He’s no mere tax and rent cheat — he’s a litterbug, too!
That’s the bizarre complaint that one of Rep. Charles Rangel’s political foes drops against the 22-term Harlem congressman in a slickly produced video leaked to The Post.
The video — filmed two weeks ago during a Rangel rally at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial Center in Washington Heights — depicts a slow-motion close-up of the incumbent congressman unwrapping what appears to be a piece of gum and then casually throwing the wrapper to the ground.
The video’s editor emphasized the horror of Rangel’s littering by zooming in and slowing the tape down like a low-rent Zapruder film.
Rangel is standing just a few feet from the spot where Malcolm X was shot as Bronx Rep. Jose Serrano speaks to the crowd about immigration reform.
The video leak comes in the final stretch of the Democratic congressional battle between Rangel and main challenger state Sen. Adriano Espaillat — a race that has devolved into desperation.
“It shows not only an element of exhaustion, but an element of silliness induced by exhaustion,” Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College political science professor, said of the video’s release.
At least it’ll be over soon — voters go to the polls on Tuesday.
The three candidates were all campaigning Saturday, with Rangel and Espaillat zig-zagging around in noisy caravans and shaking hands at several locations.
Neither Espaillat nor the other two contenders would take credit for the litterbug video. But Rangel, who is ahead in the latest poll by 13 percentage points, blamed Espaillat for the attack.
“LOL — it looks like Espaillat has completed the evolution from tragedy to farce,” said Rangel spokesman James Freedland.
“First they attacked the polls, then they attacked the media, now his campaign is attacking Congressman Rangel for dropping a gum wrapper? This has to be the most absurd attack in the history of politics. Can you say, ‘Amateur hour’?”
Espaillat’s campaign said the Rangel campaign’s response to the video was “sad.”
But former Rangel aide Vince Morgan was glad to speak up against his old boss. Dropping the paper at the Malcolm X memorial center shows “an obvious disregard for the community he represents,” said Morgan, an Espaillat supporter.
“That’s hallowed ground for a lot of people, and he should know better than anybody because he was around when [Malcolm X was killed],” said Morgan, who worked for Rangel from 2001 to 2004 and ran against him in 2010.
“It shows he’s callous to anything and anybody who’s not in his attention range. If it was an average person, they’d get a $250 summons.”
Additional reporting by Aaron Short