Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth addressed a group of Arizona Republicans over the weekend and lent some extra credibility to the survey that ranked him among the dumbest members of Congress.
The dude says the U.S. never declared war on the Nazis during World War II.
Hayworth was asked a question about the U.S. government's failure to formally declare war in modern-day conflicts and responded by saying the following:
"But I would also point out, that if we want to be sticklers, the war that Dwight Eisenhower led in Europe against the Third Reich was never declared by the United States Congress," Hayworth bumbled. "Recall, the Congress passed a war resolution against Japan. Germany
declared war on us two days later. We never formally declared war on Hitler's Germany, and yet we fought the war."
And, of course, we got our hands on the video, which you can check out after the jump.
Since we're being "sticklers" about it, the United States Congress did declare war on Nazi Germany, on December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the same day Germany declared war on the U.S. Check it out here.
We spoke to Hayworth spokesman Mark Sanders to see if J.D. needed a seventh-grade-history refresher course and he directed us to a statement from the campaign about the former congressman's latest gaff.
"In a give and take session with members of an audience, Congressman Hayworth was asked about the current conflicts the U.S. is engaged in. He said that the United States did not declare war on Germany during World War II, and agreed with the gentleman asking the question that additional research might be needed. Hayworth instructed his researcher
to look into it and we found that on Dec. 11, 1941, Germany declared war on the United States and President Roosevelt wrote 'I therefore request the Congress to RECOGNIZE a state of war between the United States and Germany and between the United States and Italy.'"
The campaign of Hayworth's opponent in the GOP Senate primary, Senator John McCain, is eatin' J.D.'s gaff right up.
The passion Rogers is referring to can be seen about 41 second into the video -- all that finger waving kinda reminds us of a certain leader of the very country on which Hayworth says we never declared war...sans-moustache, of course.