By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Rep. Carolyn Maloney and her primary opponent Reshma Saujani exchanged fiery words in a heated radio debate Tuesday morning, accusing each other of dishonesty and hypocrisy in the opening minutes of the hour-long debate.
“Carolyn Maloney just lied,” said 34-year-old Saujani, a hedge fund lawyer, after the East Side congressional incumbent denied engaging in campaign fundraising activities with financial industry lobbyists while working on the financial services reform bill, Politico reported.
Maloney, 64, claimed that the fundraisers in question were arranged before she became a member of the committee involved in the reform bill, the New York Times reported.
“I don’t think my opponent would be pleased unless I didn’t have any fund-raisers and didn’t do anything to make sure that I could run for re-election,” Maloney said at one point during the debate, which was hosted by the Daily News' Errol Louis on AM 1600 WWRL.
The incumbent repeatedly accused Saujani of hypocrisy because of the financial backing from Wall Street she enjoys, saying that unlike Saujani, she is "unbought and unbossed; I am nobody’s congressperson but yours.”
But the most heated encounter reportedly occurred after the debate, when Maloney refused to speak to reporters — and Saujani told the press that she wouldn’t vote in the general election unless her name was on the ballot, Politico reported.
Saujani’s spokesman, James Allen, later e-mailed a statement to Politico saying that “Reshma will vote a straight Democratic ticket on Nov. 2 no matter the outcome of the primary.”
So far Saujani had raised $1.36 million for primary, while Maloney has $2 million, according to the Times.
