Embarrassing History Of Trump Apologists, Stooges In Congress
The bar for running for Congress is very low and it may explain the dismal quality of many of the people who are deciding the fate of the nation and the world.
An example of the grim caliber of lawmakers is the 147 members of the House who genuflected to trump and backed his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. As many as 117 of the officials are still in congress and running for reelection and still maintain trump is the rightful president.
According to Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, House members must be: At least 25 years of age; a citizen of the United States for at least seven years prior to being elected; a resident of the state he or she is chosen to represent.
That is the sum total of all requirements for anyone to serve in Congress, no minimal education, no minimal understanding of government, no classes in ethics, nothing.
A total of 27 percent of the members of the House still claim that trump was robbed of reelection. They include the well-known, far right, sycophants who have been most vocal in support of trump, people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and Rep. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. to name a few.
But many are lesser known outside of their tiny fiefdoms but are equally important in the historic struggle to maintain U.S. democracy.
In no particular order, there is Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., a MAGA, ultra-conservative, family values politician. In 2016, the Family Research Council awarded Duncan its “True Blue Award” but this year, Duncan admitted to a relationship with a lobbyist and asked a judge to gag his soon-to-be ex-wife of 35 years from speaking about the divorce.
“My family is dealing with a difficult and private moment and I’m not going to comment on a deeply personal matter,” Duncan wrote on X. “My focus is fighting on behalf of the people of South Carolina’s third district as we stare down the barrel of a government shutdown as the liberal extremists try forcing us to continue spending beyond our means.”
A member of the far right Freedom Caucus, Ducan has been in Congress since 2011. In October 2021, Duncan attended a House session wearing a mask reading “Let’s Go Brandon,” a popular coded message in Republican circles for an obscene insult to Joe Biden.
Duncan believes that all Americans have the God-given right to own firearms. He also has supported increased use of fossil fuels.
Rep. David Patrick Joyce, R-Ohio, has been in Congress since 2013. His father was a coal salesman. In high school, Joyce played football, and considered joining the priesthood.
In November 2021, Joyce refused to vote to censure Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who had shared an animated video of himself killing a fellow member and assaulting the president.
In a December 2022 interview, Joyce, 66, said that, regardless of trump’s calls to suspend the U.S. Constitution, he would support him for president if trump is the Republican nominee in 2024.
Rep. Guy Lorin Reschenthaler, R-Pa., served as a district judge and in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) during the Iraq War.
On Dec. 31, 2020, Reschenthaler and seven other Republican members of Congress from Pennsylvania claimed that state officials had illegally allowed the counting of mail-in ballots that were received after Election Day but postmarked by November 3. The claim has been disproven.
In December 2020, Reschenthaler joined other Republicans in voting against providing $2,000 stimulus checks to Americans, on grounds that such aid would further weaken the US economy.
Rep. Glenn William “GT” Thompson Jr. R-Pa., has been in congress since 2019. Thompson, 64, worked for 28 years as a Therapist/Rehab Services Manager/Licensed Nursing Home Administrator and spent 25 years as a member or president of the Howard Volunteer Fire Company 14, and volunteers as a firefighter, emergency medical technician, and rescue technician.
In July 2022, Thompson voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify the right to same-sex marriage. Several days later, he attended his son’s same-sex wedding.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., a Freemason and a dentist, was a Democrat before switching to Republican in 2020. He has been in Congress since 2019.
In late November 2019, Van Drew, 70, vowed to remain a Democrat even though he was the rare Democrat who opposed trump’s impeachment. But internal polling showed his vote against impeachment endangered Democratic voter support. Van Drew met with trump, the congressman’s senior aides resigned in protest, and he decided to join the Republican Party.
On Feb. 4, 2021, Van Drew voted against removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her positions on the House Budget and the Education and Labor committees after Greene said publicly, “Joe Biden is Hitler.”
Rep. Daniel Meuser, R-Pa., has been in congress since 2019. He was previously president of the Pride Corporation, a manufacturer of motorized wheelchairs. Meuser, 59, opposes legalized abortion and has called fetuses “pre-born human persons.”
In July 2019, Congress voted for a bill to condemn trump for promoting racism and xenophobia after he attacked four Democratic members of Congress, telling them to “go back” to the “places from which they came.” Meuser defended trump and called the bill a baseless attack by Democratic leadership.
“I strongly oppose Democrat leadership’s latest effort to harass [trump]. For years, he and his supporters have been subjected to baseless attacks. Such slander is a disservice to our nation and the American people, and I am tired of it,” Meuser said.
In 2023, Meuser voted for a moratorium on aid to Ukraine.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., was born to Amish parents. For 25 years, he served as president of the Smucker Company, a family-owned commercial construction firm that received $4.83 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in 2020 and 2021[ that were subsequently forgiven.
Smucker, 59, supports giving civil rights protections to fetuses, opposes same sex marriage and voted against allowing private lawsuits against schools that racially discriminate.
Rep. George Joseph “Mike” Kelly Jr., R-Pa., has been in congress for 12 years. Kelly, 75, said the 2019 impeachment of trump was “another date that will live in infamy” similar to the Pearl Harbor attack in World War II.
In June 2022, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., revealed that Kelly was responsible for providing a slate of fake electors meant to overturn Pennsylvania’s electoral votes in the 2020 election.
Speaking at a Republican Party event in 2017, Kelly repeated the conspiracy theory that former president Barack Obama was running a “shadow government” to undermine trump.
In 2019, Kelly said that, as a person of Irish and Anglo-Saxon descent, he considers himself a “person of color.”
Rep. Mario Rafael Díaz-Balart Caballero, R.- Fla., was elected to congress in 2002.
Díaz-Balart, 62, was born to Cuban parents. His aunt, Mirta Díaz-Balart, was the first wife of Cuban president Fidel Castro. His uncle is the Cuban-Spanish painter Waldo Díaz-Balart.
Díaz-Balart supported trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, after Comey would not stop the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election. “It is clear that Director Comey had lost the confidence of the deputy attorney general, attorney general, and the president. Unfortunately, he became a controversial and divisive figure,” Diaz-Balart said.
Diaz-Ballert attended a January 2018 meeting on immigration reform when Trump expressed opposition to immigration from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries — which he reportedly called “shithole countries.” Díaz-Balart did not say whether the alleged incident took place.
After the bloody, Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Feb. 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida, Díaz-Balart said gun control legislation would not be effective at stopping mass shootings.
Rep. Alexander Xavier Mooney, R-W.Va., has been in congress since 2015, and was the first Hispanic person elected to Congress from West Virginia.
Mooney’s mother, Lala, was a Cuban refugee who escaped political imprisonment at age 21, shortly after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
After the Capitol riot, Mooney, 52, supported the objection to certifying Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and claimed that Pennsylvania violated election laws, ignored its constitution and that the “legislature was subverted.” A Charleston Gazette-Mail editorial board charged him with “subverting democracy” and said that he and Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., were complicit in the Capitol attack by their unwavering support of Trump.
In May 2022, the House Ethics Committee released a report accusing Mooney of accepting an all-expenses paid vacation from a campaign contributor and vendor as well as the use of a company house near Capitol Hill for official and campaign work; numerous accounts of using congressional and campaign staff for personal and family errands; and obstructing investigators, lying and doctoring evidence.
Rep. Carl LeRoy “Buddy” Carter is a pharmacist who was elected to congress in 2015.
After the Capitol riot, Carter, 66, voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election and said it “will be a cold day in hell” before he apologizes for it.
Carter said the Bible should be taught in school and same-sex marriage should be illegal.
Rep. Harold Dallas Rogers, R-Ky., has been in congress for 42 years. In 2001 the City of Williamsburg, Ky., named their new water park and miniature golf facility the Hal Rogers Family Entertainment Center.
Rogers, 86, was called a “national disgrace” by the National Review and Rolling Stone named him one of America’s “Ten Worst Congressmen” for steering federal homeland security money away from large cities to his home district, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. In 2007 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named Rogers to its list of the Most Corrupt Members of Congress.
Rogers has a 92 percent rating from the Christian Coalition and a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign regarding his voting record on LGBT rights.
Rep. Felix Barry Moore, R-Ala., has been in congress since 2021. In 1998, Moore, 57, founded Barry Moore Industries, a waste hauling company.
On January 10, 2021, Moore posted on his Twitter account, a false claim about the election having been stolen. Moore also posted about the killing of Ashli Babbitt at the Capitol riot, saying that a black officer shooting a white female veteran “doesn’t fit the narrative.”
In February 2023, Moore co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Rep. Lauren Boebert, and former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., to designate the “AR-15-style rifle” the National Gun of the United States.
Rep. Daniel Alan Webster, R-Fla., has been in Congress since 2017.
After graduation from college, Webster’s Vietnam War student deferment expired and he became eligible for conscription but was not drafted because foot problems prevented him from standing for long periods.
Webster, 74, owns and operates the family air conditioning and heating business.
In 1990, Webster sponsored legislation introducing the policy of covenant marriage to make divorce between even two consenting individuals much harder, except in cases of infidelity. Webster has a “0” rating from the Human Rights Campaign regarding his voting record on LGBT-related matters.
Rep. Gary James Palmer, R-Ala., has been in congress since 2015. A member of the far right House Freedom Caucus, he opposes same-sex marriage, because “No one can change the fundamental nature of what marriage is: the union of a man and a woman and the formation of a family which is the foundation of every civilization.”
When working in Washington, D.C., Palmer sleeps at his office on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Diana Lynn Harshbarger, R-Tenn., a pharmacist, was elected to congress in 2021.
During the Republican primary, she was criticized over her alleged involvement with American Inhalation Medication Specialists (AIMS), a business her husband, Robert, ran that sold mislabeled pharmaceuticals from China. In 2013 Robert Harshbarger pleaded guilty to fraud charges related to the company and was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, in addition to over $800,000 in restitution and over $400,000 in asset forfeiture.
Harshbarger, 63, supports resolutions to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew M. Graves.
Rep. John Rice Carter, R-Texas, has been in congress since 2003. Carter, 82, was elected to be a district court judge in 1981 and was reelected four times.
On June 12, 2009, Carter co-sponsored a bill to require presidential candidates to show a birth certificate. The bill was introduced as a result of “birther” conspiracy theories that claimed that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen.
Rep. Eric Alan “Rick” Crawford, R-Ark., was elected to congress in 2011.
Crawford, 57, was a radio announcer, businessman, and Army veteran. In 1993, Crawford was seriously injured in a rodeo accident and later transitioned into a career in radio announcing for the rodeo. He also launched a music career, and has been called a “singing cowboy.” He owned the AgWatch Network, a farm news network heard on 39 radio stations in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
On Nov. 8, 2019, Crawford temporarily resigned his seat on the House Intelligence Committee to be replaced by Rep. Jim Jordan, so that Jordan could lead trump’s public impeachment hearings. Crawford said he would resume his position once the “impeachment hoax” ended.
Rep. Michael Dennis Rogers, has served in Congress since 2013.
After trump’s first indictment, Rogers, 65, called the proceedings a “sham” and called for the resignation of district attorney Alvin Bragg.
Rogers opposed expanding federal hate crime law to include crimes committed against LGBTQ people and also called for the U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations in the wake of Brexit.
Rogers is a Commander of the Order of the Star of Romania.
Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., a member of Congress since 2021, was the only member of Illinoi’s GOP congressional delegation who did not condemn the October 2022 bloody attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Trump also has remained silent.
A member of the Freedom Caucus, Miller, 64, accused Biden of having a plan to “flood our country with terrorists, fentanyl, child traffickers, and MS-13 gang members” and said that “under President Biden’s leadership the left has weaponized the federal government to go after the American people. We face an unprecedented assault on the American way of life by the radical left.”
Miller has called for the return of the role of God in public schools and supports Christian nationalism. She encourages right-wing Christians to run for office because “we need people that fear God, that believe they can’t hide from God, and ultimately they’re going to give account to God; those are the best people to hold [elected] positions.”
Two days into her House term, Miller spoke to the conservative group, “Moms for America,” and quoted Adolf Hitler, saying: “Each generation has the responsibility to teach and train the next generation. You know, if we win a few elections, we’re still going to be losing unless we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing: he said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”
The comments drew widespread condemnation.
Rep. Brian Jeffery Mast, R-Fla., has been a congressman since 2017. A veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, Mast lost both his legs while serving as an Army explosive ordnance disposal technician in Afghanistan in 2010.
During the 2017–18 election campaign, Mast’s campaign received thousands of dollars from Soviet-born Igor Fruman, one of two business associates of Rudy Giuliani. Fruman pleaded guilty to a campaign finance law violation in September 2021 and was sentenced to a one-year prison. Mast’s spokesman said he would disburse the funds from Fruman to the Treasury Department but less than two weeks later, Mast said, “I think we donated it to charity.”
In August 2020 Mast apologized for what he called “disgusting and inappropriate jokes” that he made on Facebook in 2009 and 2011 responding to a friend and later campaign manager about sex with 15-year-old girls in South Africa and an end-of-the-world pick-up line involving rape or murder.
Rep. Mark Edward Green, R-Tenn., has been in Congress since 2019. Green, 59, a West Point grad, was nominated by trump to be secretary of the army. The appointment was later withdrawn.
Green said he would “not tolerate” students learning about Muslim beliefs and practices. He rejects the scientific consensus that human activity plays a key role in climate change and is a creationist who denies the theory of evolution.
Green is part of the trump campaign’s Tennessee leadership team.
Rep. Gregory Francis Murphy, R-N.C., was elected to congress in 2019.
Murphy, 60, is a urologist who was once a medical missionary. During the 2020 presidential campaign, Murphy claimed on Twitter that Biden “obviously is fighting the ravages of dementia.”
In an October 2020 tweet, Murphy called Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris a “walking disaster” who “was only picked for her color and her race.”
In June 2022, Murphy tweeted about the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the case of rape, when he said, “no one forces anyone to have sex.”
Rep. John Roger Williams, R-Texas, was elected to congress in 2013.
Williams, 74, supported trump’s 2017 ban on entry to the U.S. of citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, calling it a “commonsense” measure and saying that opponents “are lost in the political correctness of this.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Williams’s car dealership in Weatherford, Texas, received a loan of between $1 million and $2 million as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP); the loan was later forgiven.
Williams opposed legislation introduced by Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., to require all PPP loans to be made public. “A socialist wants you to get a check from the government…a capitalist wants you to get a check from the place that you work,” Williams said.
Williams owns the dealership that he inherited. With a net worth of $27.7 million, Williams was listed as the 22nd wealthiest member of Congress in 2018.
Rep. William Gregory Steube, R-Fla., has been in congress since 2019.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Steube argued that the “deep state” at the FDA was preventing the usage of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, to treat COVID-19. Trump infamously also promoted the drug as a treatment but the drug’s use was not proven to help.
A new study shows that use of hydroxychloroquine to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the early stages of the pandemic may be responsible for thousands of deaths. In a study published this week in the journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy , French researchers found that 17,000 people died across six countries because they depended on the drug. Researchers say this is because the drug was used in lieu of more effective treatments, and the potential cardiovascular issues it can cause as a side effect.
Steube voted for a moratorium on aid to Ukraine.
Rep. Lance Carter Gooden, R-Texas, has been in congress since 2019.
On March 3, 2021, Gooden was the only House Republican to vote for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed 220–212. Later that evening, he tweeted that he voted for the bill “accidentally” because he pushed the wrong button.
“Of course I wouldn’t support the radical left’s, Anti-Police Act,” Gooden said.
Rep. Patrick Edward Fallon, R-Texas, has been a member of congress since 2021. Fallon 56, is president and chief executive officer of Virtus Apparel, a company that specializes in clothing of military and patriotic design.
While a state lawmaker, Fallon co-authored a 2013 Texas law that allows students and employees of independent school districts to say “Merry Christmas” rather than the secular “Happy Holidays.” Fallon vowed to make T-shirts with a Christmas theme for pupils to wear on the day before the holiday break.
Fallon was named as part of the trump’s Texas leadership team.
Rep. William Joseph Posey, R-Fla., was elected to congress in 2009.
Posey, 76, supports the birther conspiracy theory that Obama was ineligible to be president. He also supports the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. He wrote a foreword for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2015 book “Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak,” which claimed the disproven theory that thimerosal causes autism.
Rep. Randall Keith Weber, R-Texas, has been in congress since 2013. Weber, 70, tweeted during Obama’s State of the Union speech, that Obama was “Kommandant-In-Chef” [sic] and “the Socialist dictator.”
In April 2015, Weber met with Aleksandr Torshin, the alleged handler for Russian spy Maria Butina, according to documents reviewed by the Center for the National Interest.
Rep. Addison Graves “Joe” Wilson Sr., R-S.C., has been a congressman for 22 years.
Wilson, 76, was reprimanded by Congress in 2009 after he interrupted a speech by Obama to a joint session of Congress, shouting, “You lie!” Wilson was an aide to Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who was notorious for his support of racism and white superiority.
Wilson was named after Confederate brigadier general David A. Weisiger, the uncle of his great-great-grandmother, and his great-great-grandfather Stephen H. Boineau owned 16 slaves.
In 2003, Wilson publicly doubted claims by Essie Mae Washington-Williams, Thurmond’s black maid, who said that she was Thurmond’s daughter, born out of wedlock. Wilson said even if the story were true, Washington-Williams should not have revealed it because “it’s a smear” on Thurmond’s image and was a way to “diminish” Thurmond’s legacy.
Rep. Robert George Good, R-Va., has been in congress since 2020.
Good, 58, rejected public health measures to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. He did not wear a face covering or encourage the wearing of face coverings at campaign events, and opposed restrictions on businesses to slow the spread of the virus. Good said wearing face coverings might be harmful and said the pandemic was a “phony” conspiracy Democrats had created to steal the election.
Rep. Brian Philip Babin, R-Texas, is a dentist who has been in congress since 2015.
After the 2020 presidential election, Babin, 75, texted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the outcome of the election and urged Meadows to “[f]ight like hell and find a way. We’re with you down here in Texas and refuse to live under a corrupt Marxist dictatorship. Liberty!” Babin was named as part of the trump campaign’s Texas leadership team.
After the 1996 election, Babin became involved in a campaign finance scandal concerning $37,000 in illegal donations from businessman Peter Cloeren that were laundered through “vehicles” to circumvent the individual contribution limit of $1,000.
Rep. James Richard Baird, R-Ind., has been in congress since 2018.
Baird, 78, has a PhD in animal science monogastric nutrition. While in the Army, Baird was nicknamed “pig farmer” by fellow infantrymen because of his passion for breeding pigs.
In 2023, LegiStorm’s Worst Bosses Index ranked Baird as the second worst member of congress for highest staff turnover.
Rep. Douglas Lawrence Lamborn, R-Color., has been a member of congress for 16 years.
Lamborn, 69, said during a 2011 radio discussion on the debt crisis, that he didn’t “even want to have to be associated with President Obama. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get it, you’re stuck, and you’re a part of the problem now and you can’t get away.”