On this date in 2015, 2016, as well as 2017, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for South Carolina’s 3rd District, Jeff Duncan, who in that original spotlight, we discussed the fact that Rep. Duncan hung out with the very, very insane Rick Wiles to discuss his desire to investigate President Obama’s birth certificate, as well as the time he had Secretary of State John Kerry testifying at a Benghazi hearing and asked him why the United States embassy in Libya was smuggling arms to Syrian rebels (for which Kerry schooled him like a kindergarten teacher). Duncan has also warned against a federal gun registry, warning that it would be used so that liberals could hunt down every last gun owner and hack them to death with a machete, just like how “the Hutus slaughtered the Tutsis in Rwanda”. Duncan has also compared illegal immigrants to “vagrants and animals”, and responded to the Paris Terror attacks with a Twitter post that read, “How’s that Syrian refugee resettlement look now? How about that mass migration into Europe? Terrorism is alive & well in the world. #No” which conveniently assumed that attackers were refugees from Syria (when in fact, they were from France and Belgium). Duncan also gleefully participated in Chik-Fil-A Apprecation Day to support the fast food chain’s anti-gay support, denies climate change, and voted against Hurricane Sandy relief. Oh, and speaking of things we’ve covered in his voting record, Duncan has sponsored a bill to require women across the nation to be forced to undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound prior to getting an abortion and was a big supporter of the 2013 Government Shutdown, so much so that when the time came to reopen the government, Duncan voted to keep it closed. Our last note would be that upon the death of Antonin Scalia, Duncan was one of 27 Congressmen who sent a letter to Mitch McConnell immediately demanding the nomination of ANY Supreme Court Justice for the next year be blocked. On the 2015 anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting, Duncan got on social media to wonder if France would institute “knife control” because one teacher was injured in a stabbing the day prior.
And, in the twelve months since we last left Rep. Duncan, he has nearly thrown his back out carrying water for the Trump administration whenever possible, like in May of 2017 when he went on social media to demand apologies and retractions from CNN because they reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had conducted undisclosed meetings with the Russian Ambassador during the presidential transition period, claiming the story was false (it isn’t).
By October of 2017, Duncan’s rage against Trump critics wasn’t limited only to the media, but also to members of his own party, when he said any Republican who spoke ill of Trump had “drank the water” and was “part of the swamp”. Then again, you have to consider that perhaps Jeff Duncan is a deranged idiot, especially when in December of 2017, he still was saying that the GOP’s U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, Roy Moore, was “a man of high principle and steadfast character”, which is a rather flattering thing to say about a fanatical racist pedophile.
And, looking to his voting record, if you were wondering, yes, he’s still awful:
- March 14th, 2017: Duncan sponsors legislation to try to create more access to gun silencers to “protect the hearing” of gun enthusiasts.
- March 16th, 2017: Jeff Duncan 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. Duncan 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: Duncan 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), postpartum depression, or prior sexual assault.
Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Duncan 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: Jeff Duncan 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.
- September 8th, 2017: Rep. Duncan chooses to be one of 90 Republicans in Congress who votes against disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey.
- October 3rd, 2017: Duncan 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: Jeff Duncan 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.
South Carolina’s 3rd District which has a +19 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index and in 2016, Duncan won 72% of the vote to get re-elected to a fourth term in office. His challenger will be either Democrat Mary Geren, an award-winning educator and graduate of Clemson University, or Democrat Hosea Cleveland, who has twice failed to defeat Jeff Duncan in both 2014 and 2016. It’s going to take a lot to unseat Duncan in a very red district in one of the most conservative states in the union, but in 2018… anything could be possible for Democrats.