Rep. President Donald Trump's actions on Iran, including the threat to hit 52 significant sites if the country retaliates for the airstrike that killed Gen. Qassam Soleimeni, are about "deterring and de-escalating" the situation, and the Iranian regime does not want war, Rep. Michael Waltz said Monday.
"This notion that we're going to World War III, that the president is loading up Marines for a D-Day style landing is just ridiculous," the Florida Republican, who has served as a Green Beret commander, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "The entity in the Middle East that least wants war is the Iranian regime. They care about survival. They do not want war with the United States. This is about deterring and de-escalating and about taking that strong action that will make them think twice."
Waltz on Monday also said that he believes Democrats who are criticizing Trump about the Soleimeni airstrike should speak to the "hundreds and hundreds" of families of American soldiers that Solemeini and Irans Quds force he commanded are responsible for killing.
"They are either ignorant of history or looking for cheap political shots against this president or both," said Waltz.
Meanwhile, Trump's threat was to hit sites that have a cultural significance to Iran, and that could even include its capital of Tehran, said Waltz.
"That could be a number of things," he said. "The Pentagon knows very well where to draw that line and where to advise the president."
Waltz also said people in his district in Florida are "shaking their heads" over the criticism of Trump.
"They expect the president to take decisive action to defend our diplomats and our embassies and to defend our soldiers, and they are asking me, 'what do we do? Do we wait until there are more body bags before we take action?' Absolutely not...this is a bold action, what the president should be doing, and I fully support him."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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