Republican Mara Macie, who is challenging establishment Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) in Florida’s conservative Fifth Congressional District primary, told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday that her “salesman” opponent consistently votes the opposite of what his constituents want and is facing “a lot of backlash” back home.
Macie joined Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle on the program, and at the top of the segment, Boyle emphasized that Rutherford has a “perfect record the wrong way” when voting in Congress.
“So I think every single thing that we as conservatives believe he should be voting for or against, he just votes the opposite way,” Macie responded. “I mean, FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act], we’ve got the funding for all the overseas – he’s voted for every Ukraine bill all the way back to 2022 when I first ran against him, and it’s just been one thing after another after another.”
UNITED STATES – MAY 12: Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., speaks during the news conference on the Invest to Protect Act outside the Capitol on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Rutherford was first put on Macie’s radar when her husband was fighting with the Department of Defense over the military vaccine mandate. Rutherford’s office entirely neglected the concerns of two families who had reached out to him about “the illegality” of the mandate, while telling two others, ‘‘’Sorry, there’s nothing we can do,'” per Macie.
On Saturday, Boyle asked Macie how Rutherford answers for his record to constituents “on behalf of the swap” in Washington, DC, when he returns to Florida’s Fifth Congressional District.
Macie emphasized that while Rutherford is careful to attend events and clubs where he feels he will be supported and spared criticism, he is starting to hear from dissatisfied constituents even at these events.
“Well, I think it’s important to note that he really picks and chooses which clubs he goes to, or which Republican events he goes to. Usually, he goes to the ones that he feels he’s going to get the most support,” she explained. “However, even at those clubs recently, he’s been getting a lot of backlash.”
“What he does is he comes home, and he sells the reason why he voted against what the constituents have asked him to do or not to do. And what I’m saying now is he’s not a representative; he’s a salesman,” Macie charged.
Macie said the “tides are changing,” and he is now being challenged on his record – even at these events he strategically attends to avoid criticism.
“At one recent Republican club, when he started taking questions, nobody had anything to say, and then finally, someone raised their hand and said, ‘You know, I have a question,’ and questioned him on one of these votes, and the next thing you know, the floodgates were open. People started just, ‘Yeah, why are you doing this?’ or ‘Why aren’t you doing that?’ And they started coming at him for the things that we all see.”
Macie emphasized that constituents need to be courageous “because courage is contagious, and if you’re willing to speak up, everybody else was gonna say, ‘Okay, well, I’m not the only one that’s dissatisfied with this.’”
Boyle also underscored that the August primary will likely decide the next U.S. representative from the district, effectively making it a general election race. He told Macie he sees this race as conservatives’ best opportunity “to take one back from the swamp” and asked for her perspective. She agreed “wholeheartedly.”
“Elections are won in primaries, that’s where they’re won,” she said. “If you don’t go vote in the primary and you just go to the general, that means that you’re only looking for a letter. And at this point, we should all recognize the fact that an ‘R’ does not actually mean a Republican, it does not mean a conservative. It very well and probably does mean RINO.”
“So, now, we need to make sure that we’re getting all of our friends, all of our family, all of our neighbors out to vote at that primary if we want to take back this country. That is the best way for people to participate, is by talking to everybody they know and getting the word out,” she added. “Listen, when I get to the general election, I’m up against a Democrat; that doesn’t even bother me. I’m worried about the Democrat I’m against in the primary. That’s the one I have to beat.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
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