US Rep. Tim Walberg releases a statement saying he wasn’t calling for nuclear war after he came under fire for advising Israel to “get it over quick” with Hamas in Gaza, “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” the Japanese cities the United States hit with atomic bombs at the end of World War II.
“As a child who grew ups in the Cold War era, the last thing I’d advocate for would be the use of nuclear weapons,” Walberg, a Michigan Republican congressman, said in a statement published on Sunday. “I used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harm’s way.”
A video of Walberg, 72, addressing a town hall in Dundee, Michigan on March 25 included an exchange with a constituent who was concerned that President Joe Biden’s plan to build a pier on Gaza’s shore to facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance would endanger the US troops who would build and secure the pier.
“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid,” Walberg replied. “It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick.”
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