'You guys are vultures': MAGA lawmaker rails against reporters over military badge he didn’t earn

26 June 2024

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), the far-right MAGA Republican who introduced a bill to rename Washington, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport after Donald Trump, has been engaged in an ugly battle with reporters over a Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) he continued to wear even though it was rescinded from him.

But Nehls, according to NOTUS, finally removed the CIB, and he angrily railed against the media when speaking to reporters on Wednesday, June 26.

When asked why he had removed it, Nehls responded, "Because you guys are vultures…. I know what I've done, and I certainly don't have to justify myself to you guys. You were probably in middle school when I was over there. So, I don’t have to justify myself to you in any form or fashion. But I know the truth. And now that I don't wear that, what are you going to talk to me about?"

NOTUS' John T. Seward notes that Nehls received the CIB in 2008 when he was deployed in Afghanistan. However, the CIB was rescinded, according to Seward, when the Pentagon "audited his service record."

"Nehls served as a Civil Affairs officer during that time, an Army spokesperson confirmed to NOTUS — a role that does not qualify for the Combat Infantryman Badge," Seward reports. "Still, the Texas Republican continued to wear the badge and doubled down in interviews and public statements that he had earned it. Nehls has repeatedly suggested the Army is targeting him for being a supporter of Donald Trump."

The NOTUS reporter adds, "Fellow supporters of Trump in his own GOP caucus, however, expressed deep frustration with Nehls for wearing the badge, as NOTUS first reported this month."

One of those Nehls critics was Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Montana), who, Seward notes, said of Nehls, "It matters. As a former commander, it matters what you wear on your uniform. And if you didn't earn it, you shouldn't wear it.'"

Read NOTUS' full article at this link.

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