Hollywood— With a steady stream of threats to bodily harm, including threats of death, coming in regularly, it is no surprise that Rep. Randy Fine (R) has to travel to political events with an armed security detail.
During last weekend's Sunshine State Showdown event put on by the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF), Rep. Fine spoke to The Floridian about the need for traveling security, saying that it was "better to be safe than sorry," considering the rash of violent incidents that have occurred at political events over the past few years.
"It's better to be safe than sorry. There are a lot of people who want to come to an event like this to cause problems," said Rep. Fine. "You've got some of these sorts of losers who can't win their elections, so they just try to do PR stunts, and it's just better to be safe than sorry."
Rep. Fine did not identify a specific 'loser,' but it could be implied that he was referring to a couple of his Republican congressional opponents and gubernatorial candidate James Fishback.
We asked him about the security detail, specifically if it was being paid by the House of Representatives, and Fine pivoted away from answering the question directly.
"I don't like to talk about my security arrangements, but when you're me and you're the first member of Congress in American history to wear a yamaka, there's a lot of people who don't like it," added Fine.
Fine continued to harp on the antisemitic "bunch of losers" he had alluded to,
"There's a sort of competition by a bunch of losers to decide who can hate the Jews the most, I mean, if they were running as Democrats in San Francisco, they might do well, but I'm not super worried about my situation," he concluded.
Earlier this year, Fine released a disturbing antisemitic voicemail he received.
Hey, Randy Fine, you Nazi Jew F—. If I ever see you out in public, I will beat you to f—ing death and then shove that beanie that you wear on your [censored] racist, Israel-loving [censored] right up your ass, you stupid [censored] Jew-boy loving motherf—,” the caller said.
According to Fine, threats like this are part of the daily political grind for him.
