RINO Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) is an establishment darling who supports unfettered spending — including giving money to Ukraine — and is among those who ousted former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) without due process, resulting in a Democrat taking the seat, Mara Macie, conservative candidate for Florida’s Fifth Congressional District told Breitbart News Saturday just days ahead of the primary election.
“Trillions of dollars of funding that really should not be spent. I know that for me, in particular, the Ukraine funding was a huge problem,” Macie said, describing the issues with her primary opponent, Rutherford.
“Even back in ’22, I tried to point that out to people and say, ‘Listen, you know, this guy is going to keep spending.’ … You’ll see next month; he’ll clearly vote for the continuing resolution again, although there’s a little bit different of a dynamic in this time around. But I digress on that,” Macie said, explaining that Rutherford also voted to expel Santos without due process, resulting in Democrats taking that seat.
FLASHBACK: 105 Republicans Vote with Democrats to Expel George Santos Without a Conviction
Rutherford, she continued, “voted for the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act], which had so many flaws in it, especially since part of the military community that was fighting back against the shot mandate.”
“We had huge issues with the past few NDAAs because they included things that made it harder for servicemen and women who are trying to fight the COVID shot mandate, which was illegally implemented to begin with,” she said, explaining that Rutherford continued even though he heard from families who pointed out the problems with it.
Macie said voters are also particularly angry about Rutherford’s Speakership vote.
“And the biggest thing I’m finding out there talking to people is people are still very angry about the Speakership vote, whether it was for the initial McCarthy to begin with — when they asked him not to vote for him — but especially the Jim Jordan part,” she said. “People are still bringing that up. It’s probably just on my list. It’s not the biggest issue for me personally, but that’s what people are remembering, and then they said that’s when he lost them.”
“He lost their vote at that Speakership situation, and for me, it’s funding,” she said, calling out Rutherford for his choice to embrace unfettered spending.
“Mind you, he sits on the Appropriations Committee, so there’s really a big stake in that. But we can’t expect these things to change if we keep doing the same thing,” she said, highlighting frustrations with the fact that some question her more than the incumbent.
“So many people are so much more critical of the opponent than they are of the incumbent. I get questions asked of me that nobody asks of John. So it’s unbelievable for people to expect something different, even though they’re going to keep sending the same guy to Congress,” she pointed out, pressing voters to ensure their friends and family “know what’s on the ballot and get them out to vote” to truly change things. Otherwise, Florida’s Fifth Congressional District could get stuck with another two years of being represented by a “complete and utter RINO” who is not voting as a conservative.
In contrast, Macie said she would run her office like she does her campaign, should she be elected.
“If I was up there, I would run it like I run my campaign because I am in charge of my whole campaign. I am my own treasurer. I am doing all that work. I am knocking doors. I don’t think John Rutherford has ever had to knock the door. He has always had people in control of all of these things, and when you’re not actually in control of these situations, you don’t have to do your own budgeting. You don’t have to make sure you don’t have to make cuts in places you don’t want to make cuts. Someone else is doing it for you. So I’ve had to do all these things for my campaign, whereas he has other people doing it for him,” she said, explaining that she is “very hands on” versus Rutherford delegating and, therefore, disconnected.
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“I’m very hands on, and I want to make sure that we’re cutting things that are not necessary and trying to keep the things that are. … You can take a look at how he’s been voting and see that he’s not really in the game. He’s not… he doesn’t seem to understand what’s at stake,” she said, adding that Rutherford “just votes the way that the caucus tells him to vote.”
“That’s how he’s voting because he knows that if he keeps his money coming in, as in his big special interest and lobbyist money … they’ll just try to steamroll whoever he’s running against,” she added, pressing to voters that this is a prime opportunity to take out a RINO.
“If we lose this year, we are not going to have an opportunity in two years to take out a RINO. It’s going to be more of the same. This is the opportunity we have to take out the RINO,” she explained, noting that the general election should not be a problem because it is a Republican district.
“The general election really is not — it’s not like the primary. The primary is where this is won,” she said.
In other words, the real battle is on Tuesday.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.