GOP Rep. Gimenez: Iran Is Playing Us, Trump Needs To Take Direct Action And Make Them Suffer
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the Iran War in an interview with FOX Business host Stuart Varney.
STUART VARNEY, FOX BUSINESS: Take a look at this op-ed, it’s in the Wall Street Journal, quote, Israel fights while Trump talks. The US is demanding more restraint from an ally than it does from Iran. Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez joining me now. Congressman, do you agree with that? Is Trump helping Iran by ordering Netanyahu not to hit Hezbollah? REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Yeah, I hate to depart from my president, but actually I agree with it. Look, I’m starting to feel like we’re Charlie Brown and Iran is Lucy and every time we go kick the ball, it’s been taken away. You know, we’re close to a deal. We’re two days from a deal. We’re three days from a deal and it’s not happening. And so if I were in Vegas right now, I’d be betting against them two days. We’re going to be right where we are today. I think that bad behavior deserves punishment and unfortunately the Iranians are exhibiting bad behavior and they’re not suffering any consequences for that. As you can tell, I’m a little bit more hawkish than the president would be. VARNEY: Are the Iranians winning because they’re playing for time, they’re getting some time, and they know that the midterms are coming and that our president is under pressure. Is that the game they’re playing? GIMENEZ: Of course, I think that’s the game they’re playing and I think what we need to do is take away their Trump card, which is pardon the pun, okay? It’s the Straits of a Hormuz. And so we need to get to the point where we start the Straits of a Hormuz open again with or without Iran’s help. Take away that Trump card and every time that they give us a deadline or we give them a deadline and they don’t meet it on coming to our terms and they got to suffer the consequences. And that’s the only thing that they understand. Right now they think they’re playing us. I happen to agree with them. I think they are playing with us and I think that we need to take a little bit more direct action and take away that Trump card and make them suffer a little bit for those days. Every day that goes by we don’t get a deal.
