Welcome to what is the 815th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where we’ll be discussing the sitting U.S. House Representative from Arkansas 1st Congressional District, Eric “Rick” Crawford, who was first elected to that office in… you guessed it, the 2010 Tea Party Wave. Crawford was formerly a news anchor and agriculture reporter before running for office, and still seems like he’s laying fertilizer when he makes public statements. Perhaps the most ridiculous one we’ve seen from Crawford came in August of 2017, when he spoke out in defense of Confederate monuments, and felt that removing them “would lead to closing the Holocaust museum”.
”These people want to sanitize history and make it politically correct so that everybody can breathe easy and not feel any level of offense. This global history sanitation movement that basically says all of these statues have to come down because they might offend some people. At what point are we gonna shut down the Holocaust Museum? Is that on the agenda at any point, because it makes people uncomfortable? I mean, it never stops.”
And if there’s one thing that’s fine it’s conflating a museum commemorating victims of Nazi violence with Confederate monuments that serve as tributes to slavery and white supremacy.
Rick Crawford also got our attention back in 2015 when he responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges by saying that:
“The opinion of five lawyers, not elected by the American people, should not and cannot define what millions of Americans affirm as the true and divine institution of marriage.”
Ah yes… the justices are just “lawyers not elected” when they do things you don’t like. How cute, Rick.
Anyway, Crawford also denies the science behind climage change, saying there are “questions about the validity” into the research (that 98% of climate scientists agree is solid), and in January of 2017, came out in support of Donald Trump’s proposed “Muslim ban”. Crawford continued wanking to Trump’s craziness, by claiming the Mueller Report wasn’t finding anything but had cost taxpayers $10 million (which ignores the profit it actually made in seizing Paul Manafort’s ill-gotten assets).
In November of 2019, Rick Crawford furthered his fanatical support of Trump, calling the impeachment inquiry a “impeachment hoax”, and resigning his place on the House Intelligence Committee to cede his place on it instead to… Congressman Jim Jordan.
So… yeah… we have Rick Crawford to thank for that. If you’re not getting the idea about how hard right this guy leans, here’s the highlights of his voting record over the past decade:
- On January 5th, 2011, Rep. Crawford votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
- On February 18th, 2011, Rick Crawford votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
- March 17th, 2011: Rep. Crawford votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
- September 15th, 2012: Rep. Crawford votes for the “No More Solyndras Act”.
- September 21st, 2012: Crawford votes for the “Stop the War on Coal Act”.
- February 28th, 2013: Crawford votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
- June 19th, 2013: Rick Crawford votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
- September 30th, 2013: Rep. Crawford votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown.
- Feb 26th, 2014: Rick Crawford goes “all in” on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the “Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act”.
- July 10th, 2014: Crawford votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
- January 22nd, 2015: Rick Crawford votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
- February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Crawford votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
- March 3rd, 2015: Crawford votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
- September 11th, 2015: Crawford votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Crawford votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
- November 19th, 2015: Crawford votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to 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.
- February 2nd, 2016: Rick Crawford votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- February 16th, 2017: Crawford 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: Rick Crawford 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.
- May 4th, 2017: Crawford votes for the GOP’s healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as “pre-existing conditions”. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Crawford 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: Rick Crawford 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: Crawford 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: Rick Crawford 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: Rep. Crawford 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.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Crawford voted against HR 648, because he was gleeully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Crawford votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 7th, 2019: Crawford votes against HR 183, a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism as a hateful extension of intolerance.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Crawford votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Rick Crawford is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote 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 17th, 2019: Crawford votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Crawford votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Rick Crawford votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- December 3rd, 2019: Rick Crawford 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.
Rick Crawford has already announced he will be running for a sixth term in office in 2020, and it seems like he’s going to do his best to keep a lower profile and let proxies like Jim Jordan get all the negative headlines for him during the impeachment inquiry. Arkansas’ 1st Congressional District has a +17 Republican lean these days, so it’s not like he’s going anywhere unless he gets a primary challenger to upset him. We still think he’s a great testament against incumbency being something to hold as a positive.
One Year Ago, December 25th, 2018: Dennis Hof (NV)
Two Years Ago, December 25th, 2017: Bob Marshall (VA)… 2017 Update
Three Years Ago, December 25th, 2016: Bob Marshall (VA)… 2016 Update
Four Years Ago, December 25th, 2015: Bob Marshall (VA)… 2015 Update Five Years Ago, December 25th, 2014: Bob Marshall (VA)… Original Profile