Americans are outraged at the deaths of three American soldiers in Jordan from an Iranian proxy militia's drone strike. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's botched message of condolence only worsened the response, and many fear this will lead to war. Representative Cory Mills (R-FL) appeared on Fox and Friends First to discuss, where he condemned Jean-Pierre's message and suggested rather than a strike, the US can retaliate by crippling Iran to prevent further attacks.
Jean-Pierre's message of condolence awkwardly referred to the three deceased soldiers as "military folks" who "died fighting on behalf of [the Biden] Administration," stumbling over her words.
Rep. Mills called the message "extremely disappointing" because "it is easy to offer our condolences to our brave heroes who fought and served in our armed forces," and lambasted Jean-Pierre for saying they fought for the administration because "we do not swear to the administration, we swear to support and defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
As for President Biden's assertion that the United States "will respond" to the Jordan attack, Rep. Mills said, "This is one of those rare situations that I do not know that an immediate retaliatory strike is exactly what is needed."
"We are not here to play a tit-for-tat game with Iran on their terms. But I also would argue that if we have not done the proper analysis to determine why we were not able to stop this attack on one of our outposts in Jordan, I think a retaliatory strike that would potentially put our soldiers at further risk would not be the adequate response," Mills continued.
Moreover, the Florida Congressman suggested that retaliation does not need to be in the form of a strike, but can be in the form of stopping the $6 billion the Biden Administration intended to give Iran for hostages and cracking down on Iranian oil exports.
"Start actually putting back the Trump policies that sanctioned and nearly crippled all of Iran. And so while I agree that we should have an equal and very, very direct response, we must ensure the safety of our troops first and not get into a tit-for-tat where our soldiers are playing catch with missiles, rockets, and these attack drones," Mills concluded.
Fellow Florida Republican and combat veteran Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL) has long been an advocate for restrengthening measures against Iran, calling for "maximum pressure" since October 7th.
