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Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day: Gus Bilirakis- 2023 Update [1]
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Date: 2023-11-10
On this date in both 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” published its first profile of the U.S. House Representative from Florida’s 12th Congressional District, Gus Bilirakis, who has held office since 2006, jumping in to be a legacy and take over where his father Michael Bilirakis to serve three terms in Florida’s 9th Congressional District before jumping to the 12th District from 2013 to the present. Prior to that, Bilrakis served in the Florida House of Representatives for four terms from 1999-2007.
Now, part of how Gus Bilirakis caught our attention was the day he hosted a women’s summit, that featured an agenda with key topics such as “weight loss” and “gardening” that are relevant to their interests. Perhaps that has a lot to do with why Bilirakis has a long, long history of voting against women’s issues, not just his pathological series of anti-choice votes, but the fact that he’s voted against every equal pay bill that’s come across his path the entire time he’s been in Congress.
Bilirakis is also a climate change denialist to the extent that he defended Donald Trump’s hair-brained decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords, and did so by citing a highly flawed study that claimed 2.7 million jobs would be lost if the United States honored the agreement.
But what troubled us the most as we dug deeper into recent statements by Gus Bilirakis was his town hall in February of 2017. His constituents were highly alarmed that the GOP-controlled Congress and Trump administration might move to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and leave tens of millions stripped of their health insurance. So what was Bilirakis’ response? He decided to begin babbling about “death panels”. Y’know, the same “death panels” that Republicans fear-mongered about in 2009 and 2010 to fear-monger about the Affordable Care Act that NEVER CAME TO BE when the law got passed. The same “death panels” that were named Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” eight years earlier. And for that, Bilirakis was booed out of his own town hall.
His voting record over the past three years:
Bilirakis has continued adopting white nationalist talking points in his rhetoric, claiming there are “caravans” of illegal immigrants always headed to the U.S. border, just like Republicans seem to about every two years for political convenience while neglecting to point out that in the first two weeks of the one he was complaining about alone, the caravan dwindled to 1/3 its size because of the action of Mexican authorities. A convenient little lie by omission, that.
Florida’s 12th Congressional District has a +8 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index, and on election day, he defeated his Democratic opponent, Kimberly Walker, for the second election cycle in a row with the help of that gerrymander. He will return to be a failson for another two years.
One Year Ago, November 10th, 2021: Gus Bilirakis (FL)… 2021 Update
Two Year Ago, November 10th, 2020: Gus Bilirakis (FL)… 2020 Update
Three Years Ago, November 10th, 2019: Gus Bilirakis (FL)… Original Profile
Four Years Ago, November 10th, 2018: Dennis Richardson (OR)… 2018 Update
Five Years Ago, November 10th, 2017: Dennis Richardson (OR)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago, November 10th, 2016: Ben Carson (MD)… 2016 Update
Seven Years Ago, November 10th, 2015: Ben Carson (MD)… 2015 Update
Eight Years Ago, November 10th, 2014: Ben Carson (MD)… Original Profile
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