Louie Gohmert: “I appreciate the fact that the gentleman from California and I have met with the then-leader of Iraq. Neither the…”

“I appreciate the fact that the gentleman from California and I have met with the then-leader of Iraq. Neither the gentleman from California nor I cared for the man. He was the Prime Minister of Iraq. He did a great deal of damage to Iraq. He, along with President Obama, dramatically weakened Iraq. I know my friend recalls our conversation with Prime Minister Maliki. We were asking for answers to questions that we considered very serious. For example, I was asking about his commitment to protect the refugees from Iran that he had pledged to protect. My friend from California was asking about the Iraqi pledge to help pay us back for some of our costs in making Iraq free. Those two issues so infuriated Prime Minister Maliki that we got word later when we were on the C-130 that we were being banned from Iraq by the Prime Minister. But to hear our friends across the aisle talk, every time one of them and every time one of us on this side of the aisle have asked even people we consider to be despicable and have done terrible things and we wanted answers, we were committing a crime in demanding those answers. I also know my friend from California got similar treatment from a man we believed was corrupt as the leader of Afghanistan at the time. I don't find any crime or any harm in asking questions and getting answers, even from people for whom we have no respect. So I think it is a good thing.…”