Friday, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) voiced his full “support” of the U.S. military’s recent airstrikes in Baghdad to kill Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani.
Waltz said President Donald Trump was “right” in saying Soleimani’s death was “long overdue,” adding Americans should be “celebrating this as an American victory.”
“You’d hear criticism from me if you did not take action to stop more Americans from being killed,” Waltz told Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“The president’s right, this was long overdue,” he continued. “This should have been done under the Obama administration. And that America civilian that was killed just last week under Soleimani’s direction as he was rocketed on a base would be alive today, not to mention the tens of thousands of Syrians, Lebanese and Iraqis across the Middle East would be alive today if we had taken him out years ago. That’s why you’re seeing people across the Middle East celebrate his death. The human rights abuses alone that he’s responsible for should be cause for celebration and it saddens me to see partisan politics, of course, coming in — reflexive criticism just because it’s President Trump. We should be celebrating this as an American victory today because that’s exactly what it is.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent