Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week that he fears that by sending additional Marines to Guam, the island will become so overpopulated that it will “capsize.”
Johnson was questioning Admiral Robert Willard, who heads the U.S. Pacific fleet, about plans to send about 8,000 additional Marines and their families to the small Pacific island of Guam.
“My fear,” Johnson said, “is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”
After a pause, the admiral responded: “We don’t anticipate that. The Guam population, I think, currently about 175,000, and again, with 8,000 Marines and their families, it’s an addition of about 25,000 more into the population.”
Watch:
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Johnson’s office said the Democrat is a “tremendous deadpan — and that he was using a facetious metaphor.”
Johnson’s office did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
h/t LA Times.
