Speaking with the press on Thursday, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) spoke about accusations he unleashed a profanity-filled tirade against Biden officials giving a briefing on Israel.
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00:00 Congressman, can you respond to the accusations
00:02 from your Democratic colleagues about your questioning
00:04 during the briefing yesterday?
00:05 -Absolutely. I would love to.
00:08 I did not use any vulgarity or any profanity.
00:11 However, I took the Biden administration to task.
00:15 They have been responsible for some of the worst
00:17 foreign policy debacles in the history of the nation,
00:20 including abandoning thousands of American citizens
00:23 and our allies to terrorists in Afghanistan.
00:26 They emboldened Vladimir Putin
00:28 through showing strategic weakness.
00:30 We now have Americans held hostage
00:33 by terrorists in the Middle East.
00:36 At least 25 Americans have been murdered by savages.
00:40 They're killing Jews at a level that they haven't done
00:43 since the Holocaust.
00:45 And the Biden administration is not acting.
00:48 So, was I frustrated?
00:49 Absolutely. You know why?
00:50 Because that could be you.
00:52 It could be your sister.
00:53 It could be your brother.
00:55 And one of my campaign promises was this.
00:58 I will never apologize for protecting American citizens.
01:02 I'm just not gonna do that.
01:03 I spent my entire adult life either in combat,
01:06 training for combat, or training other people to go to combat
01:09 to protect American citizens.
01:12 So, did I use vulgarity? Absolutely not.
01:14 I did not. That's not the appropriate form for that.
01:17 It just isn't.
01:19 But I took them to task, everybody in that room.
01:21 And I'll do it again and again and again,
01:23 because the Biden administration needs to understand
01:26 that we are a co-equal branch of government.
01:29 The founding fathers were so concerned
01:32 that the House of Representatives
01:33 would be too powerful, and yet, over the decades,
01:36 the House of Representatives
01:38 has abdicated their responsibility
01:40 to the executive branch.
01:42 The executive branch, Republican and Democrat,
01:44 has become so terribly powerful
01:47 that it is a threat to the country.
01:50 This is the people's house.
01:53 The way our government was designed
01:54 is that we are the closest to the people possible.
01:57 That's why we have to get elected every two years.
01:59 -But is a classified briefing the appropriate avenue
02:02 to voice those concerns? -Yeah, 100%.
02:05 Absolutely. They said -- Listen, let me finish.
02:07 You want to ask me a question? I'll answer it.
02:09 Absolutely.
02:10 Because they sent the B team over here.
02:14 And the brief that they got,
02:15 I literally get better information on Twitter.
02:19 And that's inappropriate because I am a member
02:21 of a co-equal branch of government.
02:24 -So you think that if we get on Twitter,
02:25 it's gonna be a vote today?
02:27 -Should the President send in special forces
02:30 to rescue some of these hostages?
02:31 -I would absolutely never comment
02:32 on any of those operations, even the files or whatever.
02:35 It's totally inappropriate and could potentially compromise
02:37 those forces and American citizens,
02:39 and I would never discuss that in public.
02:40 -Could you talk about the mentality of those forces
02:42 that are maybe preparing for something like that?
02:45 Talk to that. -Yeah, I did that my whole life.
02:48 When you are in a Special Operations Forces capacity,
02:52 you are -- you should be constantly prepared
02:56 to do very dangerous missions in the safest way possible.
03:02 So Navy SEALs do not gamble.
03:05 We don't. We take calculated risks.
03:08 So I would hope that they're going through
03:10 detailed mission-planning processes right now
03:13 so that they have the greatest probability of success
03:15 of rescuing American citizens from savages,
03:18 and they come home.