Rep. Randy Fine (R) of Florida’s sixth district has embroiled himself in controversy over the last couple of weeks with extreme statements made over the conflict in Israel. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) has responded to these comments and the backlash facing Rep. Fine with commentary and criticism of her own.
Rep. Fine initially received backlash over his response to an ABC News article covering the ongoing famine in Gaza. He stated, “Release the hostages. Until then, starve away. (This is all a lie anyway. It amazes me that the media continues to regurgitate Muslim terror propaganda.)”
Encouraging the starvation of people while denying it as a hoax was enough to earn Fine a heap of backlash. He doubled down, though, repeating that there was no ongoing famine and everything about the “Palestinian cause” was a lie.
In response to this extreme rhetoric, it appears that Fine has lost support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC did endorse him for his election to the House, but his name has been dropped from the committee’s list of endorsed candidates.
Rep. Greene responded to all of this with commentary of her own in a lengthy statement on X. She began with an assessment of Fine’s character and recalled meeting with him after his election to the House.
According to Greene, Fine had trouble winning his district because his constituents struggled to relate to him. She also claims that Fine was adamant in moving away from his district to D.C. even though he should live with his constituents.
Finally, Greene addressed his extreme comments and stated that he was alienating the people who elected him. She stated, “I can only imagine how Florida’s 6th district feels now that their Representative, that they were told to vote for, openly calls for starving innocent people and children.”
Greene did specify in her statement that the attack on October 7th was horrible and all hostages should be returned. This, however, should not prevent someone from acknowledging the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
After this clarification, Greene concluded, “But a Jewish U.S. Representative calling for the continued starvation of innocent people and children is disgraceful. His awful statement will actually cause more antisemitism.”
