Only a week after being sworn into Congress, Jewish Rep. Randy Fine directed his latest inflammatory statement at a Muslim colleague.
On a podcast Wednesday, the Florida Republican and self-proclaimed “Hebrew Hammer” called Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “terrorist” and said that some members of the progressive “Squad” — of which she is a member — “shouldn’t be Americans.”
“I think some of these people should not be in Congress. I think they’re a disgrace. I think some of them shouldn’t be Americans. I don’t think they love our country. And I’m not gonna be afraid to call them out and go right at them because I think they’re bad people,” Fine told podcast host Gabe Groisman, a former mayor of Bal Harbour, Florida, and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Fine continued, “And particularly people like Rashida Tlaib. She’s just a bad person. She’s not a terrorist sympathizer, she’s a terrorist. And I don’t mind saying it because it’s true.” He did not elaborate.
It’s not the first time the Trump-backed politician has used crude language against Tlaib — who is Palestinian-American and one of the House’s harshest critics of Israel — or against other Muslim politicians. When Fine first announced his run for Congress in November, he tweeted “#BombsAway” at Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a fellow Squad member and Israel critic, writing that both “might want to consider leaving before I get there.”
Fine’s remarks at the time were condemned by a range of groups. He refused to apologize, instead building more attacks at Muslims into his campaign — calling his Democratic opponent Josh Weil, a convert to Islam, “Jihad Josh.”
In the final stretch of Fine’s campaign for the April 1 special election, Republicans became concerned that he could lose his ruby-red district following a groundswell of fundraising for Weil and a national backlash to many Trump policies. Fine wound up winning his district, though by a considerably smaller margin than initially expected.
Fine’s remarks also came amid a broad deportation sweep from the Trump administration that has targeted international students who engaged in pro-Palestinian activism. That effort has come as ICE officers have arrested tens of thousands of people since Trump took office.
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