Ahead of a campaign stop in Puerto Rico last week, Hillary Clinton unveiled an endorsement from “high profile” New York City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. CNN reported:
Ahead of her first trip to Puerto Rico on Friday, Hillary Clinton won the support of one of the most prominent Puerto Rican politicians in the United States.
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito endorsed the Democratic front-runner for president Wednesday in a Spanish-language oped for El Nueva Dia, Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper.
Politico’s headline read: “Clinton locks down key endorsement ahead of Puerto Rico visit.”
Mark-Viverito was also scheduled to headline a fundraiser for presumptive Nevada U.S. senate nominee Catherine Cortez Masto this month, as reported by Politico on Tuesday:
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will headline a fundraiser later this month for former Nevada Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto.
Masto, a Democrat who served as attorney general from 2007 to 2015, is running to fill the seat of Senate minority leader Harry Reid, who announced earlier this year he would not seek re-election.
But apparently Clinton’s “high-profile” backer is so toxic that Harry Reid’s handpicked successor decided she didn’t want to so much as breathe the same air. In an abrupt turnaround on Wednesday evening, Cortez Masto “cut all ties” with Mark-Viverito based on her support of a Puerto Rican radical:
Catherine Cortez Masto…has disinvited City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito from a fundraiser for her campaign, because of the speaker’s support for a Puerto Rican nationalist imprisoned for seditious conspiracy.
A day after POLITICO New York reported Mark-Viverito planned to headline a fundraiser later this month for Cortez Masto, a Democrat running to succeed Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Cortez Masto’s campaign told POLITICO New York that Mark-Viverito is no longer invited to the event, and her campaign will not accept any contributions from the speaker.
In addition to her support of a convicted terrorist, Mark-Viverito is also known for abusing a New York City loan program designed for low-income residents to amass $1.5 million of interest-free property and refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
No word yet if Clinton will follow suit and distance herself from Mark-Viverito.