DUNDEE, Mich. — U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., recently gained negative attention on X, formerly Twitter, for a video posted on Friday night where he said Gaza should be treated "like Nagasaki and Hiroshima" in an attempt to "get it over quick."
The person who posted the video, @WhitchMI on X, said it was from a town hall meeting held by Walberg on Monday, March 25 in Dundee. The video currently has more than 97,000 views.
In the video, someone at the meeting can be heard asking Walberg:
"Why are we spending our money to build a port for them?"
An article by the Detroit Free Press stated that the question is about why the U.S. is building a temporary port off the Gaza coast to move humanitarian aid into the region, as mentioned in President Biden's State of the Union address.
In the video, Walberg's response is typed over the screen by the person who posted it, @WhitchMI, and reads:
"Yeah. Um — It's Joe Biden's the reason: We need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. I don't think we should, I — I don't think any of our aid that goes to Israel to support our greatest ally, arguably maybe in the world, to defeat Hamas and Iran and Russia and probably North Korea's in there, and China too, with them in helping — helping — uh — uh, Hamas. Um, we shouldn't be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It — it should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick."
While Walberg cannot be seen in the video, Mike Rorke, a member of the Office of Representative Walberg, gave a statement to 13 ON YOUR SIDE, confirming it was him.
The statement said Walberg's comments were taken out of context.
“During his 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. This metaphor also extended to Ukraine’s war against Russia," the statement said.
In addition to this, Walberg's Office included an audio recording from the meeting with more of the attendee's question and Walberg's answer.
The audio recording began before, and ended after, the segment shown in the video clip on X.
The attendee began his question by stating he recently spoke to a man in the U.S. Army who told him he's being deployed to Gaza to build a pier for a minimum of 90 days.
The attendee then asked the question included in the video on X about why the U.S. is building a port.
Walberg's complete response to the question was:
“It’s Joe Biden, the reason, we need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. I don’t think we should. I, I don’t think any of our aid that goes to Israel to support our greatest ally, arguably maybe in the world, to defeat Hamas, and Iran, and Russia, probably North Korea's in there and China too, with them, in helping, helping Hamas. We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick. The same, the same should be in Ukraine. Defeat Putin quick. Instead of 80% of our funding for Ukraine being used for humanitarian purposes, it should be 80-100% to wipe out Russian forces if that’s what we wanna do.”
Walberg's comments have drawn criticism from his Democratic colleagues, Michigan Senator Darrin Camilleri calling him a "disgrace" and saying he needs to resign.
Walberg is currently a representative Michigan’s 5th District, encompassing Branch, Cass, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Monroe and St. Joseph counties, along with portions of Berrien, Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties.
He previously represented the 7th district from 2007-2009 and from 2011-2023.
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