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Cobb calls on Stefanik to resign from Trump’s New York campaign

(Photos provided)

Upon the surfacing of tapes Tuesday where the president is heard saying he downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, Tedra Cobb on Wednesday called for her Republican opponent to resign from her position as co-chair of the president’s New York reelection campaign.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, serves as honorary campaign co-chair for the Trump campaign’s New York branch, alongside five other elected officials from New York, including Reps. Peter King, Thomas Reed and Lee Zeldin. Cobb, the Democratic candidate for the NY-21 House seat, said her opponent should step down.

On Tuesday, Washington Post reporter and well-known political journalist Bob Woodward released a tape of an interview he had with Trump on March 19, one of 18 interviews Woodward conducted with the president for his new book “Rage.” In the recording, the president can be heard saying he was “playing down” the severity of the COVID-19 virus in a bid to prevent “panic.” The conversation occurred relatively early in the pandemic, when just over 4,000 cases, and 38 deaths, had been reported in the state.

Cobb said in a statement Wednesday that the Woodward tape shows the president lied to the American people, and she called on her opponent to end her involvement in his re-election campaign.

“As a result of Donald Trump’s failed leadership, 190,000 Americans are dead, millions have gotten sick, and our economy is in shambles,” Cobb said in her statement. “Throughout this crisis, Elise Stefanik has politicized the pandemic for her own political gain. Now that Trump has admitted that he knew all along how serous this virus was and refused to tell the American people, I am calling on Elise to resign as co-chair of the Trump campaign.”

Spokesperson for the Stefanik campaign Madison Anderson did not address the president’s statements, but said Cobb’s repeated attacks on him are tantamount to attacks on North Country voters.

“(Tedra Cobb’s) attacks on President Trump are an attack on the voters in the North Country,” Anderson said in an email. “President Trump overwhelmingly won New York’s 21st Congressional District in 2016, and has never polled higher in our district as he heads to a win this November. Congresswoman Stefanik is proud to support President Trump for re-election and serve as New York co-chair of his campaign.”

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