Here are 5 controversial moments from Larry Bucshon's seven terms in Congress

EVANSVILLE – Larry Bucshon isn’t a “show horse.”

That’s how now-Majority House Whip Tom Emmer described Indiana’s Eighth District Congressman in 2018, when the Courier & Press traveled to Capitol Hill to see how effective Bucshon was at his job.

The image that emerged was that of a middle-of-the-road politician who had some pull when it came to medical legislation – he was a heart surgeon, after all – but who faded into the background on other issues. Some Democrats didn’t even know who he was.

Bucshon announced Monday morning that he won't seek reelection in 2024 after seven terms in Congress. And while he shunned the more attention-hungry impulses of some of his colleagues, he still found himself mired in the occasional controversy over the years.

Here are some examples.

Voting against recognizing same-sex, interracial marriage on a federal level

In an opinion siding with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal abortion rights in 2022, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court should go even further and reconsider all its “substantive due process precedents” – including those protecting same-sex marriage and access to contraceptives.

In response, Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, codifying same-sex and interracial marriage on a federal level. 157 House lawmakers voted against it. And Bucshon was one of them.

In a statement to the Courier & Press, he claimed the Supreme Court’s decision only applied to abortion and that the bill was “unnecessary, divisive and disingenuous.”

He agreed with the court’s decision to end federal abortion rights, though.

“While I am strongly pro-life, I do believe exceptions should be made in extreme cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the mother in a truly life-threatening pregnancy or delivery,” Bucshon’s website's entry on abortion states.

Jan. 6 attacks

Bucshon was a steadfast supporter of former President Donald Trump.

In fact, he told the Courier & Press he initially planned to “vote for the objections” when some members of Congress announced they would the contest results in Pennsylvania and Arizona as lawmakers gathered to ratify the outcome the 2020 election and usher President Joe Biden into his new role.

But when protesters breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and left Bucshon locked in his office with a random bookkeeper, he changed his mind and voted to certify.

“The doorknobs were locked, but I personally went around and locked the deadbolts on the two doors,” Bucshon told the Courier & Press then. “I’m like, ‘Oh crap.’”

That afternoon, Bucshon tweeted, “supporters of the @realDonaldTrump please stand down and leave the Capitol. I do not condone any form of violence. A peaceful protest is your Constitutional right but what is happening now is not lawful. It is un-American.”

He also cited Trump's criticism of then-Vice President Mike Pence as a reason he backed off his impulse to vote against certification. In a tweet 15 days later, however, he called it “comical and delusional” that Democrats would accuse Trump of dividing the country.

“Obama was one of the most divisive Presidents in history,” he wrote. “Dems and their media allies spent four years undermining President Trump and denigrating the people who voted for him.”

Moving to Washington, D.C.

In 2016, he also used Twitter to criticize Evan Bayh, the former Indiana governor who was looking to return to the Senate in a 2016 race against Todd Young.

Bucshon questioned whether Bayh still lived in Indiana, accusing him of “visiting” the state so he could run for office again.

A few days later, however, Bucshon confirmed to the Courier & Press that his own family would sell their 9,000-square-foot Warrick County home and move to a condo in Washington D.C.

As required by law, Bucshon still maintains a residency in the Eighth District – a condo on the north end of Evansville, according to public records – but he doesn’t live there full time. The U.S. Constitution requires only that members of Congress reside in the state they represent when the election is held.

He told the Courier & Press at the time that his family moved so they could spend more time together.

“In the last six years, have we seen Evan Bayh in Indiana? Absolutely not,” he said then. “In the last six years, have you seen me in Indiana – even though I spent a lot of time in D.C. because I work here? I'm all over the place.”

Lack of town halls

Throughout his tenure, Bucshon has often showed up at planned events and dinners. When he was first elected, that extended to open office hours and town hall meetings.

His stance on the latter eventually changed. By the summer of 2019, he hadn’t held a town hall meeting in Evansville in more than two years.

That August, the streak ended when scores of residents filed into the Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center to submit written questions on everything from massing shootings to LGBTQ rights to then-President Trump.

That turned out to be a rare opportunity. Even though he still interacts with constituents during visits around the district, the calendar on Bucshon's website doesn’t list any town halls in the last five years.

Mocked on ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’

The Evansville area landed on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” multiple times during Stewart’s 16-year run on the show.

In 2003, it tackled former Mayor Russ Lloyd’s decision to go to a Cher concert instead of attending a special City Council meeting on the rivers of sewage that often coughed up onto South Side residents' lawns. And in 2014, in a clip that’s largely been scrubbed from the Internet, it took Bucshon to task for hinting climate scientists couldn’t be believed because they counted on the existence of global warming to make a living.

It all came from a September 2014 meeting of the House’s Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Bucshon got into a disagreement with White House science advisor John Holdron, who was pushing for regulations on air quality to help combat climate change.

The congressman argued there were “public comments” disputing that human activity was contributing to the rise in temperatures.

“You should look at the scientific literature rather than the public comments,” Holdron said.

“Of all the climatologists whose careers depend on the climate changing to keep themselves publishing articles? Yes, I could read that," Bucshon responded. "But I don't believe it."

Playing that clip on the show, the quote left Stewart looking shocked and tired while his audience moaned in disbelief.

“I do not believe the scientists because it is their profession – not their hobby,” Stewart said, trying to summarize.

He then pointed out that some of Bucshon’s top donors were fossil fuel companies – entities that have long fought efforts to curb climate change.

“If scientists could be bought,” Stewart said, “these mother (expletives) would have already made it rain in nerd town.”

In a statement to the Indy Star, Bucshon's spokesman later claimed "The Daily Show" and Stewart "cherry-picked" comments and used them out of context for laughs.

"In that context, (Bucshon) thought the segment was funny as he does most political comedy," they said.

Over the years, Bucshon argued against man-made climate change multiple times. During a 2017 town hall, he said "the temperature of the Earth is changing because it has been changing for centuries" and partly blamed poor air quality in Southwestern Indiana on "topography."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Here are 5 controversial moments from Larry Bucshon's time in Congress