TAMPA, FL—Following Iran's retaliatory drone strike on Israel, U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) told The Floridian that the Islamic nation would never have launched an attack if Donald Trump was still in office.
"I can tell you confidently that all of these events would not happen under President Trump. This is happening because weakness emboldens those who come in and it breeds aggression," Mills told us at Tampa Bay's Florida Young Republicans meeting over the weekend.
"All of these events that you're seeing right now is because they know there's no consequence to their actions under the Biden Administration," he said.
So what can President Biden do now?
"He can get out of the White House," Mills responded with a smile.
Saturday afternoon, Iran launched 120 ballistic missiles at Israel—though none landed in Israeli territory after 99% were intercepted by Jordanian and Israeli forces. The attack came two weeks after an Israeli drone strike killed two Iranian generals at the nation's consular building in Damascus, Syria.
The two nations have been edging near all-out war for the past six months, after the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more on the night of October 7th.
Israel's military chief said Monday that the country will respond to the air strikes, though world leaders from the U.S., Britain, and France are urging restraint.
"All sides must show restraint," said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. French President Emmanuel Macron agreed, saying the French will try to "convince Israel that we must not respond by escalating."
Meanwhile, ABC News reported that an anonymous White House administration official said that the U.S. "would not envision [them]selves participating" in assisting Israel with offensive military operations.
"I don't want Prime Minister Netanyahu to get pushed off of his priority which is the Rafa operations, eliminating Hamas, and getting the hostages back safely," Mills said, discussing potential future actions Israel may take.
He said that "getting sidetracked" with Iran, who he believes may be attempting to just "save face", could end up bringing in Lebanon and Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist militia group.
"Right now, I think that we need to condemn Iran for their actions and launching attacks into a sovereign nation, and I think that the international community needs to come together and coalesce in a very unison message," Mills added.
