Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Thursday that Democrats who criticize the Trump administration's military action against Iran appear to have forgotten "that Iran was any problem whatsoever" despite years of warnings and votes in Congress describing the regime as a major terrorist threat.
On "Bianca Across the Nation," Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accused Democrats in Congress of displaying selective memory about Iran and putting Americans at risk by blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
"Any Dem senator, Dem representative that's going out there saying they don't understand the threats, what in the world are they doing being any part of the national security space of the United States of America?" he said.
Mast said lawmakers from both parties have received repeated intelligence briefings on Iran's activities.
"They've had multiple classified briefings, some of them larger, some of them smaller, years of intelligence to go out there and absorb and think about this," he said.
He added that Democrats previously voted to designate Iran a state sponsor of terrorism and supported efforts to eliminate its nuclear program.
"They've all voted, almost every single one of them have voted to say Iran is this huge state sponsor of terror. Eliminate their nuclear threat by any and all means necessary," Mast said. "These are real votes that these Democrat representatives and senators have taken in the past."
Mast said the criticism emerging since President Donald Trump authorized military action against Iran shows a dramatic shift in tone.
"And now, because President Trump is saying this ends once and for all, all of a sudden they forgot that Iran was any problem whatsoever for the United States of America, or that they've been killing our people for decades," he said.
Mast also criticized Democrats over the standoff in Congress over DHS funding, arguing that the impasse is harming frontline personnel responsible for protecting Americans.
"It's not a smart move. You're putting Americans in danger by doing this," Mast said.
He said the political fight is affecting agencies unrelated to Democrats' stated concerns regarding enforcement of immigration law.
"They are not even hurting the departments, the agencies that they're trying to tell all of their base that they're hurting," Mast said.
Agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have already been funded through the end of the fiscal year, he noted.
"ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, they were funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill up until the end of the fiscal year, up until late September," Mast said.
Instead, he said the funding dispute is hitting other security personnel.
"They're hurting, as you spoke about, the Coast Guard men and women, our TSA officers that are protecting our air travel, people that work at FEMA, real emergencies in people's lives," Mast said, using the abbreviations for the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "And they're not even doing what they're trying to say they're accomplishing."
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