,” said Jacobs in a statement. “After supporting these lies against our democracy by a narcissistic authoritarian in the White House, who wanted to cling to power, they must resign.”
Rep. Zeldin tweeted the following before the riots, casting doubt on the legitimacy of election results.
Pursuant to the US Constitution, state legislatures have the power to determine the times, places & manner of federal elections. It doesn’t belong to a rogue elections official, Secretary of State, or court. State constitutions must be followed as well.
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) January 3, 2021
Long Islanders are also calling on other Long Island politicians, like newly elected Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY, 2), Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY, 3) and Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-NY, 4), to put up or shut up and show where they will stand moving forward.
Zeldin had the following to say in response to calls for his resignation.
It's an incredible double standard when those who failed to condemn violence in Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Kenosha, DC, NY, etc become holier than thou. Or when suddenly, 1/6 objections used by Dems to object to every GOP presidential win in the past generation is now treason.
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) January 11, 2021
On the day of the insurrection, Zeldin stuck to his guns and voted against certifying the elections results specifically in Arizona and Pennsylvania. The Shirley resident is one of 121 Republican members in the House who voted against certifying Arizona’s results and he’s one of 138 Republicans who didn’t believe the results were legit in Pennsylvania.