Mara Massey joins us Breitbart News Saturday She appeared on SiriusXM to discuss her race for the House seat against Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.), just days after a Manhattan jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 charges in District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s business records trial against him.
Massie and host Matthew Boyle discussed Rutherford’s boilerplate statements following Trump’s ruling, calling out lawmakers for making strong statements but failing to take action.
“Congressman Rutherford sits on the Appropriations Committee, which means he controls, or at least actually steers, how federal tax dollars are spent, so he has the power and authority to actually do something about this issue,” Boyle said. “But he’s done nothing about this. Absolutely nothing.”
The attorney general’s office is funded by the federal government. Despite their majority in the House, a minority of Republicans, like Rutherford, joined Democrats in March to pass a massive $1.2 trillion government funding plan. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) refused to cut funding for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution of President Trump and fully funded Biden’s Justice Department.
Massie also noted Rutherford’s votes in favor of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including voting against requiring government agents to obtain a warrant before spying on Americans. The amendment failed by a 218-218 vote.
“It was a failed vote. If I had won the election, [in 2022] “It wouldn’t have passed. So we really need to look at this as who represents the voters and the American people.”
Massie said Trump’s growing support should also be used to take back Congress.
“If we had that same energy, we could take back the whole Congress and make sure these things happen,” she said.
She took a closer look at Rutherford’s voting record, especially on big spending bills.
“John Rutherford has consistently voted wrong,” she said. “He voted for continuing resolutions that fund DEI, trans surgery, and abortion travel for the Department of Defense. So he doesn’t actually support conservative values.”
She continued, “We need people to understand that we are being held captive by this government, and the people who are being held captive are the people who are currently elected. What we don’t understand is that we hold the keys. We think they hold the keys, but we have to use the keys. And we have to put people in office, we have to take back the seats that are being held by one party government, because that’s the only way we’re going to fix this country, and we’re going to get our Constitution back. If we don’t follow the Constitution, there is no United States of America.”
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Boyle is interview Tucker Carlson spoke with Donald Trump Jr. following the verdict, in which Trump Jr. blasted Republican politicians who have the power to hold bad actors accountable but who never take action instead use bullish rhetoric.
“They say they’re outraged. They write strongly worded letters, they send strongly worded tweets, but then they do nothing,” Boyle said, linking the inaction to Rutherford. “He has the authority to do something. He’s on the Appropriations Committee. They hold the purse strings and he’s not doing anything.”
Massie said Americans should demand more from their elected officials: “We all know by now that politicians aren’t telling the truth, but that’s all they have to do to appease their supporters. They say, ‘Look, I’m angry, too,’ and their supporters say, ‘Look, we’re all angry.’ No, we actually need to pay attention to what they’re doing in office as elected citizens.”
“We need to take back our government, and we can’t do that by re-electing Republicans, which is just political theater,” she continued.
Massie spoke about the effectiveness of grassroots efforts driven by volunteers seeking better representation in Washington.
“We’ve been going door to door, and there are people out there who are not happy with John’s performance. They see him as part of the problem,” she said, noting that many voters who previously supported Rutherford are happy to have a better option. “You have loyal supporters, but then you also have people who are on the fence who say, ‘I’ve known John for years and he’s my friend, but I recognize that at this point in time, his voting record doesn’t represent my values. And we need a change. It’s time for John to retire. He’s been in this business too long.'”
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Massie accused Rutherford of failing to visit his district and serve his constituents as expected of a lawmaker.
“He doesn’t answer people’s phone calls. He doesn’t meet with constituents. He doesn’t respond properly to letters and stuff. And when he does, he’s mean? Like he’s lecturing people,” she said.
Massie also accused Rutherford of refusing to sit in on debates or political events with her, although the two did once show up at a Republican club together by chance.
“He’s a salesman,” she said of Rutherford’s performance that day. “He comes in and sells why he voted the way he did, and it says a lot in the way he approaches the situation. He says, ‘If you don’t like the way I voted, contact me and I’ll tell you why I voted that way.’ That’s not how it should work. When voters contact you before they vote and they want you to vote a certain way, you are their representative. Look up the definition of the word representative. It’s not like you come back and tell me how you voted and I say, ‘Okay, thank you, I get it.’ They elected you for that seat, so vote the way I want you to vote.”
Rutherford refused to consider any tough measures that might give him the leverage he needed to reform the government.
“He said he would never shut down the government, he said a continuing resolution is needed to do that, but I just don’t draw the line there,” Massie said. “Look, shut down. If you should shut down, if you shouldn’t shut down, if you shouldn’t shut down, if you shouldn’t shut down, shut down. We have principles that we have to follow.”
The Florida Republican primary will be held on Aug. 20. Boyle previously said Massie’s race “may be the most closely watched election in America.”
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