GOP Congressman Seemingly Advocates for the Use of Nuclear Weapons in Gaza

A Republican congressman from Michigan is taking heat after a video surfaced of him seemingly calling for Israel or its allies to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip—part of a plan to solve the seemingly intractable conflict and “get it over quick.” The video in question shows U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) at a town hall meeting on March 25 in Dundee, Michigan, according to the Detroit Free Press, which obtained a copy of the video. He can be heard clearly but is not pictured in the 47-second clip, which was first posted to X, formerly Twitter, by Democratic-aligned group DemCast. “Why are we spending our money to build a port for them?” he asks in the video. “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima—get it over quick.” Walberg’s representatives rushed to clean up his comments Saturday, issuing a statement to the Free Press denying that it was his intention to deploy weapons of mass destruction in the besieged enclave. “Congressman Walberg vehemently disagrees with putting our troops in harm’s way,” Walberg’s spokesperson, Mike Rorke, told the newspaper. “He has great empathy for the innocent people in Gaza who have been thrust into this situation due to the attack carried out by Hamas, leaving 1,163 innocent civilians dead.” He added: “During [Walberg’s] community gathering, he clearly uses a metaphor to support Israel’s swift elimination of Hamas, which is the best chance to save lives long-term and the only hope at achieving a permanent peace in the region.”