Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Steve King (R-Iowa) were in Egypt this past weekend and took the opportunity to film an unusual 15 minutes long joint statement praising the current government in Egypt.
In the video posted by the Washington Post's Max Fisher, Bachmann thanks the Egyptian military for overthrowing former President Mohammed Morsi and cracking down against the "great evil" and "common enemy" of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“I want to assure the people of Egypt that I, as a member of Congress, will stand strong in support of continuing military support, United States support financially, to stand for the military in Egypt,” Bachmann said in the video. “We know that you have been a partner. You’ve been a partner in the war on terrorism. You’ve acted bravely here on the front lines.”
Gohmert compared the man now running Egypt, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to George Washington and said the “bloodthirsty Muslim Brothers” want to “destabilize things” and seek “that large caliphate.”
The video is largely being panned by the American media. Fisher calls the video a "doozy," Business Insider's Brett Logiurato calls the video "bizarre, to say the least," and the New York Times quotes a political scientists who "called the lawmakers’ statements 'utterly absurd' and compared the conference to 'a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit — unbelievable, ludicrous, almost comic if it wasn’t so painful.'"
The trio's call for support stand against where the administration seems to be heading. Last week President Barack Obama's national security team recommended the U.S. suspend aid to Egypt over the ousting of Morsi.
