A northern Wisconsin congressman who recently referred to Madison as a “communist community,” and incorrectly claimed that Dane County is the only county in the state checking ballots by hand in the presidential recount, isn’t apologizing. In fact, 7th District Republican Sean Duffy took to Twitter on Wednesday and pushed back at criticism of his comments.
Duffy was discussing the Wisconsin recount on Fox News last week. “We only have one county that’s hand-counting the votes, that’s Dane County which is the home of Madison, it’s the progressive, liberal, communist community of Madison,” Duffy said. “They’re taking as long as they can.” Duffy said the recount could disenfranchise Wisconsin voters.
“It’s a sad state of affairs for these Democrats who don’t believe in Democracy and freedom and free elections,” Duffy told Fox host Tucker Carlson. “They want to use politics to undermine the will of the voter.”
Duffy’s remarks drew some sharp comments from Madison Mayor Paul Soglin. “For years I’ve been listening to morons like Representative Duffy, who are resentful of the fact that Madison is Wisconsin’s economic engine,” Soglin said.
Second District Representative Mark Pocan represents Madison in Washington. Pocan posted Duffy’s remarks to his YouTube page, and wants his GOP colleague to apologize. “It’s not the way we’ve operated in Wisconsin,” Pocan said. “We’ve tried to work together well across party lines, and if he’s going to try to ‘Trump-ize’ Wisconsin I think that’s going to be a really bad day for how federal relations work and how we can benefit the state.”
Mayor Soglin was less interested in an apology. “I couldn’t care less,” he said. “It’s just a sad state of affairs that such ignorance is sitting in Washington, representing a fine part of the state of Wisconsin.”
It doesn’t appear Duffy has any interest in an apology either, as he took to Twitter on Wednesday and suggested that those offended by his comments didn’t get the joke. “The PC crowd is humorless,” he tweeted. “For those offended by my ‘communist’ comment, I’ll send a therapy dog to your ‘safe place’ of choice in Madison.”
In a separate tweet, Duffy called on Pocan and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin to accept the results of the election in Wisconsin and denounce the “frivolous recount.”
Also on Thursday, state elections officials reported that more than 70-percent of ballots cast in the presidential race have been recounted. The Wisconsin Elections Commission said 34 counties have completed their work already, and every county is on track to finish before a December 12th deadline. So far, Democrat Hillary Clinton has narrowed the margin between her and Republican president-elect Donald Trump by just 82 votes. Trump won the state by a margin of more than 22,000 votes.
The Elections Commission had earlier said that a majority of the state’s 72 counties were doing hand recounts of ballots.
