Congressman Tim Walberg
GOP Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg was taking heat from Democratic colleagues Saturday after posting a video on social media suggesting nuclear weapons be used on Gaza to "get it over quick," the Detroit Free Press reports.
"We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid," Walberg said. "It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick."
Michigan Democratic Congress members including Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, and Elissa Slotkin, who is Jewish, condemned the comments.
"This is a reprehensible thing for anyone to suggest, especially an elected official and someone who considers himself a man of faith," said Slotkin, according to the Freep. Tlaib said: "Rep. Walberg is not the first member of Congress to use despicable, violent, dehumanizing language to describe their genocidal intent in Gaza."
The video was taken during a town hall meeting earlier in the week in Dundee, in Monroe County.
The Freep reports:
In the video, which was independently reviewed by the Free Press, Walberg — who can be heard clearly but is outside the camera's range — was asked at a town hall meeting in Dundee on March 25 whether the U.S. should be spending money on building a temporary port in Gaza to move humanitarian aid into the country, as proposed by President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address this month.
Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg, pastor and "good" Christian, talks about his solution for #Gaza: Give it the Hiroshima treatment. "Get it over quick."
— JMS #DemCastMI (@WhitchMI) March 30, 2024
A sitting US Rep in a secret town hall feels comfortable musing positively about genocide. Listen. Share.#DemCastMI #DemCast pic.twitter.com/6BQGfWMVjZ
A spokesman for Walberg insists the comments were taken out of context, saying the Congressman empathizes with the innocent people in Gaza but thinks Hamas should be eliminated, the Freep reports.
