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The Republican defends sending grenades to his colleagues as a “mere gift,” and urges nervous Democrats to get “so mad” about “the border and the sexualization of children.”
- A photograph obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com showed the Florida veteran handing out the home-made grenades adorned with an elephant.
- A disclaimer at the end of the letter confirmed that the grenades would not explode.
- “If they would get so upset about our borders, or the sexualization of our children or things like that, instead of just a gift, that would be very, very nice.”
Republican Rep. Cory Mills mocked 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 handing out the home-made grenades emblazoned with the Republican Party symbol – an elephant.
“I am honored to serve on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees,” Mills wrote in a letter accompanying the trinket bomb. “In that spirit, it is my pleasure to present you with a 40mm grenade, made for an MK19 grenade launcher. These are made in the Sunshine State and were first developed in the Vietnam War.
A disclaimer at the bottom of the letter confirmed that the grenades would not explode.
Mills said of the Democratic outrage the gift had sparked: “If they got so upset about our borders, or the sexualization of our children or things like that, instead of just a gift, it would be really, really nice for once.” ‘
“I think what really bothers them is that they didn’t actually get one of these gifts,” he added.
Mills told Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network, it was the “custom” for legislators to hand out gifts from their home state at the start of a new Congress.
Mills to Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network, it was “the custom” for legislators to pass out 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 from the grenade: ‘I am retweeting this action by the Republican MAGA [Mills] for your information and without comment.
“I offered to Congressman Ted Lieu, who seemed to have a problem with that, to make it one, unfortunately, I can’t put the majority of the House in the back like I did for everyone else, for obvious reasons,” he said. Mills.
Mills said the inert grenade had been cleaned up by Capitol Police and cleaned up by the bomb squad.
Mills handed out grenades accompanied by letters to other members of Congress
“It’s clearly nothing more than a paperweight,” he said. ‘But you have people like Ted Lieu and [Rep. Eric] Swalwell who are melting over this.
Mills won his seat in Florida’s 7th District in November, flipping the seat previously held by Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the subcommittee that investigated the Jan. 6 riots.
The Trump-backed Mills has said he does not see President Biden as the legitimate victor in the 2020 election. Mills, an Army veteran and defense contractor by trade, promoted during his campaign that his company “sold tear gas used in Black Lives Matter protesters”.