Voters elected a new Congress on November 3. Randy Fine, the Republican who represents Florida's 6th District, says some of the people they chose are barbarians.
Fine went on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, the TV show of the Family Research Council, a Christian-right group. Right Wing Watch posted the clip on November 6, after Democrats won control of both chambers. Here is what Fine said in the clip, as Joe.My.God. transcribed it:
"There's some terrible, terrible people who are coming. They literally seek not only the destruction of Israel, but western civilization as we know it. The barbarians are no longer at the gates, they're well inside and some of them are going to serve in Congress. So now should be a time when we are all afraid because there are bad things on the horizon."
He didn't say who he meant. He didn't name one member-elect, one bill or one vote. He just told the country that people it had elected were barbarians and that everyone should be scared of them.
He has said this kind of thing before
When Randy Fine calls a group of people a threat to "Western civilization," we don't have to guess who he usually has in mind. He has a long, documented record of it.
- At a December 2025 congressional hearing, a witness said people are afraid of being called Islamophobic. Fine cut in: "I'm not afraid of that," then said, "I don't know how you make peace with those who seek your destruction. I think you destroy them first."
- In March 2026 he wrote: "We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational."
- In February 2026 he posted, "If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one." Democrats called for him to be censured or to resign.
- The Washington Post named him one of two Republicans in Congress calling for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the United States.
- In April 2026 he said on a podcast, "We don't want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress," about a challenger of Armenian heritage. Three days later he wrote on X: "Armenians should not serve in Congress. Neither should Somalis. Or Guatemalans. Or — wait for it — Israelis." He added, "If you are a citizen of a foreign country, you shouldn't serve in ours." (The challenger, Dan Bilzerian, also holds Armenian citizenship.)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations designated him an "anti-Muslim extremist" on its Islamophobia hate list.
That record matters for reading his new remark. Fine has already said who he thinks shouldn't serve in Congress. Now he says some of the people Americans just elected are "barbarians" who want to destroy Western civilization.
We've covered his record before. He went on TV and said "a Muslim terrorist runs the city of New York". He told a Republican donor summit that the "rise of Islam in America" was the elephant in the room, even though four Muslims serve in the House with him. And when federal agents searched Ilhan Omar's home, he cheered that Trump was working to "reunite Omar with her countrymen in Somalia". Omar has been a U.S. citizen since 2000.
Fear is the whole pitch
Look at the last line again: "Now should be a time when we are all afraid."
Fine isn't arguing with a policy. He isn't pointing to a vote he thinks is wrong. The new Congress hasn't even been sworn in yet. He's telling people to be afraid of the members who won.
He also wants to use the last two months of the Republican majority to push through as much of Trump's agenda as he can before the new members arrive. He said he'd stay "around the clock" to do it.
He works for everyone in his district, including the people he insults
Fine won another term on November 3. That means he represents every person in Florida's 6th District for two more years. That includes Muslim families, Armenian-American families, and the Democrats who voted for the candidates he now calls barbarians.
A congressman who tells the country to fear the people it just elected isn't defending anyone. He's teaching his supporters to see their neighbors as enemies.
What the record shows
Days after Democrats won Congress, Randy Fine said on the Family Research Council's TV show that "the barbarians are no longer at the gates, they're well inside, and some of them are going to serve in Congress," and told Americans "we are all afraid." He named no one. He has also posted that the choice between "dogs and Muslims" is "not a difficult one." He has said "we don't want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress." And the Washington Post named him one of two Republicans in Congress calling for the mass expulsion of Muslims.
