When it came to Iran and Iranians, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, was an a**hole.

Remember this was the guy that praised the Islamic State for an attack in Tehran as a “good thing” and suggested that maybe the United States should work with the militant organization.

Rohrabacher’s entire line of reasoning for why the United States should work with a militant group accused of human rights violations and war crimes like ethnic cleansing is astonishing. Here it is verbatim:

“We have recently seen an attack on Iran, and the Iranian government, the mullahs, believe that Sunni forces have attacked them. This may signal a ratcheting up of certain commitments by the United States of America. As far as I’m concerned, I just want to make this point and see what you think, isn’t it a good thing for us to have the United States finally backing up Sunnis who will attack Hezbollah and the Shiite threat to us? Isn’t that a good thing? And if so, maybe this is a Trump — maybe it’s a Trump strategy of supporting one group against another, considering that you have two terrorist organizations.”

Attackers stormed the parliament building in Tehran as well as the shrine of the country’s first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, a notable symbol for the Iranian government. At least 17 people were killed in the twin attacks, and dozens were injured. The attack was a notable achievement for the Islamic State, which according to the Iranian government, has been trying to plan an attack in the country for some time.

Rohrbacher has also been among the strongest supporter of the MEK group in Congress. For those who do not know, The MEK is one of many Iranian opposition groups, and has been on the US terrorist lists for decades and by all accounts has been responsible for killing Americans. They are unquestionably an undemocratic ‘Islamic Marxist’ group, who have sold their souls to any and all enemies of Iran – including Saddam Hussein, and Saudi Arabia. They are reviled (more than hated) by Iranians as well as most Iranian-Americans. Rohrbacher has attended their events. They are currently based in Albania.

Remember, this was the guy who praised President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, and renewed sanctions on Iran and the ban on ordinary Iranians from travelling to the U.S. Rohrbacher is a Trumptard, through and through. He parrots Trump’s rhetoric.

And remember like Trump, he has established Russian links to undermine US democracy.

Intelligence agents have told other members of the house foreign relations committee repeatedly, that when they scrutinize the Russian interference campaign, Mr. Rohrabacher, like an extra in a spy thriller, just keeps showing up — if not quite at the scene of the action, then just off camera.

In April 2016, he was in Moscow, accepting a copy of a “confidential” memo containing accusations against prominent Democratic donors that would, months later, reappear in Trump Tower when a Russian lawyer who had reported those allegations to the Russian government, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, sat down with Donald Trump Jr. to deliver a similar document.

Last August he was in London on a quick diversion from an anniversary trip to the Iberian Peninsula to meet Mr. Assange at the fugitive’s sanctuary in the Ecuadorean Embassy. American intelligence agencies believe Mr. Assange acted as a conduit for Russian operatives seeking to release a trove of hacked Democratic emails. Mr. Assange denies the accusation, and Mr. Rohrabacher hoped to broker a meeting with Mr. Trump to allow him to make his case.

Then earlier this year, this time on Capitol Hill, Mr. Rohrabacher dined with Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime. During Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, Mr. Torshin tried to set up a “backdoor” meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, according to an email that has been turned over to Senate investigators.

Republicans should take note, and make no mistake about it, Iranian-Americans really care about democracy! Both here and in Iran.

Dana Rohrbacher, may or may not know this – but L.A. is home to something like 500,000 Iranian-Americans. And they DO VOTE – now. They are becoming more civically active; and their children (2nd generation Americans) are now of voting age (who had deal with a lot of shit in their high schools growing up). And, after all the humiliation and attacks on Iranians by republican politicians – and his own open support for these Republicans – there was no way they would vote for him.

His loss can be easily explained. Iranian-Americans made a critical difference in 2018.