Lee Zeldin once called for Andrew Cuomo to be President

Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin, the presumptive Republican nominee for New York governor, once gushed that “our nation would be a better place” if Andrew Cuomo were president, according to a newly unearthed video.

Zeldin sang the fallen Democrat’s praises while serving as a Long Island state senator in 2011, during the disgraced ex-governor’s first year in office.

“We’ve all been observing what’s going on in other levels of government and we’ve all been paying close attention to Washington,” the lawmaker said at the time, before turning his attention to Cuomo.

“And putting all politics aside, I would honestly say that if you were in the White House right now, our nation would be in a better place today than it is,” he said to applause.

Zeldin’s glowing endorsement came at an Aug. 8, 2011 press conference during which Cuomo and the state Legislature announced the suspension of a recreational saltwater license fee affecting fishermen and charter boat operators.

“The governor is literally putting $300,000 back in the hands of Long Island fisherman,” Zeldin raved at the Freeport Boatmen’s Association’s dock in Freeport, according to a video obtained by The Post.

“On a personal note, I want to say thank you to the governor for your unyielding leadership and vision and commitment to Long Islanders. Not just to the fishing community, but to all Long Islanders — the taxpayers.”

During Cuomo’s first year as governor, he worked with Republicans to impose a 2 percent cap on annual property tax. The Post reported in 2014 that Democrat Cuomo and the Senate Republican majority had a secret pact to protect each other during their re-election campaigns.

A lot has happened with the embattled ex-chief executive since then.

In August, the former three-term governor resigned in disgrace under the threat of impeachment after a devastating investigative report by state Attorney General Letitia James substantiated claims of sexual harassment and misconduct by a slew of women.

Cuomo denied wrongdoing and has since said he regrets stepping down.

He is also being probed for using government staffers to prepare his $5.1 million coronavirus memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” and for covering up COVID-19-associated nursing home deaths. He was lambasted for ordering nursing homes to take in recovering COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals during the peak of the pandemic in 2020.

Zeldin’s rivals in the GOP gubernatorial nomination — including former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino — pounced on his prior Cuomo comments.

“No surprise. Lee Zeldin was a close ally of Andrew Cuomo’s and a reliable vote for the Cuomo agenda in all four of the years he served in Albany,” the Astorino campaign said in a statement.

“That’s why only an Albany outsider like Rob Astorino will be able to bring transformative change to Albany and save and rebuild our state.”

Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who is backing Andrew Giuliani for governor, said Zeldin’s remarks should preclude him from getting the GOP nomination.

“How do you advocate that Andrew Cuomo should be the next president of the United States?! That should disqualify Lee Zeldin from consideration,” Sliwa, the GOP candidate for New York City mayor last year, told The Post Sunday.

“Lee Zeldin is a Cuomoite! That’s the worst thing you could be in the Republican Party.”

Sliwa continued, “How about Lee Zeldin apologizing? He could not have been more hopefully wrong about Andrew Cuomo. A lot of Republicans like me despise Andrew Cuomo.”

He likened Zeldin’s effusive White House praise of Cuomo “to a stain on a suit that never goes away.”

“This is why we need a primary instead of having the Republican bosses select Zeldin as the nominee. The fix is in,” Sliwa said.

The state Republican Party leadership is expected to select Zeldin as its nominee during the party’s convention starting later this month.

Zeldin changed his tune on Sunday and explained he only thought that Cuomo in 2011 would have been a better president than Barack Obama, who was in the White House at the time.

“Andrew Cuomo should be prosecuted. He’s corrupt, arrogant, and abusive, between his deadly nursing home order and coverup, $5.1 million self-congratulatory book deal and using his taxpayer-funded staff to help write it, and COVID testing scandal giving preferential treatment to his family and friends using the state’s Health Department officials at private residences and moving the samples to the front of the line,” Zeldin said in a statement.

“On top of it all, Cuomo continues to harass, intimidate and abuse his many victims.”

In explaining his Cuomo for president comments, Zeldin said, “In 2011, Andrew Cuomo came into office with some good priorities like the tax cap and middle-income tax cuts, but it all went downhill very fast after that first year or so. Cuomo’s ego went north and his priorities went south, all while his abuse of power quickly kicked into the highest of gears.

“While Cuomo may have been a better President than Obama in 2011, his true colors started to shine more and more along the way and it wasn’t pretty.”