Congressman Randy Fine will take a dog to Tuesday’s State of the Union address to highlight his opposition to an official’s remark that pooches should be banned in New York City.
In a telephone town hall on Monday from Washington D.C., Fine announced that he will be taking his father to President Trump’s State of the Union address. Fine’s father is legally blind and uses a service dog.
While Fine was clearly proud to announce that his father would be attending with him, Fine also seemed to relish the idea that his father’s seeing eye dog will be there, too. This will be Fine’s first State of the Union as a Congressman. He is allowed to take one guest.
Fine said he had a “viral” moment last week when he announced that he was introducing a measure to preserve the right to own dogs in response to comments from an advisor to Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, who stated that because owning a dog as a pet violates Islamic law, dog ownership should be banned in the Big Apple.
“Having a dog is intrinsic to being America,” said Fine. “We are going to stand strong against the Islamification of America.”
Fine, who had 10,000 listeners on the line in his telephone town hall, also took on the affordability question, praising Trump’s tonic of tax cuts designed to provide relief for those earning between $55,000 to $80,000 per year.
In addition, Fine pointed the finger of blame at illegal immigrant for the high cost of living.
“Illegal aliens are the biggest drain on our economy today,” Fine said. “They drive up health care costs. They drive up grocery costs. They drive up the cost of your car insurance. The No. 1 thing we can do to make America affordable again is to deport every single one of them.”
The Melbourne Republican was elected in a special election last year. His district includes parts of Marion and Lake County, including the Historic Side of The Villages, the Marion County section of The Villages and Stonecrest.