US lawmaker reportedly helped rescue 32 Americans from Israel
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., tells 'America Reports' he hopes to avoid Afghan withdrawal-style catastrophe.
Florida Republican Congressman Cory Mills told FOX News on Wednesday he has helped rescue 32 Americans trapped in Israel after Hamas invaded and massacred civilians last Saturday.
Mills, who served in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division, told "America Reports" he cannot share specifics of his mission or location due to operational concerns and constraints, but added that his work is not over in rescuing his fellow countrymen from harm's way.
Some Americans had found themselves stuck in areas that now lack a "permissible environment" for full escape, Mills said, adding that he also helped evacuate U.S. citizens and eligible individuals from Afghanistan during President Biden's chaotic August 2021 withdrawal.
"I went in and was very thankful to be able to get -- for the second time, by the way I'll just add -- helping the Biden administration, who has failed to do their job," he said.
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Rep. Cory Mills (Bill Clark/CQ-Getty)
"[The] first time I did it was in 2021 where I conducted the very first successful rescue of Americans. But here it is, the second time doing the Biden administration's work because they had no plan."
Mills alleged Biden has had no plan for evacuating Americans from Israel, including purported church and synagogue groups visiting the Holy Land.
He also criticized Biden's ongoing habit of issuing midday "lids" – or pronouncements that there will be no further scheduled public appearances – amid the invasion.
"The Biden administration continues to want to do these lids, but I think it's about time that the American people put a lid on the disastrous administration that continues to fail in their plan and strategy to be able to get Americans out or to take into account the foreign policy [situation] that they actually create that actually leads to these types of incidents," he said.
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FOX News anchor John Roberts added that there have been sources within the U.S. Senate who have spoken to reporters of a plan to potentially use charter aircraft to evacuate 16,000 Americans from Israel within the next two days.
Mills said he had not heard much about that reported operation, but that such missions could find themselves curtailed if Lebanon-based Hezbollah – another Palestinian Iran-proxy – begin making moves.
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"The minute that you start seeing a potential counteroffensive or you start seeing General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah from Hezbollah kick in, or you see other proxy militia groups that are headed by people like Hadi al-Amiri [of the political-paramilitary Hadr group] or Qais Khazali [of Iran-backed paramilitary group Asa'ib Ahl al-Haqq] out of Iraq and Syria, that could definitely put a damper on things, especially if they start taking any type of indirect fire onto that runway," Mills said.
Mills said one major concern is that evacuation efforts like the one he is assisting could turn into a redux of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal:
"I hope that we don't see a repeat of what happened in 2021 in Afghanistan, where Americans were left behind and abandoned by this administration."
The lawmaker later said when some Americans purportedly were unable to get substantive assistance from the U.S.bureaucracy, he felt it necessary to step-in, remarking that the "American spirit" remains alive and is being shown by all efforts that are stepping up to help both Americans trapped in Israel and the Jewish State itself.
Former Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Texas, also tweeted a photo of Mills and purported American citizens she said was taken in Israel, saying "may God keep them safe as they continue their rescue efforts."
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