Maloney says Republicans are trying to ‘exploit’ people’s problems for political gain

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, accused Republicans on Sunday of having no plan to lower consumer costs and exploiting high inflation for purely political purposes.

During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with moderator Margaret Brennan, Maloney echoed other liberal campaign surrogates in recent days who have attempted to draw a contrast between Democrats’ economic record and Republican proposals.

“Don’t punish the people who are fixing your problems, and don’t reward the people who are trying to exploit the problems for their own political power,” said Maloney. “That’s really the difference right now. We’re engaged in the hard work of bringing our country forward. The other side’s working on their own power.”

Republicans are heavily favored to win the House majority in next week’s midterm elections, but Democrats have insisted they can still win the chamber. Maloney himself is one of many incumbent Democratic lawmakers facing tough races.

On CBS, Maloney boasted that Democrats have plans to lower the costs of gas, groceries and health care after annual inflation hit a 40-year high in recent months.

Price gains have since eased slightly, but inflation consistently ranks as a top issue for voters in surveys, and respondents generally trust Republicans to handle the issue more than Democrats.

“You can take a poll, and you can take a snapshot at any given time. But of course, your former guest had no plan for the economy,” Maloney said on CBS, a reference to Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), the chair of House Republicans’ campaign arm who also appeared on the program.

“They have no plan for gun violence, they have no plan to move our country forward, protecting voting rights, protecting reproductive freedoms,” Maloney continued.

Emmer told Brennan that the election is “absolutely about the issues” as he projected Republicans win the midterms.

“I’m sure people like to talk about anything but what the Democrats have done in this country, which, quite frankly, is exploding cost of living, a crime wave in our major cities,” Emmer said on CBS. “That is the result of this defund the police nonsense and cashless bail.”