Cong. Fine Should be Kicked Out of Congress For his Anti-Armenian Racist Remarks — By Harut Sassounian

Randy Fine, a Jewish-American Republican Congressman from Florida, made a highly insulting remark by telling the audience on a nationwide podcast — the Jenny Beth Show — on April 30, “We don’t want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress.”

Cong. Fine made this controversial comment while criticizing Dan Bilzerian, a social media influencer with 29.6 million Instagram followers and a U.S. veteran, who is running against him in the Republican Primary in Florida. Pres. Trump has endorsed Fine, calling him a “MAGA Warrior.”

Fine said that Bilzerian “lives in Las Vegas when he’s not in his foreign country of Armenia. But you know, he’s just a terrible anti-Semite. I think what he’s trying to show is that this group of hate-filled lunatics and losers can take hold in the Republican Party…. The little Armenian said, I think that President Trump was a pedophile rapist who should be impeached. That’s not a winning argument. It may work in Armenia, where he’s from, but that’s not an argument. That’s not gonna work in the United States. So, it’s bad. We have to take it seriously because we don’t want this to take root in our party. We don’t want Armenians to be able to serve in Congress. But I’m not gonna lose too much sleep about it.” Bilzerian is not from Armenia. He was born in Tampa, Florida, and became a dual citizen of Armenia in 2018.

If Cong. Fine had simply criticized Bilzerian because he did not like his controversial views, that would have been understandable. However, targeting all Armenians because of his disagreement with one Armenian-American is completely unacceptable and foolish. This is pure and simple racism. Fine was rebuked by several members of Congress, including Cong. Brad Sherman (Democrat-CA), Cong. Laura Friedman (Democrat-Ca), Cong. Brendan Boyle (Democrat-PA), and Cong. Delia Ramirez (Democrat-Illinois). Fine was also criticized by several members of the U.S. media, and online commentators.

“This isn’t just racist — it’s disqualifying,” stated ANCA National Grassroots Director Gev Iskajyan. “Saying Armenians shouldn’t be allowed to serve in Congress is blatant bigotry. No elected official who traffics in this kind of hate should be running for office.”

Rather than apologizing for his unsavory remarks, Fine doubled down on his insults by posting on X two days later: “Armenians should not serve in Congress. Neither should Somalis. Or Guatemalans. Or — wait for it — Israelis.” He made matters worse by adding several other nationalities to his racist remarks.

How would Jewish Cong. Fine feel if someone says: “We don’t want Jews to be able to serve in Congress?” I am sure all hell would break loose. There would be nationwide condemnation of that person for being blatantly anti-Semitic. And if such a racist thing was said by an incumbent member of Congress, there would have been calls for his immediate resignation. The least Congress should do now is strip Fine of his membership on the prestigious House Foreign Affairs Committee.

I disagree with a lot of the controversial things Bilzerian says about Jews, such as calling Cong. Fine “a fat Jew.” The Israeli government has ranked Bilzerian number one on its list of the 10 most prominent anti-Semitic influencers.”

Cong. Fine himself “has a long history of making bigoted comments about Muslims, and suggested in 2025 that nuclear weapons should be dropped on Gaza. He has also used racist and Islamophobic language toward Muslim politicians in the U.S., such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom he called ‘little more than a Muslim terrorist’, adding that his citizenship should be stripped and he ‘should be deported to the Ugandan shithole he came from,’” Nate Ostiller reported in OC Media.

Fine introduced last October the “Disqualifying Dual Loyalty Act” (H.R. 5817), but Congress has not taken any action on his proposal. Serving as a dual citizen in the U.S. Congress is not against the law and cannot be an excuse for making racist comments about such individuals.

Over the years, many dual citizens have served in Congress, such as Sen. Ted Cruz who held joint U.S. and Canadian citizenship until 2014, and Congresswoman Michele Bachman who held joint U.S. and Swiss citizenship until 2012.

There are several other serious problems with Cong. Fine. Along with  five other members of Congress, Fine is a cosponsor of H.R.6534, introduced by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 9, 2025. If adopted, H. R. 6534 would repeal Section 907 of the FREEDOM Support Act and lift longstanding restrictions on U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan, including providing military weapons.

Doing further research using the recently formed website GovItUp.com, I discovered that Ezra Friedlander, the principal of the Friedlander Consulting Group, a lobbying firm hired by Azerbaijan, donated $1,000 to Cong. Fine’s campaign on Sept. 18, 2025. In addition, the Friedlander firm reported to the U.S. Department of Justice that it had arranged two meetings in June and July 2025, for Nigar Shiralizade, Political Officer at Azerbaijan’s Embassy, and Sanan Farajov, Second Secretary of Azerbaijan’s Embassy, with Cong. Fine’s Chief of Staff, to discuss “U.S.-Azerbaijan relations.”

As the expression goes, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at other houses.”