As a state lawmaker in Florida, Republican Rep. Randy Fine earned a reputation as a bombastic far-right politician who enjoyed picking ugly fights. Three months into his tenure in Congress, the GOP congressman isn’t exactly turning over a more respectable leaf. NBC News reported:
Top House Democrats defended Rep. Ilhan Omar after Rep. Randy Fine made an Islamophobic retort toward Omar for her criticism of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. [Tuesday] night, Omar, D-Minn., condemned Netanyahu’s latest trip to Washington, calling the visit ‘beyond shameful’ and implying that Netanyahu is a war criminal who needs to be ‘held accountable for his crimes, not platformed.’ Fine, R-Fla., in response likened Omar to a ‘Muslim terrorist.’
In fact, the Florida Republican specifically wrote via social media, in a message directed at the Minnesota Democrat: “I’m sure it is difficult to see us welcome the killer of so many of your fellow Muslim terrorists. The only shame is that you serve in Congress.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland responded soon after, “I know you’re new to Congress, Mr. Fine, but we don’t call our colleagues terrorists here. It just makes you look idiotic.”
The entirety of the House Democratic leadership issued a related joint written statement around the same time. “The unhinged, racist and Islamophobic comments made by Randy Fine about Rep. Ilhan Omar are bigoted and disgusting,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. “We are just weeks removed from heinous acts of political violence targeting elected officials in Minnesota for assassination.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for our nation and Members of Congress should be solving problems for the American people, not inciting violence. Randy Fine must apologize immediately.”
Of course, the question isn’t whether the far-right Floridian is likely to express any contrition — it’s a safe bet that he will not — rather, the question is why Fine’s fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill have so little to say about this.
In theory, this shouldn’t be a tough call: It’d be easy for GOP leaders to make clear, at least in some capacity, that they disapprove of anti-Muslim rhetoric. But House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican leadership team have, to date, responded to Fine’s offensive message with silence and apparent indifference.
This dovetails, of course, with other GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill targeting New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani with racist and Islamophobic rhetoric. As recently as last fall, Republicans made gains with Arab and Muslim voters. The party doesn’t seem especially eager to return the favor. On the contrary, GOP officials appear to be sending an unmistakable signal: In the contemporary Republican Party, anti-Muslim attitudes are, at a minimum, tolerated. As for the larger context, Fine’s rhetoric comes against a backdrop of related Islamophobic animus from Donald Trump and his administration. My MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones recently summarized, “[T]his administration has spent its opening months seemingly grooming the MAGA movement to be OK with blatant racism — or, at minimum, accept it as a natural part of political discourse.” It’s a lesson Randy Fine appears to have learned all too well.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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