You Can't Expect GOP Rep. Maria Salazar To Remember What Bills She Did Or Didn't Vote For When She's Busy Taking Credit For Them

Come watch a worm squirm. It's like National Geographic.

Republican House Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar from Miami had a little sit down with CBS News Miami's Jim DeFede this weekend. It did not go well. It turns out DeFede is an actual journalist.

Salazar is one of the many Republicans who like to take credit for all the good from the bipartisan infrastructure deal, except she didn’t actually vote for it. Only 13 out of 200 House Republicans at the time supported the legislation. They had their reasons, which were dumb and spiteful. That’s enough for Fox News but it doesn’t help much when you need to deliver tangible results to your constituents.

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The infrastructure law generated some great new projects near Salazar’s southern Miami district. So has the CHIPS & Science Act, which the Democratic-controlled House passed in 2022. The current MAGA mad House doesn’t pass bills, but it can show you some shocking pictures of Hunter Biden’s penis.

A whopping 24 Republicans voted for CHIPS, but Salazar wasn’t one of them, either. Maybe she thinks technology is communist.

During the interview, DeFede confronted Salazar about how she likes to buttress her LinkedIn profile with legislation she did nothing to help pass.

“Last month you were at [Florida International University] when you presented a check for $650,000 to help small businesses at FIU. But you voted against the bill that gave the money that you then signed a check for and handed and had a photo op — the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. You voted against that bill.”

Here’s where Salazar feigned amnesia. Maybe she did vote for the bill. Who could say what she voted for and when? Is she supposed to keep track? She’s a busy woman.

“Right now, you have to give me more details,” she said while probably desperate that he wouldn’t. “But I do know that every time I have an opportunity to bring money to my constituents, I do so.”

She should’ve known that would bite her. DeFede reminded her that she’d voted against the CHIPS & Science Act, and Salazar then boasted that she’d brought $40 million back to her district. That was another questionable statement to make in DeFede’s presence.

“The money that you talk about — the $40 million that you bring back to the district—sometimes that money comes from bills that you voted against,” DeFede said. “You voted against the CHIPS Act and yet you praise the fact that the South Florida climate resilience tech hub is going to be started in Miami, right? You voted against the infrastructure bill and you talk about all the money that comes back to the airport.”

Salazar shared photos last year of the work being done to modernize Miami International Airport. “A big thank you to Miami International Airport and American Air for showing my District Office team and interns the impressive facilities at Miami International Airport!” she posted on social media without mentioning the source of the funding, which she’d opposed.

DeFede kept hammering her: “So at the same time that you're taking credit for the money that you bring back to the district — in Washington, you're voting against these projects on party-line votes.”

And now, a tap dance …

“Listen I, that was, I think, last cycle, I cannot really remember right now, but just look, just look at the Americas Act … I mean right now, and I’m not trying to be a politician, there’s so many bills that I’ve introduced and I know that many of them …. OK. Sometimes I vote, and sometimes I don’t, but let’s look at the positive, let’s look at the $40 million that I brought, and let’s look at the dignity.”

There was no dignity to find on Salazar’s end, but DeFede needs to interview every Republican every day until they’re all out of office. He’s damn good.

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