A.G. Gancarski
Freshman U.S. Congressman John Rutherford has been in Congress since January. And he sees a lot of work ahead — with one primary obstruction being in the U.S. Senate.
Voters “still expect the Republican Party and Congress to get done the things we said we were going to get done: health care, tax reform, transportation, and infrastructure,” the first-term Jacksonville Republican said Wednesday.
Rutherford then clarified what he thought a major impediment to that was: the 60 vote cloture rule in the Senate.
“I think it’s so important that the Senate jettison this arcane 60 vote cloture rule,” Rutherford said, as that rule “subverts the will of the public, because the will of the public was we would have a Republican majority in the Senate.”
“That puts itself back in alignment with the will of the people,” Rutherford said, “and would allow us to pass health care, tax reform, transportation, and infrastructure, the way we told the American people we were going to.”
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Rutherford also addressed a couple of other topics beyond a change in Senate rules, including President Donald Trump‘s Special Prosecutor, Robert Mueller.
“One of the challenges you run into with these special prosecutors is that they can go anywhere they want. If they can’t find any collusion with the Russians, then they need to end their investigation.”
Rep. Ron DeSantis filed an amendment to a spending bill that would defund the prosecution 180 days after that bill became law, but Rutherford was not familiar with that amendment — and his position was less absolutist than that of DeSantis regarding the investigation.
“I wouldn’t put a time limit with regards to looking for Russian collusion with the Trump campaign,” Rutherford said. “In hacking or affecting the election, there shouldn’t be a time limit on that.”
“But once they’ve run down — they’ve pulled the thread on all the evidence they have or suspicion they have, then they need to wrap it up.”
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Finally, Rutherford addressed the President’s Tweet gaffes, noting that Trump’s unclear communication only gave the media ammunition against him.
“The least favorite thing I have of what the President does is Tweet. Because I don’t think he’s able to communicate clearly and concisely enough through that process that a media that is bent on making him look bad is going to use that against him,” Rutherford said Wednesday.
When asked why the media is trying to make Trump look bad — the President’s agenda or his personality — Rutherford said it was a “little bit of both.”
