Rep. Waltz: Cohen's Claims Guard Might Harm Biden 'Insulting'

Rep. Michael Waltz, a National Guard colonel and Green Beret, said Tuesday it is "insulting" for Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen to claim that some members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., to provide security for the inauguration  "might want to do something" to harm President-elect Joe Biden.

"I think every veteran, every Guardsman is offended by those comments," the Florida Republican said Tuesday on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "It is not about the person. It is about the oath they take, the same oath as every member of Congress. Those Guardsmen and women that are out there right now vow to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies." 

Cohen, D-Tenn., told CNN's Jim Sciotto Monday he had been reminded that India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Egypt's Anwar Sadat had both been assassinated by extremists among their bodyguards and that supporters of President Donald Trump within members of National Guard units should be considered suspicious. 

"The Guard is 90 some odd percent, I believe, male," Cohen claimed. "Only about 20% of white males voted for Biden. You have got to figure that the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative and I see that on my social media, and we know it, they are probably 25%  of the people that are there protecting us who voted for Biden."

The other 75%, he continued are "in the class that would be the large class of folks who might want to do something, and there were military people and police who took an oath to defend the Constitution and to protect and defend who didn't do it who were in the insurrection. So it does concern me."

"It's just offensive all around, and it's insulting," said Waltz. "There is only one commander-in-chief, and I have got to tell you when you are out there conducting those missions, there is no politics," said Waltz. "There is just your brother, your sister, (to) your left, your right, and they are fellow Americans. You don't even have a clue who anybody voted for. That doesn't come into the equation."

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