Ted Budd speaking in front of seats American flags and sign

Ted Budd for Senate/YouTube

Dirty Delete: GOP senator loves far-right politics and crypto

The freshman senator’s online persona oozes with extremism.

 

Claire Goforth

Tech

Posted on Jun 9, 2023   Updated on Jun 8, 2023, 8:05 am CDT

Dirty Delete is a weekly column that goes deep into the social media history of politicians that runs on Thursdays in the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. If you want to get this column a day before we publish it, subscribe to web_crawlr, where you’ll get the daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) is the congressional version of a crypto bro.

Budd is a hard-right Republican born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His family business, where young Budd became an executive fresh out of Wake Forest University, is worth an estimated $100 million. Budd himself is also a millionaire. It’s no wonder he seems like he was born in a suit.

The freshman senator’s online persona oozes with extremism.

He often blathers about the many things he opposes: reproductive rights, cancel culture, critical race theory, antifa.

And Budd really hates socialism—unless it benefits his family. The company his father founded and brother runs received a $10 million PPP loan that was later forgiven.

The senator’s office said he was “proud” to help his kin get a big chunk of government cheese for a company that has an extremely checkered past.

Budd’s also proud to support what he calls our “god-given right” to shoot stuff.

Some may be surprised to learn that Budd is all about blockchain andcrypto.

He and his colleagues in the “Blockchain Eight” even urged the Securities Exchange Commission to stop investigating crypto firms including FTX, whose co-CEO funneled half a million dollars into Budd’s campaign.

Given his far-right views, it’s little surprise that Budd spread lies about voter fraud in 2020 and voted against certifying the election.

In spite of being evacuated during the violent attack on Congress, ol’ Budd remained defiant after the Capitol riot. The very next day he tweeted that he wasn’t going to let a pesky attempt to overthrow democracy stop him from lying about election fraud.

Then weeks later, he had the audacity to praise the “heroes” in the Capitol Police and thank Officer Brian Sicknick, who lost his life after the riot, for his “courage and sacrifice.”

Budd has accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Dirtiest Delete

Budd doesn’t seem much for deleting posts, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t.

Case in point: His Jan. 7, 2021 tweet vowing not to let the Capitol riot stop him from debating the supposed election “irregularities” that inspired the “violent mob” in the first place.

Ted Budd/Twitter
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*First Published: Jun 9, 2023, 6:00 am CDT
 

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