Hunter Defends Alleged War Criminal: My Unit Probably Killed ‘Hundreds Of Civilians’

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 13: Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is interviewed about his vaporizer pen in his Rayburn office, January 12, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - JANUARY 13: Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is interviewed about his vaporizer pen in his Rayburn office, January 13, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) defended a U.S. soldier accused of war crimes again last week on the basis that Hunter’s unit in the military had killed “probably hundred of civilians” while touring in Iraq.

Hunter appeared on a military podcast called Zero Blog Thirty on Tuesday to discuss his stance on Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL chief who allegedly slit a teen ISIS fighter’s throat and posed with the corpse. Gallagher is also accused of shooting civilians. President Donald Trump is apparently considering giving Gallagher a pardon.

“I frankly don’t care if he was killed,” Hunter said of the ISIS militant. “Even if everything the prosecutors say is true in this case, Eddie Gallagher should still be given a break, I think.”

One of the hosts asked, “So you’re saying that even if he did take a knife to the throat of this ISIS fighter, even though that goes against our rules—”

“Yeah,” said Hunter. “I think this guy was gonna die anyway.”

“I was an artillery officer and we fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah,” the GOP congressman continued. “Killed probably hundreds of civilians, if not scores if not hundreds of civilians, probably killed women and children, if there were any left in the city when we invaded, so do I get judged too?”

Hunter made similarly eyebrow-raising defenses of Gallagher last week when the congressman admitted that he had taken pictures of dead enemy combatants and “saying something stupid” while he was in Iraq.

Hunter’s remarks on Gallagher begin at around the 32:00 time stamp.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the actual State of the Union…

  2. "so do I get judged too?”

    Sure.

    P.S. IANAL, but can he still be punished?

  3. Avatar for sanni sanni says:

    So the theme will be "Reelect me, because you already knew I was a drunk, philandering, fraudster when you elected me last, now you ca know that I am a war criminal to. Notoriety Matters!

    Or, something.

  4. Um…Maybe someone from the armed forces should contact him and politely encourage him to speak in a less incredibly irresponsible way? Loose lips and all that? If your thing is going to be defending this guy, ad-libbing it maybe isn’t the way to go.

  5. So let me get this straight-

    A Republican congressman under indictment admits to possibly killing hundreds of Iraqi civilians and posing for photos with corpses, and says “I just don’t care”.

    Yep, sounds like a Monday.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

57 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for fess Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for globalguy Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for george_spiggott Avatar for sandyh Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for mike_in_houston Avatar for milehigh_sdfan Avatar for dickweed Avatar for citytrucker Avatar for dommyluc Avatar for established_1781 Avatar for jtx Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for tiowally Avatar for brian512 Avatar for corncaucus2008 Avatar for kenga Avatar for c_stedman Avatar for ANNFFL

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: