Blum accuses Telegraph Herald editorial board member of “looking at [him] funny”
In case you forgot, Congressman Rod Blum was taken to task (over and over and over again) for his ignorant calls for the city of Washington DC to have a recession.
Asked recently about the incident by the editorial board of the Telegraph Herald (an editorial board that endorsed Blum last cycle), Blum decided to double-down on pro-recession message in an extremely defensive exchange.
Here’s a portion of the transcript (full audio):
7:23 Blum: Do you want to talk about the southern border? No, no. I want to talk about your tweet about tower cranes.
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7:37 Blum: I never get asked about it, though. I never get asked about it.
7:39 Interviewer 2: Well you aren’t the key candidate maybe, or the key person to talk to about that issue. You’re the only person we can talk to about the tweet that you sent. So, yeah.
7:46 Blum: About the tweet, that the Democrat Party sends an email out to you about and says, “Hey, let’s make this an issue. This is a big issue.”
7:54 Interviewer 2: Well, I mean if you have no qualms about it then I guess you just respond to it, but.
7:57 Blum: Obviously I don’t. I did it. I have qualms about the media being lapdogs for the Democrat Party, though. I have qualms about that. And so do a lot of people out there. FYI. It’s true.
8:10 Interviewer 1: So you send out a tweet, and then you’re asked about it, and then it’s part of a Democrat conspiracy. I guess I’m not just making that connection.
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8:30 Blum: So is this news? Is it news I send a tweet out?
Interviewer 1: I think it – I thought it was
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9:00 Blum: I get asked about the tower cranes though. They’re all tweets.
9:02 Interviewer 1: Well it wasn’t the tower cranes, specifically. It was suggesting that the District needed to experience a recession.
9:11 Blum: Yes. Yes. Federal government needs a recession. Correct. Yeah.
9:17 Interviewer 1: And so I would suggest it’s fair game to ask you about that
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9:44 Blum: So how are you going to write about this exchange here? Was I standoffish? Was I – because I’m sure it will be negative.
9:51 Interviewer 1: Wow, okay.
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9:54 Interviewer 3: Didn’t we endorse you?
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9:58 Interviewer 3: Yeah we did, so.
10:18 Blum: It isn’t just the TH. The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Des Moines Register. I mean I’m sure you all read each other. You all refer to each other. You know, um, I just don’t remember. I – yeah. That’s fine.
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10:31 Blum: Well you’re looking at me funny. I mean I don’t appreciate that. I don’t appreciate that. That’s kinda condescending. I don’t appreciate it.
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12:16 Blum: Media always, especially when you’re a Republican in a Democrat district, tries to make something that’s an issue, like the federal government being too big, into a negative. “Why did you tweet that a major American city should have a recession?” Let’s just, you know, let’s just turn it into a negative. Tweetgate. “Why do you communicate with your constituents?” That sounds like a negative. “You spent more than anybody else communicating with your constituents.” Thank you. That’s a positive. But it’s tried to be made into a negative. I get it! We know. We get the emails.
As if this is not unhinged enough, here is recent video of Blum glibly laughing about the limits to his public service and the $3,200 per month he pays to live in a luxury apartment in DC:
