Democratic New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski suggested to a crowd that immigrants, whether legal or illegal, are needed to mow “our beautiful lawns” and work other undesirable jobs that U.S. citizens don’t want to do.
The congressman was speaking Tuesday at an event held at Cafe Brio in Hillsborough, a wealthy suburban area in the state.
“There are a lot of jobs in our community that, like it or not, for better or worse, Americans are not willing to take,” Malinowski said in video obtained by the Washington Examiner. “I mean, who do you think is taking care of our seniors?”
“Who do you think is mowing our beautiful lawns in Somerset County? We don’t usually ask, but a lot of those workers are undocumented. There are just not a lot of, you know, kids — sorry — from Montgomery High who are going to be doing that full-time,” the first-term Democrat said, which prompted laughter from the young audience.
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Malinowski then told the people in attendance they would be going into robotics after graduating, suggesting that menial jobs would need to be occupied by immigrants.
“You’re a bunch of elitists! You’re not going to mow lawns.”
New Jersey GOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt condemned Malinowski’s comments.
“Plenty of legal New Jersey residents landscape for a living or cut their own grass. They would all be mortified by your limousine liberal, elitist comments. You drawing a parallel between one’s intellectual capacity and their willingness to do manual labor just shows how out of touch you are with your constituents,” Steinhardt said in a Friday press release. “Apologize for your offensive comments if you want, but we all see you now Congressman.”
This isn’t the first time Malinowski, who worked in the Obama administration before entering Congress, has been caught on camera making controversial comments.
In the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, he suggested the Republican Party was carrying a “white nationalist” identity.
“My party is having a debate right now about the best way to provide health care to Americans,” he said during a September 2018 debate with then-GOP Rep. Leonard Lance. “The Republican Party right now — not in New Jersey so much, but in Washington, D.C. — is having a very different kind of debate. It’s having a debate about whether to be a white nationalist party or not.” (RELATED: All 62 Freshmen House Democrats Have Raised More Than Their Republican Opponents: Report)
Malinowski occupies New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District. For decades, the district had been occupied by Republican lawmakers, but was among the many GOP seats lots during the 2018 midterm sweep by Democrats. It is considered a top target by the Republican National Congressional Committee.
Malinowski’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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