Kaitlan Collins Makes House Republican Watch Brutal Clip of DeSantis Ripping Him: ‘He Repels People’
A day after being sworn into Congress, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) joined Thursday’s edition of The Source on CNN, where he was asked to respond to some rough comments by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Fine won Tuesday’s special election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, defeating Democrat Josh Weil by 14 points, which was notably short of the 21-point margin by which former Mike Waltz (R-FL) won the district in November. (Waltz resigned the seat to become President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor and the country’s most famous Signal user.)
A former state Senator endorsed by Trump, Fine is a controversial figure. In a November tweet, Fine called himself “The Hebrew Hammer” and suggested Muslim Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) leave Congress before his arrival. He added, “#BombsAway.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins presented Fine with these remarks DeSantis made about him on Wednesday:
I think you have a candidate in Randy Fine who won – he’s a squish, ok?… He repels people… I think the election day turnout was really good for a special election for Republicans in the district. And I attribute that to President Trump’s intervention.
I think these are voters who didn’t like Randy Fine, but who basically were like, “You know what? We’re gonna take one for the team. President needs another vote up there and so we’re going to do it.” So, I would not read into the underperformance that this is somehow a referendum on MAGA or Trump. I think it was a unique issue with this particular candidate.
The clip ended and Collins turned to Fine.
“I’m gonna guess you two aren’t very close,” she deadpanned.
“No,” he replied. “Ron Desantis is repelled by me. I think that much is shown. But look, Ron has never forgiven me for endorsing President Trump in 2023. I was the first legislator to switch from him to President Trump. And I’m the only Jewish Republican in the Florida legislature. It was a big deal. But I’m not interested in trying to set petty political scores. My focus is how I run up the score for my district. He’s looking in the past, I’m looking to the future.”
Fine concluded by saying the governor’s remarks were “disappointing.”
Watch above via CNN.
