Apparently, there are close to no extremes off limits for President Donald Trump’s most vocal defenders in Congress. This Wednesday, in an appearance on Lou Dobbs Tonight, the House Judiciary Committee’s top Republican Doug Collins (Ga.) claimed that Democrats “love… terrorists” — although, just to be clear, it’s his own party’s Dear Leader Donald Trump who publicly insisted that he “fell in love” with North Korea’s murderous dictator Kim Jong Un. There is absolutely no evidence of any kind of Democratic “love” for terrorists. Collins is just resorting to straightforwardly outrageous extremes to try and defend Trump’s strike on top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, which recklessly catapulted the U.S. into chaos.
Just this week, prominent Republican Senators Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.) said that they’d support a resolution curtailing the administration’s war powers, but in response to Dobbs ranting about Democratic attempts to dial back Trump’s war-making power, Collins rambled:
‘If it wasn’t so sad and serious for our country to have Nancy Pelosi — I did not think she could become more hypocritical than she was during impeachment, but guess what, surprise surprise, Nancy Pelosi does it again! And her Democrats fall right in line. One, they’re in love with terrorists, we see that. They mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families, who are the ones who suffered under Soleimani. That’s a problem.
Collins went on to insist that “in 2011, when President Obama went into Libya and stayed longer than they thought the war powers said he should stay,” Pelosi “excused and said that’s just what presidents do.”
The thing is — the only two options are not supporting Trump’s literally scorched earth approach and loving terrorists. Collins’ argument to the contrary is so outlandish that even engaging with it seems like too much.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul commented in response:
‘Disgusting. As US ambassador to Russia, I became accustomed to addressing disinformation Putin propagated about Americans. I never expected that elected Members of Congress would engage in the same, making grotesque false statements about fellow Americans. Stop this nonsense.’
Disgusting. As US ambassador to Russia, I became accustomed to addressing disinformation Putin propagated about Americans. I never expected that elected Members of Congress would engage in the same, making grotesque false statements about fellow Americans. Stop this nonsense. https://t.co/Y4oif0wv5j
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) January 9, 2020
Yet, even the president has parroted that argument, with a poignant recent retweet accusing his opponents of essentially loving terrorists.
But no one is “mourning” or “lamenting” his death among high-profile Dems. Instead, observers are deeply concerned about the implications of Trump recklessly deciding to take out the political leader of an adversary country without even evidence of an “imminent threat” mandating the strike. Just this week, a memo came out revealing that the Trump administration’s argument to Congress was that the president ordered Soleimani to be killed in response to gradually increasing violence from Iran-backed militias. In other words: not an imminent threat, no matter the public arguments from the president and some of his administration’s top officials otherwise.
Here’s the unclassified version of what Trump sent Congress after the hit on Suleimani.
From all we’ve seen, including the redacted parts here and the briefing, the facts do not show an imminent threat.
We must pass a bill making clear Trump can’t start a war without a vote. pic.twitter.com/mUnkLwsph1
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) January 9, 2020
Those top officials have been reduced to playing cover-up for a narcissist, and they’re even setting off some Republicans, like Senator Lee, who said after a briefing this week that the administration’s behavior was “un-American, it’s unconstitutional, and… wrong.”
Wow, Mike Lee is ANGRY.
"It's un-American, it's unconstitutional, and it's wrong," Lee says after noting briefers said senators couldn't debate the merits of the strike
Says he was undecided on Kaine's war powers resolution, but now he supports it.
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 8, 2020
