Tom Malinowski is an unlikely member of Congress. But he's fast becoming a force on Capitol Hill
It seems unlikely a freshman House member who’s never held elected office before could become a real irritant to the White House on foreign policy — especially in an age when America is turning inward, consumed by debates over health care, inequality, race and immigration. And in this “Romney Republican” congressional district, there’s no guarantee that Malinowski will be able to stick around longer than just one term.
“Yeah, I mean, the very statement there is outrageous,” Pompeo responded, going on to defend the Trump administration's strict sanctions on Pyongyang. Speaking in a gymnasium at Mount Olive High School later that night, Malinowski said those refugees came from Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan because they thought they would be safe in New Zealand. Without mentioning Trump by name, Malinowski harangued politicians who employ language about an “invasion” of migrants — as Trump had the day after the shootings and during the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
“It’s scary,” he said at another point in our interview. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before in our country. And it’s a problem we’re going to be dealing with, I fear, after Trump is gone.”As alarmed as Malinowski can sound about Trump, he finds himself in a curious political position: In his historically Republican district, he could not have won by bashing the president all the time.
“Democrats can talk about these issues so long as we frame them in the right way,” Malinowski insisted to me. “I’m not an alarmist. I speak calmly and precisely about what’s happening in our country and to our community.”Malinowski’s presence on Capitol Hill — particularly his perch on the Foreign Affairs Committee — irks some of his Republican colleagues.
Most — if not all — first-time members of Congress have never been in a classified briefing. Malinowski’s fellow freshman lawmakers often lean on his executive branch experience when drawing their own conclusions. Every Democrat ended up voting in favor of the, a remarkable and rare show of Democratic unity on a fraught foreign-policy issue.
“He reamed me out about my support for banning arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He said, ‘Are you one of those people who think we should stop selling [precision-guided munitions] to Saudi Arabia?’ And he gave me a look that could kill,” Malinowski said with a laugh. “I tried to shift the subject as quickly as I could.”
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