Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, explained on Newsmax TV his firsthand knowledge of what Texans have endured as a result of severe winter storms.
Gohmert, speaking from Tyler, Texas, appeared on Friday's "American Agenda" after millions of Texans lost power this week when temperatures fell to subzero record lows.
"My water here at home is not even back to half strength, no hot water," Gohmert told hosts Bob Sellers and Heather Childers. "We're coming back slowly but surely. But we got to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"It's been quite an experience. Except for my four years in the Army, I've lived nowhere but East Texas, and I've never seen temperatures like this, this much snow. It has just been extraordinary."
Although natural gas wells were "shut in" and valves frozen, Gohmert said natural gas plants were not the biggest problem as more than 190,000 homes and businesses remained without power Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. That total was down from about 3 million two days earlier.
The congressman's main issue was with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid.
"Their job was to make sure the Texas grid worked and it didn't," Gohmert said. "They didn't do their job, and there ought to be a dramatic housecleaning because they've been paid for nothing."
With 5,000 National Guard members currently stationed in Washington, D.C., to protect against potential violence, Gohmert was asked if Texas could use the troops to help cope with the storms' aftermath.
"We could absolutely use them," he said. "It is a national disaster here in Texas. We've not experienced anything like this before.
"[The National Guard would] be better treated here than [Speaker of the House Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.], putting them in a parking lot."
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