Montage: Ted Lieu Thinks Everything Is Stupid
California’s Democratic congressman Rep. Ted Lieu has a favorite word.
Too bad it’s a word most parents wash out of their children’s mouths by the time they’re five: “Stupid.”
Rep. Lieu thinks lots of things are “stupid”: Trump’s foreign policy toward Syria, congressional oversight of the FBI, tax cuts, a border wall, and Republican legislation generally.
“As a veteran, I know we have an awesome military, but it is really stupid to use military force without a strategy,” Lieu said of Trump’s foreign policy toward Syria. “I could support the use of force, but the president needs to come forward with a strategy first.”
Speaking of a congressional probe into the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email server scandal, Lieu said: “The real reason the Republicans are launching these stupid investigations is like dangling the shiny object, saying, ‘Here, look at it’. They’re trying to distract from the disaster at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and that’s why they’re really doing it, because they know that every week there’s something really bad about Donald Trump and they want the public to pay attention to something else.”
And in another interview he said of an oversight hearing with FBI Director Rod Rosenstein: Republicans “are so completely out of touch with what has happened in America they still think they’re running against Hillary Clinton in 2016. It was one of the most bizarre and stupid ridiculous hearings I’ve ever attended.” In another interview on the same topic, he said, “This was a stupid hearing on the e-mails.”
Lieu said that when Democrats take over in January, the “stupid” investigation into James Comey “will end.”
Taking on Republicans’ tax cut package, Lieu said: “Republicans control both houses of Congress. They can pass whatever stupid legislation they want without any Democratic votes.”
On the topic of a border wall, Lieu said: “The U.S. Is a sovereign nation. I would support increased border security. I would be opposed to a wall. It is an inefficient and stupid system.”
During an oversight hearing with former FBI agent Peter Strzok, Rep. Lieu called the entire hearing “stupid” because it distracts from children being separated from their parents at the border.
After Democrats won back the House of Representatives in November, Lieu said, “The Democrats now control the House of Representatives. We are the power to stop stupid legislation. We can advance positive legislation.”
“Let me start by saying this is a stupid and ridiculous hearing,” he said. “The Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction or immigration. It’s July 12, 2018. There’s nearly 3,000 babies and kids that have been ripped away from their parents by the trump Administration and we’re not doing a hearing on that. We’re doing a hearing on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails in 2016. That’s just dumb.”
