Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:15 pm
On MSNBC’s ‘All in with Chris Hayes’ on Tuesday, Donald Trump supporter and GOP Congressman Michael Burgess slammed Hillary Clinton’s Senate vote in favor of the Iraq War and said that she should admit that she made a mistake.
Seconds later, the congressman admitted – wait for it – that he, too, would’ve voted in favor of military intervention in Iraq.
Amazing to watch people turn themselves into pretzels on Iraq.
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— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 28, 2016
“The issue is that she has made it the fact that, uh, she doesn’t make mistakes,” Burgess said. “And to the extent that Jeb Bush admitted that that was a mistake, she should admit that that vote was a mistake.”
While it’s easy to be distracted by the incoherence of Burgess’s comments, it’s important to set the record straight.
As Chris Hayes quickly pointed out during the exchange, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly expressed regret for her vote that authorized the Bush administration to move forward in Iraq – especially given what we know today.
Unlike the Republican nominee, she has actually acknowledged that she made the wrong call. Whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat doing it, owning up to mistakes is something we should respect.
Even more shocking is that Burgess flatly admitted during the interview that he would’ve also voted in favor of the Iraq invasion if he was a member of Congress when it came up.
“I wasn’t here, I didn’t have that vote, I believe I would’ve voted in favor of that activity, but I wasn’t here,” Burgess said.
Ultimately, the comments by the GOP congressman underscore the precarious position Republicans have put themselves in when it comes to this issue.
After all, it is the Republican Party that didn’t just forcefully speak out in favor of the initial invasion, but also refused to end the war even after the initial rationale for it collapsed.
Now, as Trump pretends he was against the war all along (he wasn’t), the very same folks who were gung-ho about Iraq are now piling on the Democratic nominee.
It’s hypocrisy at its finest.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
