GOP cowards race to defend Trump’s insane Iran war crime threats

President Donald Trump mimics an Iranian protester being shot during a news conference on his war in Iran on April 6.

Following President Donald Trump’s threat to extinguish Iran’s civilization, House Republicans are working overtime to defend the mad king.

“Look what they're doing to the Strait of Hormuz,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida told Fox Business. “We just need to press forward because Iran is like cancer, and sometimes the cure to cancer hurts. But the cancer has to be eliminated—and that cancer is Iran.”

  Similarly, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York attempted to thread the needle, dodging questions from CNN’s John Berman about whether Trump’s war crime threats are serious. 

“He is talking about the energy and civilian infrastructure,” Lawler said.

“Is he?” Berman pressed. “Have you had a conversation with him about that? He says ‘never to be brought back again.’ He just means the bridges and the infrastructure?” 

“He's not talking about obliterating innocent people,” Lawler replied. 

Of course, that’s not how Lawler framed it less than 40 minutes later on Fox Business, where he boasted that Trump “is not bluffing. People misunderestimate [sic] at their own peril.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina managed the full MAGA two-step: blaming former President Joe Biden while claiming that Trump is somehow trying to de-escalate.

“President Trump is trying to actually turn the temperature down,” Harrigan said. “He's absolutely trying to put the screws to our strategic adversaries—which is China and Russia. He's doing that by taking off their periphery allies in Venezuela and now Iran.”

Sure, he’s sticking it to Iran’s ally Russia … by lifting sanctions so President Vladimir Putin can profit from oil sold at peak prices, while simultaneously enriching China—whose renewable energy market share only grows more valuable amid Trump’s global energy crisis.

At least someone’s “winning.”