GEORGIA (WALB) — Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia’s 8th Congressional District said Americans “voted for crazy” in the election and “I think they’re going to get crazy” with Democrats in control of the House and the Senate.

Scott said he does not feel victorious after winning his race. “I think it was a huge loss for America last night,” he said.

Scott on the results

Scott said it was “a hard night for Republicans.” He said he does not think his win reflects Georgians’ trust in him.

“Those of us who have been in office and who have been doing our job, in some cases, were successful, in other cases, were not,” Scott said.

He said Republicans “did campaign much harder this year with the headwinds that we felt like Republicans had going into Election Day.” He said he is happy he can return to “continue to do my job for Georgia’s farmers and for the issues revolving around national security.”

Scott has served eight terms in Congress. He serves on the Armed Services, Agriculture, Intelligence and Rules committees. He said the Rules Committee handles anything coming to the floor of the House of Representatives.

Scott said he was not surprised that Republicans lost the House or the Senate. “I am surprised at the margin that we lost it by,” he said. “And I am surprised where we lost it.”

Border, taxes and Iran

Scott said the Democratic wins make it “harder for America.” He said, “Leaders have to do the right things the right way.”

He said that under Joe Biden, “they allowed 15 million people in the country.” He said, “We don’t know who they are, where they are, what their intentions are.”

“Securing the border was the right thing to do,” Scott said. “I think the tone of the rhetoric surrounding what we did was the damaging aspect of it.”

Scott said he supports the president securing the border, stopping the tax increase and stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear Iran. He said a nuclear Iran would be “able to do tremendous damage, not just to the United States, but around the world.”

He said Democrats now have enough votes to force the borders back open and put tax increases back in place. “I don’t think Americans want open borders,” he said.

Scott said Democrats promised to bring back tax increases on small businesses and charge farm families a federal estate tax. “I think that’s horrible policy for, especially for rural America and the people that I represent,” he said.

He said Democrats have promised open borders and making all people who are in the country illegally U.S. citizens and allowing them to vote. “Unfortunately, a lot of Americans went to the polls and voted for that,” Scott said. “And so, you know, Americans voted for crazy, and I think they’re going to get crazy.”

Scott said Republicans did not do a good job of explaining why those policies are in the best interest of American citizens.

Health care and Democratic promises

Scott said fixing problems with the Affordable Care Act requires the president’s signature. He said the last time Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate, “they took away your right to select your health insurance contracts.”

“They promised you you could keep your doctor. They promised you you could keep your insurance companies. But the fact of the matter is none of that was true,” Scott said.

He said Democrats have “huge margins in the House, margins that I have never seen in my political lifetime,” and will have a “very large margin in the Senate.”

Scott said Democrats “made a lot of promises to a lot of people.” He said it will be interesting to see whether they can deliver on “what was more sound bites than it was policy.”

He said he wants to see whether Democrats elected in swing districts and rural America “represent the districts that they were elected in” or “do what their party leadership tells them to.”

Scott said Democrats have promised the Green New Deal and Medicaid for all. “Don’t let the Democrats tell you they don’t have the votes to deliver it,” he said. “Because they do.” He said, “All of these things have a huge price tag.”

Farm bill and the economy

Scott said Democrats have demanded that more than 80% of farm bill spending go to SNAP benefits. “I mean, that won’t work,” he said. “Why do you call it a farm bill if 80% of it goes to SNAP benefits?”

He said that without support for production agriculture, “Americans need to be prepared to not buy food from U.S. producers.” He said that would mean “tremendous transportation costs and other things.”

“This is a huge national security issue for the country,” Scott said.

He said the country is dependent on foreign sources of fuel. “Look at what that has done to the price of fuel in this country,” he said. “And when you become dependent on foreign sources of food, it’s going to do the same thing to the price of food in this country.”

Scott said his fear is that job growth slows “as Democrats attack industry and as Democrats attack employers.” He said, “We had the Audi plant. We had a lot of good job growth that was coming to the state of Georgia because Georgia has been a well-run state.”

“Slowing the job growth obviously leads to a recession,” Scott said.

Voter turnout and the president’s tone

Scott said he has “looked at the numbers very closely.” He said, “There are just a lot of Republicans that sat the election out.”

He said he understands those voters are concerned about the price of fuel. He said other people “voted for more federal control over your lives.”

“We live in a country where we have the right to determine our outcome,” Scott said. He said people who did not vote now have “something that I think is going to make your life much more expensive.”

Scott said President Donald Trump’s policies are good. “I think the tone and the rhetoric is not,” he said. He said that “may have led to some of the people not going to the polls and voting.”

“Those policies are all bad, but they’re nice about it when they do it,” Scott said of Democratic policies, which he described as “open borders, higher taxes, more control of your personal life and your personal decisions.” He said, “I’d rather have good policies with a bad tone than bad policies with people being real nice about what they’re doing to me.”

Faith and what comes next

Scott said, “The sun’s going to come up tomorrow.” He said, “If you read the Bible, you know Jesus was the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And so the country will make it through this.”

He said that the last time Democrats had margins like these, they passed the Affordable Care Act, which “took away a lot of the choices that you had in your health care.” Scott said, “More federal control over people’s life is probably coming with the House and the Senate that have been elected. I think that will be damaging.”

Scott said his faith is “extremely important to me.” He said he has friends who are liberal Democrats and “read things that are very different than what I read,” and named abortion as one of those issues.

He said he is thankful for “personal freedom, individual liberty, economic opportunity” in the United States. “I think it’s very fragile,” Scott said. “And once you lose it, you’re not going to get it back.”

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