GOP Rep Shouts At Dems: 'Go Back To Puerto Rico!'
Credit: Screen shot/You Tube
January 17, 2019

This is what happens when Fox News fries your brain, and then you marinate in right-wing propaganda all day. First you get tricked into agreeing to passing a bill to re-open government through February 28th by voice vote, and then you start shouting mean things.

In this case, the mean thing shouty person was Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), who some believed was shouting at newly-elected California representative Tony Cardenas to "Go back to Puerto Rico!"

But like all good Republicans, Smith had an excuse wrapped in a lie for what he said.

"Simply not true," Smith told a reporter for The Hill. "Was speaking to all the Democrats who were down vacationing in Puerto Rico last weekend during the shutdown, not any individual member."

Okay, let's get real here. The folks who took a FACT-FINDING MISSION to Puerto Rico last weekend were members of the Hispanic Caucus. It was not a vacation, but here's Smith spewing Fox News lies, even after Fox News' Jeanine Pirro was forced to retract them. That seems to be Fox News' latest way to dodge accountability: Spew the lie and then retract it, letting all the suckers who take everything they say and parrot it do the rest of the damage.

Jason Smith was just trumpeting bigoted lines at a Latino colleague in the U.S. House of Representatives. He should be disciplined for it. He should be required to issue a public apology to Cardenas, and he shouldn't be a part of Republican House leadership, as he is now. But they're so busy making Steve King the sacrificial lamb, they'll let the rest of them lie and slime and ooze all over the House of Representatives.

So, to review: Republicans were so anxious to get out of Washington, DC for the weekend that they screwed up and didn't request the yeas and nays, nor did they object to the voice vote, despite the fact that the floor was open for nearly a full minute after the vote with no Republican registering an objection. Indeed, it wasn't until Steve Scalise whined later that Steny Hoyer went back to the floor with a motion to vacate the resolution for a full vote next week.

These resolutions are dead in the water as long as Mitch McConnell refuses to do his job. But at least we can say that the Democrats have done theirs.

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