By Dan Murphy
Last month, Congressman George Latimer’s address to the League of Women Voters in Scarsdale was disrupted when a group of protestors from Climate Defiance showed up to annoy, harass, and send a message to the freshman Congressman that the far left is not happy with his performance, just four months into the job.
Westchester’s other Congressman, Rep. Mike Lawler, has faced a number of these types of protests at his events and town halls, but this is the first we have heard about the progressive wing of the democratic party going after “one of their own.”
After the disturbance, Climate Defiance posted, “On Friday, May 9th, US Representative George Latimer’s address to the League of Women Voters at the Scarsdale Golf Club didn’t go as expected. We disrupted George Latimer, AIPAC’s number-one man in Washington. Latimer doesn’t win elections; he buys them on behalf of Israel.
“Latimer prioritizes the Israel lobby over the most disadvantaged in his district… Literally, he has only gone into Co-op City for photo ops.
“George Latimer primaried anti-genocide Congressman Jamaal Bowman in what became the most expensive house primary in history. He won in a landslide due to aggressive smear campaigns against the sitting Congressman. Pro-Israel groups injected nearly all of the $14,000,000 spent to unseat Bowman.
“On behalf of all New Yorkers, f*&%$ you, George Latimer.”
At the event, protestors held banners and chanted, “You’re not bold, you’re not bright, you’re just a Dem who doesn’t fight.”
The progressive news site Newroarnews.org wrote, “The country in this moment of crisis needs bold, energetic leadership; that is simply not George Latimer. Latimer is not a progressive and was never going to leave a transformative legacy.
“At a time when other elected officials are confronting ICE agents, demanding answers from administration officials about illegal actions, holding open forums to hear real-life examples of how the current administration is impacting communities, what the constituents of Congressional District 16 get, for a fee, is a well-crafted speech at the Scarsdale Golf Club.”
At the event, protestors confronted Latimer with “Your cozying up to republicans. You love Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
The Musk and Trump analogy is often used against Republicans like Lawler, but is ludicrous in the case of Rep. Latimer, in our view.
We have listened to and printed Latimer’s topic of the week, in which he takes to the house floor to criticize President Trump and his policies. Primarily, Latimer’s attacks against Trump have been concerning the Big Beautiful budget bill, which has not yet been passed into law, and proposed cuts to medicaid.
None of his comments on the House floor can be equated with supporting Trump. Latimer blasted Trump’s decision to take a $400 Million Jet from Qatar, And he called the Trump-Republican budget bill “America’s Worst Budget Ever.
“It includes cuts to SNAP and Medicaid funding that will harm those who can least afford it while providing tax breaks for those who don’t need them. Also among these tax changes are rollbacks to critical clean energy taxes and credits that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act. These include phasing out clean energy production and investment tax credits, as well as ending long-standing home energy efficiency tax credits. If these aren’t bad enough, they have also added provisions to require the accelerated sale of public lands for oil and gas drilling and to rescind funding from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that protects Americans from pollution and lowers the cost of energy bills. Climate change is real, and it’s happening now. We must act. These were common-sense initiatives to move us away from complete reliance on fossil fuels and toward a clean energy future,” said Latimer on the floor of the House.
At the Scarsdale meeting, he said to his supporters, “Welcome to my world.”
One person in attendance told us, “This was not an environmental group. Their purpose is to disrupt and target moderate democrats. I recognized one woman who used to work for Bowman leading the chants. I think that she and most of the protestors are still mad at Latimer for beating Bowman and want revenge.”
This brings us to former Congressman Bowman, who has been active on social media, just as he was when he represented Westchester for 4 years in Washington. Bowman is supporting Zorhan Mamdami for Mayor of NYC.
Bowman also interjected himself into the New Rochelle School Board elections last month, endorsing Dr. Rosa Rivera-McCutchen. Bowman also wrote the foreword to Rivera-McCuthchen’s 2021 book, Radical Care: Leading for Justice in Urban Schools.
Her platform prioritized DEI, diversity, equity & inclusion, and she defended her decision for a Gaza ceasefire, posting on Facebook, “I disagree that my support of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza means that I don’t unequivocally demand the release of the hostages taken by Hamas. My positions on this issue do NOT make me antisemitic…I am NOT ‘anti-Israel.”
After she lost the election, Rivera-McCutchen wrote, “I am angry that some members of the New Rochelle community (and beyond) organized a coordinated attack against my candidacy for a school board because of my support for and relationship with Jamaal Bowman, and my support of human rights in Gaza,”
Some believe that the same progressive ideology that Rivera-McCutchen ran on, with Bowman’s support, will return to Westchester next year when Latimer faces reelection in 2026.
“One thing is for sure: Bowman loves the spotlight. That is clear from his involvement and support for Mamdami in the NYC Mayor’s race and his support for Dr. Rivera-McCuthen in the NR School Board race. But numbers don’t lie. In 2024, Latimer beat Bowman-58%-42%.,” said one New Rochelle democrat.
“I can’t think of anyone of substance that would run against George. But someone may step forward because he’s not lefty enough for them. But others in the Indivisible movement support Latimer.”
