Rep. Louie Gohmert blasted the Obama administration on
Newsmax TV on Monday for an "insane" decision to send thousands of U.S. troops abroad to combat Ebola in western Africa — work he said is better done by volunteers and medical professionals.
Gohmert, appearing on "MidPoint" with host Ed Berliner, questioned whether the U.S. military is the best option for constructing field hospitals and providing other logistical support to disease-containment efforts in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
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"Military personnel, who are not trained medically other than a quick little seminar . . . they're in a better position than trained medical personnel?" said the Texas Republican and vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's panel on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.
"It is just insane that we would be exposing our military" to Ebola, said Gohmert.
He added that the troops in Africa are effectively unavailable to evacuate on short notice in the event of a crisis erupting elsewhere in the world, because they would have to be held back for 21 days — the standard waiting period for signs of Ebola infection.
He noted that some soldiers on duty in west Africa are already being put into
protective isolation.
"If they want people to build facilities, then ask for volunteers to go help build, and [with the] understanding you're exposing yourself to Ebola," said Gohmert. "But our military is trained to protect us."
Gohmert, a frequent critic of President Barack Obama on national security and border control, also discussed the
mass release in 2013 of more than 2,000 jailed illegal immigrants, among them people charged with, or convicted of, violent crimes.
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The administration had defended the releases as a cost-cutting measure and had given assurances that no violent offenders were freed.
"I want to always be surprised when we're lied to," said Gohmert, "but [Rep.] Randy Forbes asked the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] director, John Morton, directly in one of our hearings, and I'm quoting: 'No one on that list has been charged or convicted with murder, rape or sexual abuse of a minor, were they?'
"Martin said they were not," Gohmert recalled. "There was no qualification — anything like that — and it turns out there was aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault of a child, conspiracy to commit homicide, and they rushed to get these people out."
Gohmert said that "it just seems like so much of what this administration is doing is antithetical to protecting Americans."
Gohmert also warned the president against making an executive ruling to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants — a move that Obama is thought to be considering for the interval after the Nov. 4 midterm elections and before a new Congress convenes in January.
"If he takes action, that's going to completely destroy the Democratic Party," said Gohmert. "Then everything he was hoping for as a legacy will be gone. Gone."
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