House Judiciary Chairman Doug Collins (R-GA) gained national notoriety during the impeachment inquiry hearings as a fast-talking diatribe-launching staunch defender of President Donald Trump, saying anything he needed to, veracity be damned.
Last month GOP strategist Rick Wilson called Collins “a screeching, histrionic drama queen.”
That behavior reached its nadir Wednesday night, when Collins attacked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi by name, and all Democrats, as terrorist lovers.
“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,” Rep. Collins said on Fox Business. “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.”
That’s actually a lie.
Rep. Collins was forced to apologize, saying on Twitter Friday: “Let me be clear: I do not believe Democrats are in love with terrorists, and I apologize for what I said earlier this week.”
But barely hours earlier Collins appeared on Fox News and offered a rather different response when anchor Bill Hemmer tried, somewhat, to hold Collins’ feet to the fire.
Referring to Democrats, Collins said, “I think their actions are betraying them at this point.”
And he did not apologize, not at all.
“Do all of them love terrorists? No. I think the issue we have here, though, is the fact that they won’t acknowledge that [Soleimani] was a terrorist,” he said, as Talking Points Memo noted.
Of course, that claim is false also.
“They won’t acknowledge the fact that this was a good thing for the world, for Soleimani to be taken out,” Collins added. “And from my perspective, that needs to be called out.”
Democrats understand and have said Qasem Soleimani was a terrorist. What Democrats are furious with is the timing, reasoning, and lack of planning that went in to taking out a terrorist. There is also the legal issue of whether or not the killing of a foreign state official is allowed under international law. And the issue of President Trump’s motivation, as The Wall Street Journal reported, that he did so to gain favor with powerful GOP Senators to help him during his impeachment trial.
Congressman Collins neglected to mention any of those issues.