Trump Rewards Lee Zeldin’s Loyalty With Dinner Invitation

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By Nathan Guttman June 7, 2017

As he prepares for former FBI director James Comey’s Senate testimony, President Trump took some time Tuesday evening to host a select group of Republican lawmakers for a private White House dinner.

The group included two senators who will be among those questioning Comey in the Senate Intelligence Committee, and several others not involved, including Lee Zeldin, the New York Republican who is one of only two Jewish Republican members of congress.

What made Zeldin win a seat around the president’s dinner table?

It could be his loyalty to President Trump. An analysis prepared by FiveThirtyEight found that Zeldin voted 96.7% of the time in line with Trump’s position. In fact, the only vote on which he broke with the president was on legislation lowering internet privacy requirements.

Democrats have targeted Zeldin’s seat as a possible flip in 2018 midterms and have been increasing pressure following him vote in favor of repealing Obamacare.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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