Republican defends sending grenades to colleagues as a ‘simple gift’ – and urges flustered Democrats to get ‘this upset’ about ‘the border and the sexualization of children’ instead
- A photograph obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com showed the Florida veteran handed out the grenades made in his state emblazoned with an elephant
- A disclaimer at the bottom of the letter confirmed the grenades would not explode
- ‘If they would get this upset about our borders, or the sexualization our children or things like that, as opposed to a simple gift, that would be really, really nice’
GOP Rep. Cory Mills scoffed at the outrage over his ‘simple gift’ of an inert grenade to fellow House members Friday morning.
A photograph obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com showed the Florida veteran had handed out the grenades made in his state emblazoned with the symbol of the GOP – an elephant.
‘I am honored to be a part of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees,’ Mills wrote in a letter accompanying the trinket bomb. ‘In that spirit, it is my pleasure to give you a 40mm grenade, made for a MK19 grenade launcher. These are manufactured in the Sunshine State and first developed in the Vietnam War.’
A disclaimer at the bottom of the letter confirmed the grenades would not explode.
Mills said of the Democratic outrage the gift had stirred up: ‘If they would get this upset about our borders, or the sexualization our children or things like that, as opposed to a simple gift, that would be really, really nice for once.’
‘I think that what they’re really upset about is that didn’t actually give them one of these gifts,’ he added.
Mills to Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo it was ‘customary’ for lawmakers to pass around gifts from their home state at the start of the new Congress.
Mills to Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo it was ‘customary’ for lawmakers to pass around gifts from their home state at the start of the new Congress
Rep. Ted Lieu, also a veteran and vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, responded to a tweet of the grenade: ‘I am retweeting this action by MAGA Republican [Mills] for your information and without comment.’
‘I’ve offered Congressman Ted Lieu who seemed to have an issue with it to make him one unfortunately, I can’t put House majority on the back like I did for everyone else, for obvious reasons,’ Mills said.
Mills said the inert grenade had been cleared by Capitol Police and cleared by the bomb squad.
Mills passed out grenades accompanied with letters to fellow members of Congress
‘It’s clearly nothing more than a paperweight,’ he said. ‘But you’ve got people like Ted Lieu and [Rep. Eric] Swalwell who are melting down over this.’
Mills won his seat in Florida’s 7th District in November, flipping the seat formerly held by Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the subcommittee that investigated the Jan. 6 riots.
Trump-backed Mills has said he does not view President Biden as the legitimate victor in the 2020 election. An Army veteran and defense contractor by trade, Mills touted during his campaign that his company ‘sold tear gas used on Black Lives Matter protesters.’
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