Maloney primary challenger calls on her to return, donate previous campaign donations from Trump

Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s (D-N.Y.) primary challenger Suraj Patel is calling on the congresswoman to return campaign donations from President Trump dating back several years ago.

Patel, one of Maloney’s four primary challengers, called on Maloney to return the money in a petition posted online last week.

Rep. Maloney received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Donald Trump while he was a wealthy real estate developer.

Now she’s the acting Chair of House Oversight.

Sign the petition for Maloney to return or donate Trump’s money! https://t.co/2JT2rjvpbD

— Suraj Patel (@surajpatelnyc) November 11, 2019

Trump donated $4,000 to Maloney’s campaign between 1993 and 2009.

“We always thought it was just outrageous that the representative would not give back Donald Trump’s money the way [New York Sen.] Kirsten Gillibrand did, and others have,” Patel told The Hill. “It’s not even a hard decision.”

“We have a very serious impeachment proceeding going on, and it doesn’t look good,” he said.

An official for Maloney’s campaign said the donations were used to elect Democratic lawmakers.

“Those decades-old donations were made and spent at the time to reelect Democrats, as intended,” the official said.

Trump gave money to New York Democrats years before he became a Republican figure.

Gillibrand gave the roughly $6,000 Trump gave her campaign to an anti-sexual violence group.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said he would keep the $64,000 he received from Trump between 2001 and 2009 after his then-primary opponent Cynthia Nixon highlighted the issue last year.

Patel lost his primary challenge against Maloney, who has served in Congress since 1993, in 2018 by roughly 20 points.

Maloney is serving as acting chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee after Rep. Elijah Cummings’s (D-Md.) death last month.

Her role on the committee comes as House Democrats are investigating Trump’s push for Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Maloney came out in support of impeachment prior to the revelation of the call between Trump and Ukraine’s president.

“After carefully reviewing evidence laid out in the Mueller Report, after attending numerous hearings, after listening to the concerns of my constituents and after doing as much soul-searching as I’ve ever done in my life — it is my inescapable conclusion that the House of Representatives must open an impeachment inquiry against the President of the United States,” Maloney said at a New York City rally in June.