On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the U.S. House Representative from California’s 1st Congressional District, Doug LaMalfa, one of the dumbest deniers of climate change on Capitol Hill, who actually cites a promise that God made to Noah in the Book of Genesis as proof against the phenomenon, and wants to eliminate carbon dioxide restrictions from the EPA, viewing it as “taking away plant food from the atmosphere”. He also compared IRS commissioner Lois Lerner to “the Republic of Korea”, which is actually SOUTH Korea while grilling her in hearings about the IRS scandal. LaMalfa speaks before Congress, lying and claiming that “We know now that one of the terrorists who participated in the attack on Paris last Friday entered Europe by posing as a refugee.” (Fact-checking the Congressman: The terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.) Oh, and he also went conspiracy theorist regarding the money repaid to Iran that was frozen in banks in the Iranian Revolution in 1979, but returned interest-free in 2016, saying it was a secret delivery done “in the dark of the night on a pallet” (the Obama administration announced it was done six months prior to LaMalfa’s freak out on the House floor.).
Inexplicably, Doug LaMalfa won a third tem in office in 2016 with 59% of the vote over Democrat Jim Reed. Since, he’s been a tireless defender of Donald Trump, no matter how grievously stupid the President or his family might be. In August OF 2017 alone, LaMalfa dug in deep on the most indefensible of reports… the first being his attempts to make the talk of the Trump campaign colluding with Russia go away by just declaring it “a load of crap”. Now, never mind that Donald Trump Jr. already released e-mails that show he wanted the Russians’ help in gathered intelligence detrimental to Hillary Clinton… apparently LaMalfa wouldn’t know a turd if it hit him in the face (which might be an improvement). But no, that wasn’t all. After Donald Trump’s utterly revolting remarks following white supremacists marching in Charlottesville that led to the death of Heather Howeyer, and Trump’s claims that there were “many fine people there” or that “both sides” were responsible for the violence…
Doug LaMalfa actually tried saying Trump’s response was fine because he had a long track record of speaking out against white supremacists. (HINT: Trump doesn’t, and even when he does, it’s after reporters have to PLEAD with him and say something bad about people as evil as David Duke after days or weeks of sidestepping it.)
And speaking of Doug LaMalfa always getting Donald Trump’s back… he defended the Trump regime’s family separation policy when they began locking migrant children seeking asylum, some toddlers, in cages. We knew he hated immigrants, but he’s “all-in” on the subject for someone who supposedly represents a district in a blue state.
Now, while we’re at it, let’s look and see what sorts of legislative embarrassments LaMalfa has gone in on:
- February 16th, 2017: LaMalfa votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
- March 16th, 2017: Doug LaMalfa votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order. We feel safer already.
- March 28th, 2017: Rep. LaMalfa votes for SJ Res 34, which allowed internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses. Well, so much for privacy.
- May 4th, 2017: LaMalfa votes for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), post-partum depression, or prior sexual assault. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that LaMalfa would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Doug LaMalfa votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- October 3rd, 2017: LaMalfa votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- December 19th, 2017: Rep. LaMalfa votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
- February 18th, 2018: LaMalfa and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
Now, with Doug LaMalfa putzing about, working against the interests of the voters of his district, and defending a president with record low approval ratings because, well, he’s a sociopathic ***hole… you would probably guess that his town halls in California’s 1st have not gone well. Even if that district has a +10 Republican lean, and is atypical for what you’d expect for California… maybe people there aren’t livid, right? OH NO. They are downright PISSED. And LaMalfa can’t handle it. He walked out in the middle of a town hall in front of hundreds of constituents that were booing him back in April of 2017, and decided to regroup and host another town hall months later in a more controlled environment… at an Elks Lodge where he figured he would only see more conservative members of his constituency and fewer people ,overall. Well, that didn’t work either, as an elderly man who lives off of Medicaid grilled Rep. LaMalfa about his vote for Trumpcare and all the people who would have died if it had made it through the Senate. LaMalfa still felt his decision was justified, and the questioner walked away from his Congressman after cursing him, “May you die in pain.”
Doug LaMalfa, even with that +10 lean, is looking like he’s in trouble in 2018, and his opponent, Audrey Denney, embodies this part of California without having to throw on a chapeau to fake it. She is a grape farmer, cattle rancher, and an ovarian cancer survivor, and seems to have every quality you would want in a candidate to pull the upset. She performed well in a debate between the two candidates, and we’re hoping she pulls a big upset here in a few weeks’ time, to send a fake cowboy like LaMalfa packing.