Mike Lawler — Professional Right-Wing Troll

Since the start of Rep. Mike Lawler’s run for federal office, his actions and statements have been more befitting of a performative right-wing agitator, resembling that of an Andrew Breitbart or James O'Keefe at Project Veritas, rather than a public servant responsive to all constituents.

After his come-from-behind razor-thin victory of 1,820 votes in October 2022 over the somewhat unpopular and detached semi-incumbent, Sean Patrick Maloney, Lawler’s term in office has been marked by more of the same unseriousness that resembled his performative campaign and term in the New York state assembly.

Online Trolling as a Policy

Undisciplined and unprincipled outbursts from his young and nearly all male 20-something staff and himself from his own Twitter/X account have shown who Mr. Lawler really is and what he believes about the world around him.

Case in point: after winning his election, a constituent in Rockland County — not even an activist or member of any of the Democratic party committees here — asked a straightforward and good faith question of him:

Will you represent your Democratic constituents equally now that you won as a Republican in a Biden+10 district?

Lawler’s response was to threaten to notify the constituent’s employer that they were tweeting out political opinions.

Later, in January 2023, after former Democratic State Sen. Elijah Reichlin-Melnick pointed out the silliness of the GOP's and Lawler’s fundraising efforts off the hysteria of proposed gas stove bans, Mr. Lawler and one of his staffers, Nathaniel Soule, took to Twitter to repeatedly call Mr. Reichlin-Melnick a “loser”.

A representative elected the highest legislative bodies in the land engaging in petty trolling on Twitter/X with someone who, at that juncture, wasn't even in office. Not a good look.

(And even if Reichlin-Melnick were still in office at the time, it's still unjustifiable.)

When you get to that level, you have a responsibility and duty to rise above the pettiness that defines lower levels of local and state politics.

What was Lawler thinking? "You're a congressman! Congrats, you're now in elite company, you have nothing to prove to anyone."

Objectively, these episodes are a signifier of extraordinary weakness and male victimhood complexes.

Imagine the scenario reversed: the field day right-wing press agitators at the New York Post would have if this had been something Mondaire Jones or Sean Patrick Maloney tweeted from their personal accounts?

This unprofessional behavior online likely endears Lawler to an increasingly dysfunctional GOP base that pretends "owning the libs" is serious policy in their Trumpist world. And the GOP donor class is equally at fault, increasingly craving political blood sport over serious policymaking.

I have little doubt that his young impressionable staffers like Soule, Lawler's deputy chief of staff, steeped and raised in an era of Tuckerism and Trumpism, sincerely believe that political discourse by its nature should be exceedingly cruel and dishonest.

And Lawler is really no different.

Our colleague on Twitter/X, TrumpsTaxes, has thoroughly documented Lawler's history of right-wing trolling antics and does a full breakdown of it here.

Birds of a feather

Mr. Lawler indeed won in 2022, but he certainly didn’t act like a winner after election day — he was too busy showing off to the world that he had — at last! — owned the libs.

Aggression and “winning” is all that matters to them. And as conservative pundit David French points out, Trumpism is bullyism.

According to a former Maloney campaign source I spoke with over the summer, the Lawler campaign staff sent their team a can of Chef Boyardee after the election was called.

(For those who were not heavily vested in the race's dynamics: this was an unsubtle troll based on a campaign attack based on a quote taken completely out of context in bad faith. Lawler's allies at the New York Post pounced upon it in the final weeks of the campaign.)

This fratboy antic occurred even after Maloney graciously conceded the race and offered his help to transition Lawler to Congress.

Lawler beat all expectations in an electoral upset, but publicly still had the time to ungraciously and repeatedly claim victory and show that he had no control or no interest in controlling the boorish behavior of his staff.

When Kevin McCarthy was first elected speaker earlier in 2023, Lawler rose to cast his vote for his ally, but didn't just vote yay — he made sure to say at each of the 15 speaker votes to mock a prominent Democrat who lived in his new district, including George Soros, Sean Patrick Maloney, and others.

Even in a procedural vote, it was all about sounding the dog whistle within his right-wing messaging bubble.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

It hasn't at all been a good look for NY-17, especially with Lawler's latest online meltdown after his friend McCarthy was ousted from the speakership.

It's unfortunate, because most won't notice this behavior, as only a distinct and active minority engages on Twitter/X.

But constituents should be disgusted at who the real Mike Lawler is — he's not the urbane, even-keeled, and sensible moderate he wants voters to think he is.

Lawler has been unrepentant and will never apologize for any of it.

In this era of Trumpism in the GOP, you can never admit fault, show shame, or say you’re sorry — because that, in their view, is the ultimate concession of weakness.