House Republican Dismisses Trump’s Apocalyptic Threat Against Iran as ‘His Negotiating Style’

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) dismissed President Donald Trump’s Tuesday morning threat to destroy the “whole civilization” of Iran as merely “his negotiating style” – while admitting that he’d “absolutely not” back such an action.

The president issued the ominous warning via Truth Social hours before his imposed deadline for ceasefire talks on Tuesday, warning that a “whole civilization will die” if his demands were not met. The post came as part of a slew of threats in the days prior, including a vow to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure.

The immediate backlash came from both within MAGA circles and outside them, as some pointed out that Trump was threatening a war crime and, although a ceasefire was reached late Tuesday, the president’s comments continue to draw criticism.

Some Republican lawmakers, however, remained silent on the remarks so when Giménez appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room for an interview on Friday, host Erica Hill pressed him for comment.

“Earlier this week, the president threatened to, in his words, eliminate quote ‘a whole civilization in Iran.’ That has prompted a lot of pushback for obvious reasons. You mentioned war crimes on the part of Iran, that has brought up questions about war crimes, potentially, if the U.S. were to act on that, along with the threats of taking out energy infrastructure,” she began, before asking: “Are you comfortable with the president’s language?”

“Look, I mean, the president has his way of trying to negotiate,” Giménez replied. “And so a lot of times what I’ll do is I don’t listen to, really, a lot of what he says, I just look at what he does. And so –”

“Would you be comfortable if he ordered the military to wipe out an entire civilization?” Hill cut in.

“Absolutely not,” the congressman said. “I mean, that’s not something I’m going to be comfortable with, wiping out a civilization. But again, I’m not also comfortable with Iran threatening to wipe out Israel and America for the last 47 years. ‘Death to America, death to Israel.’ I’m not comfortable with that either.”

Pivoting to point to the Iranian regime for perpetrating “real” war crimes.

“The only people that have really actually have war crimes against them is the Iranian regime. Like I said, using their own population as human shields on legitimate military targets, striking neutral flagged ships in international waters. Those are real war crimes – and then killing, you know, thousands of their own people when all they want is freedom, those are real war crimes. Okay? So we’re dealing with a regime that has been, you know, perpetrating war crimes for decades.”

“For the president of the United States to say that, which I wish he hadn’t,” he caveated, “But that is not a war crime. All right? That’s his negotiating style. And so I’ll leave it there.”

Watch above via CNN.

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