Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
- GOP Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar was questioned about major votes she's taken in the last few years.
- She's been touting the benefits of three major bills that she actually voted against.
- But Salazar appeared to forget how she even voted on the bills. "I need to ask my staff," she said.
On Sunday, Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida was asked about federal funding she's been bragging about bringing to her Miami-area district.
It didn't go so well.
In an interview with CBS Miami on Sunday, host Jim DeFede asked Salazar about her votes against three bills: an omnibus bill to fund the government for 2023, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Altogether, the bills account for roughly $3.1 trillion in government spending, some of which has benefited Salazar's district.
In one case, first reported by Business Insider, Salazar posed with a giant $650,000 check for a small business program development program that was funded by the 2023 omnibus.
But in the interview, Salazar indicated several times that she did not recall how she voted on all three of those bills.
"Right now, you have to give me more details," said Salazar, later adding: "I need to ask my staff."
"That was, I think, last cycle," she later said. "I cannot really remember right now."
At one point, Salazar grew frustrated with the line of inquiry from DeFede.
"Aren't you proud of me? Aren't you proud of the $40 million that I've brought?" she said.
WATCH: Rep. @MaElviraSalazar continues to take credit for projects brought to #FL27 made possible by bipartisan legislation she voted against like the CHIPS & Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
— Justin Chermol (@justin_chermol) January 28, 2024
When pressed by @CBSMiami, Salazar says she forgot how she voted. pic.twitter.com/ddoVWV5k7u
When asked about the small business program in December, Salazar was able to provide an explanation: that she had secured the community project funding for the program herself, even as she opposed the "reckless spending for an already bloated federal government" in the overall bill.
"I can celebrate this victory because I fought for it and put my name on this Community Funding project," Salazar said in a statement provided by her office at the time.
Beyond the omnibus, Salazar has celebrated funding for a local airport that came from the infrastructure bill, while highlighting climate resiliency efforts that were funded by the CHIPS and Science Act — both of which she opposed.
It's part of a broader pattern of what Democrats have dubbed "vote no, take the dough" — Republicans bragging about or celebrating government funding or other programs that they actually opposed when it was up for a vote.
In one case recently highlighted by BI, Republican Rep. Mike Garcia criticized the same omnibus bill that Salazar and nearly every other Republican voted against in December 2022 — only to begin bragging about the funding he'd brought home in a mailer to constituents this past summer.