WATCH: GOP senator: I don’t understand opposition to Trump’s parade idea
A Republican senator is questioning opposition – including from within the GOP – to President Trump’s proposal to hold a military parade celebrating U.S. service members.
“I’m for it. I’m the only one that seems to be for it,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview with The Hill.
“Where is the opposition coming from? I don’t quite understand it,” Inhofe added.
A number of senators from both parties this week have panned the idea of holding a parade after the White House and Pentagon indicated that Trump asked military leaders to explore the idea.
Trump has repeatedly mused about having an event to showcase the nation’s military after witnessing the Bastille Day celebrations in France last summer.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is among those urging caution in holding such an event, told The Hill that “a North Korean, Soviet-style military parade would be counter to our own interests.”
“To me it would be cheesy and weak,” he said.
Fellow Armed Services Committee member Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said he wants to honor the troops, but said, “We don’t necessarily have to do it the same way that Kim Jong Un does.”
Heinrich also questioned the cost of such an event, while Inhofe said holding a military parade on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington would pale in comparison to other defense costs.
Watch the video above to hear the senators in their own words.
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