Mara Macie joined Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM to discuss her congressional seat challenge against Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL) just days after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 counts in District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s business records trial against the former president.
Macie and host Matthew Boyle discussed Rutherford’s boilerplate statement after Trump’s verdict and called the congressman out for talking tough while refusing to take any action.
Mara Macie (Mara Macie for Congress)
“Congressman Rutherford is on the Appropriations Committee, meaning that he has the power and the authority to actually do something about this because he controls or has a hand on the wheel at least, how our federal tax dollars are spent,” Boyle said. “And he hasn’t done anything about it. Nothing at all.”
Prosecutors’ offices receive federal dollars to operate. Despite holding a majority in the House, a minority of House Republicans like Rutherford partnered with Democrats in March to pass a massive $1.2 trillion government funding plan. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) refused to defund special counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution of Trump and fully funded Biden’s Department of Justice.
Macie also referenced Rutherford’s vote for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including his vote against requiring government investigators to obtain warrants before spying on Americans. That amendment vote failed in a 218 to 218 tie.
“That was one vote from failing and if I had been elected to office [in 2022] that would not have gone through. I mean, we really need to take a look at this, who is going to represent the constituents and the American people.”
Macie said the eruption of support of Trump should be harnessed to take back the Congress as well.
“If we had that same energy behind us, we would be able to take back the whole Congress, and we would be able to make sure these things do happen,” she said.
She dove further into Rutherford’s voting record, particularly on massive spending bills.
“John Rutherford consistently votes the wrong way,” she said. “He votes for the continuing resolutions which fund DEI and trans surgeries and travel for abortion for DOD and things like that. I mean, the man is not actually backing conservative values.”
She continued, “we need the people to understand that we are all imprisoned by this government right now. And the captors are the people that are currently elected. What we don’t understand is that we hold the keys. We think they hold the keys, we hold the keys, but we have to use them. And we have to be able to put people in office, retake the congressional seats that are being held by the uniparty because that’s the only way we are going to fix this country and get it back to the Constitution. If we don’t follow our constitution, we don’t have the United States of America.”
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Boyle brought up an interview Tucker Carlson conducted with Donald Trump Jr. in the wake of the verdict. Trump Jr. lambasted Republican politicians who talk tough but never take action, even when holding the power to hold bad actors to account.
“They say how outraged they are. They write a strongly worded letter, or they issue a strongly worded tweet, and then they don’t do anything,” Boyle said, tying the level of inaction to Rutherford. “Here’s a man who has the authority to do something. He’s on the Appropriations Committee. They control the purse strings and he hasn’t done anything.”
Macie said Americans should demand more from elected officials. “We should know by now that the politicians are not telling us the truth. But that’s all they have to do to appease their base and say ‘look, I’m mad too’ and the base goes ‘look, we’re all mad.’ No, we actually have to pay attention to what they’re doing in their official capacity as elected people.”
“We have to take back our government ourselves and you’re not going to do it by reelecting these RINOs who really, just it’s political theater,” she continued.
Macie discussed the effectiveness of her grassroots campaign, which is being driven by volunteers who want better representation in Washington.
“We are knocking doors, and we’re getting people who are not happy with John’s performance, they see him as part of the problem,” she said, pointing out many voters who previously supported Rutherford are glad to have a better alternative. “You do get some loyalists, but then you get some people that are on the fence that have said ‘for years I’ve known John, he’s a friend of mine, but at this point, I do realize his voting record does not represent my values. And we need change and it’s time for John to retire. He’s been in the game too long.’”
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Matt Perdie / Breitbart News
Macie accused Rutherford of failing to get out in the district and perform constituent services expected of a congressman.
“He doesn’t return people’s calls. He doesn’t take meetings with his constituents. He doesn’t respond well to letters and so on and so forth. And when he does, he’s nasty, right? Like he’s lecturing people, right?” she said.
Macie also accused Rutherford of refusing to debate her or even appear alongside her at political events, although one time by chance they both appeared at a Republican club together.
“He is a salesman,” she described of Rutherford’s performance that day. “He comes and he sells you why he voted a certain way. And he says so much in the way he approaches the situation. He says, ‘If you don’t like the way I voted, just contact me and I’ll tell you why I voted that way.’ That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, sir. When your constituents are contacting you ahead of the vote, asking you to vote a certain way, you are their representative. Please look up the definition of the word representative. It’s not you come back and tell me how you voted, and I go,’Okay, thanks, that makes sense.’ No, you vote how I want you to because they elected you to the seat.”
Rutherford refused to consider tough actions that could provide the necessary leverage to reform the government.
“He talked about how he will never shut down the government and the continuing resolutions are necessary for that reason, and I absolutely draw the line there,” Macie said. “You know what, shut it down. If you’re not getting what’s done, if you’re needing to pass things like trans surgeries and abortion for travel in order to keep the government open, shut it down. We have principles that we have to stand up for.”
The Florida Republican primary takes place August 20. Boyle has said previously that Macie’s race “might be the number one race in America.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.