President Joe Biden had a change of heart about one of the "MAGA Republicans" he frequently attacks.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.) is "the kind of Republican I was used to dealing with," Biden said during a speech in Valhalla, N.Y., on Wednesday. Just 10 days earlier, however, the president included a photo of Lawler in an April 30 tweet calling out "MAGA Republicans in Congress."
We have a sacred obligation to care for the men and women who fought to protect our freedom.
This is how MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to repay them. pic.twitter.com/EX7dq3vJST
— President Biden (@POTUS) April 30, 2023
"We have a sacred obligation to care for the men and women who fought to protect our freedom," Biden said in the tweet, which featured photos of House Republicans who he claimed voted to "undermine veterans’ health care."
"This is how MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to repay them," the tweet said.
On Wednesday, Biden painted Lawler in the opposite light.
"He's not one of these MAGA Republicans, which I'm going to talk a little bit about," Biden said. "I don't want to get him in trouble by saying anything nice about him or negative about him, but thanks for coming, Mike."
Despite Biden’s apparent change of heart, Democrats on Wednesday slammed Lawler, Fox News reported:
The quip from Biden came on the same day the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) — led by House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and committee chair Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. — referred to Lawler as a "rubber stamp" for the "GOP’s far-right extremist agenda."
"Despite highly-vulnerable Republican Mike Lawler’s attempts to deceive New Yorkers, his record since entering Congress proves that the increasingly endangered congressman is merely a rubber stamp for his MAGA colleagues to put New Yorkers’ jobs, safety, health care, reproductive rights, and financial security all at risk," the DCCC wrote in a press release Wednesday.