On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, as well as 2023, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for North Carolina’s 9th District, Richard Hudson, who is one of the Birthers among the Republican caucus, having once told an assembled crowd that “President Obama is hiding something about his birth certificate”, and called for legislation to investigate it.
Hudson also not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the vote came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. He also took part in the 2014 GOP efforts to stir up fears over Ebola, calling for both a travel ban, and writing an official letter to blame the outbreak on President Obama. Hudson also voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, and during debate about the SNAP food stamp program, called for drug testing on welfare recipients to be implemented nationally (since it’s done so well failing as a practice at the state level). Richard Hudson has been quite the conspiracy theory lover during his time in the House, already demanding answers about Benghazi, the non-scandal that was the “IRS Scandal”, and trying to cut funding towards the implementation of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 treaty.
During the GOP's faux-outrage over the Planned Parenthood "sting" videos supplied by the Center for Medical Progress that were proven to be edited to mislead the public, Hudson not only voted to defund the organization, but boldly proclaimed himself as believing that life begins at conception. While Congress was mostly quiet through a tumultuous 2016 election campaign (and with some of the fewest working days in Congressional history), Rep. Hudson spent most of the year demonizing the Environmental Protection Agency, including trying to block any restrictions they might place on Motorsports events, playing up this fight to the folks in his district whose passion for NASCAR surpass the needs of the planet itself. In July when he decided to target employees of the EPA by filing an amendment into their funding that would prevent any of their employees from flying on an airplane as a part of their job (like to places to conduct investigations of wrongdoing by anyone, y'know, ignoring EPA standards and polluting) as well as restricting any of these criminal enforcement employees from owning a gun they might need to do their jobs.
Our update for 2019 on Richard Hudson will include simply this moment… one of his first votes in Congress back in 2013 was to vote against Disaster Relief for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. We thought at the time that it seemed like there would be some hypocrisy coming on that vote, because after all, North Carolina, where Rep. Hudson is from, frequently is impacted by hurricane damage. And so it was that after Hurricane Florence this year, that he quite predictably wrote letters to Donald Trump to beg for him to allocate disaster relief to his district.Because of course this hypocritical little s*** did.
Hudson’s actions as a legislator over the past several years say it all:
- January 22nd, 2019: Hudson cannot be arsed to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
- December 3rd, 2019: Richard Hudson is one of 71 Republicans who vote against House Resolution 546, which stated disapproval of any attempt to readmit the Russian federation back into the G7 and make it the G8.
- December 19th, 2019: Richard Hudson votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of glaring evidence of abuse of power.
- December 10th, 2020: Hudson signs his name to an amicus brief to the Supreme Court, begging them to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The same election that he won re-election in.
- January 7th, 2021: Richard Hudson votes for the objection to the electoral college’s votes in the 2020 election, a failure to send any sort of message that he wasn’t intimidated or sympathetic to those who attacked the Capitol to attempt a violent coup.
- January 8th, 2021: News that one of the capitol police officers passes away from injuries inflicted by domestic terrorists two days earlier comes out, and Hudson offers his ”prayers” the same way Republicans do when a mass shooting they could probably have prevented with simple gun control measures being passed. In both examples, his words are meaningless.
- January 13th, 2021: Rep. Hudson votes against the second impeachment of Donald Trump, because accountability is anathema to his party, even after a failed coup attempt that results in the deaths of police officers.
- February 25th, 2021: Hudson votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Hudson votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 10th, 2021: Hudson votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Hudson votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).*]May 19th, 2021: Rep. Hudson votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
- November 5th, 2021: Richard Hudson votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
- May 18th, 2022: Richard Hudson is one of 192 Republicans who votes against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
- May 18th, 2022: Rep. Hudson votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
- May 19th, 2022: Hudson votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
- July 15th, 2022: Richard Hudson votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcement by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.“
- July 13th, 2022: Hudson votes against the Honoring Our PACT Act, to provide healthcare to veterans affected by toxic burn pits while serving in the War on Terror that leave them more susceptible to forms of cancer.
- July 19th, 2022: Rep. Hudson is one of 157 Republicans who vote against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
- July 21st, 2022: Hudson is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
- December 1st, 2022: Rep. Hudson is one of 90 Republicans who vote against HR 6878, meaning he is perfectly fine with pregnant women in prison being placed in solitary confinement while claiming to be “pro-life”.
- December 6th, 2022: Hudson, embracing the GOP’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiment votes against HR 7946, which was meant to honor the promise to grant citizenship to immigrants who served in the United States Armed Forces.