On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) argued that the U.S. needs to strike Iran and that while Iran may bluster, when they’re hit, they back down.
Host Rob Schmitt asked, “What is your take on that idea, you attack Iran, go after them?”
Mullin answered, “Well, you have to. … Iran’s going to be a bully and they’re going to continue to be a bully unless they are threatened. The reason why they stayed within their boundaries underneath President Trump is because they were afraid of him. They knew that his words meant something, and that they were going to be followed up with actions if they did this, which is what they’re doing right now. The Middle East, Rob, only responds to strength, not words. They do rhetoric all the time. Think about the rhetoric that they’ve had towards the United States since the late seventies. … These individuals that want to be dictators, they stand up and say the worst things they can possibly say, but they do nothing about it. If you strike them back, Rob, they will back down. They’re going to say awful things, but they’ll back down. And we have to take this head of the snake off. That’s it. Hamas is not the head. Hezbollah is not the head. The funder of Hezbollah and Hamas is Iran, and everybody knows that.”
Schmitt then asked about the prospect that striking Iran would lead to a broader war.
Mullin responded, “They’re already testing America’s resolve, regardless [of] if we like it or not, they’re testing America’s resolve. So, we’re going to continue to sit back and ignore, like we did Osama bin Laden, and eventually, they’re going to bring down the towers. That’s what happened. We had multiple times to go after Osama bin Laden and we tried to appease him, we tried to ignore him, and he didn’t go away. Iran is not going to go away until you punch them in the face.”
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