(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day: Brian Mast- 2023 Update [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-07 On this date in 2020, 2021, as well as 2022, “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” first profiled Brian Mast, who has served as the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida’s 18th Congressional District since 2016, based on his honorable service in the U.S. Army working in explosive ordinance and disposal, and we’ll salute him for her service to our nation in the role that cost him the use of his legs… And that’s about our limit for saying nice things about Brian Mast. During his first run for office in 2016, Mast was briefly linked with World Patent Marketing, a company that today no longer exists because the Federal Trade Commission shut it down because it was an invention promotion scam. World Patent Marketing donated a bunch of money to Mast's campaign fund and said in a press release that he sat on their advisory board. Mast has some convenient amnesia about his association with a professional scam outlet, saying he has no knowledge of being given a position on the board and said he only had a couple encounters with members of the company, at all. So that’s shady. But that’s not even as “shady as hell” as our next item… Back in 2018, Anthony Bustamante, a campaign consultant who worked on Mast's 2016 campaign, told The Wall Street Journal that as a member of the Mast campaign, had used data hacked from the Democratic National Committee by Guccifer 2.0, a front for Russia's GRU military intelligence service, to adjust Mast's campaign strategy. The hacked data had been leaked by Guccifer 2.0 to the HelloFLA blog, just to help Brian Mast win election to Congress. (This would seem to be the member of Congress who solicited help in the 2016 election from Russia that was mentioned in the Mueller Report.) And, not for nothing, but in 2019, Brian Mast was pressured into returning campaign donationS that he accepted from the quite dubious source that is Igor Fruman, as in the second half of “Lev and lgor the Russian guys arrested while trying to flee the country. Again, not a good look, and clearly got enough ties to Russia to be worn around Vladimir Putin’s neck. Now, after the Pulse Shooting and then the Parkland Shooting, most of the Florida Republican caucus has been careful regarding statements they have made about the massive uptick in gun violence in our country, because when that many people have died in mass shootings, it’s practically personal for most of the state… however Brian Mast isn’t that smart, and only two days after Parkland, he blamed the rampage on “video games and violent movies”. But we’re still not done with this creep. And we emphasize he’s a creep, especially given his idea of “humor”. Two “jokes” that turned up on Brian Mast’s Facebook page are particularly telling. Back in February of 2009, Rocco LeDonni, who is now Mast’s campaign manager, posted photos of himself in a bar in South Africa, and Mast commented, “I'm so proud of you... i hope you hook up with at least fifteen 15 year olds over there.... its legel there right.” Yes, he just encouraged his campaign manager to commit statutory rape. Two years later, in May of 2011, LeDonni posted, “Anyone have any good pick up lines for this weekend considering according to the crazy christian radio guy the world may end on Sunday?” And Mast responded that LeDonni should tell the target of his affections: It got more disgusting than even that, and we know, that shouldn’t be possible, but in Mast’s “apology”, Mast blamed his poor attempt on humor on his injuries in combat, and his campaign claimed the comments were posted while Mast was drugged up with “morphine, oxycodone, sleep sedatives, anti-inflammatories and anti-depressants” and therefore he wasn’t in his right mind when he made the comments … except he made the inappropriate “jokes” a year before he got his Purple Heart. So now he’s an outright liar, too… Mast was able to get re-elected with 63% of the vote, and return to Washington to do all of the stupid: Brian Mast has further tried to embody the “Florida Man” of the GQP, railing against Congressional mask mandates on the House floor, and putting everyone in Congress at risk of Covid-19. This was at a time when only 45% of the Republican caucus was vaccinated, and the Delta variant began surging. In other words, he’s probably thinking he could one day be elected Governor if he channels Ron DeSantis enough. After redistricting, Brian Mast decided to abandon FL-18, and instead, run for office in FL-21 in the U.S. House instead, whose new configuration has +7 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. He won re-election with 63% of the vote… Because… well… Florida’s gotta Florida we guess. 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