Congressman sends inert grenades to colleagues in House offices

A new Republican congressman from Florida delivered an unusual welcome gift to his House colleagues: inert grenades with a letter inviting them to “join.”

Congressman Cory Mills, 42, who is a US Army veteran, said in the letter that the inert items, emblazoned with a Republican elephant, were 40-millimeter grenades made in Florida and developed during the Vietnam War. The smooth cylindrical gray and yellow shells are made for a Mk 19 grenade launcher.

“Let’s come together and get to work on behalf of our constituents,” he said.

A reporter for The Daily Mail posted a photo of a grenade and Mr. Mills’ letter on Twitter, where the gift drew mixed reviews from House’s fellow freshmen. Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican from Georgia, said he “loved” his and just needed a pitcher, while Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who didn’t get one, drew a comparison to Rep. George Santos, the Republican congressman from New York whose lies about his biography are under scrutiny.

“Not even George Santos could invent these things”, Mr. Himes saying.

A spokesman for Mills said it was customary for new Republican members of the House to bring gifts from their home states and that Mills had personally paid for the inert grenades.

All security measures were followed when delivering the grenades to the offices of Mills’ House colleagues on Capitol Hill, the spokesperson added.

The official House historian said that while the office did not track gifts from lawmakers, “it is not uncommon for member offices to give away items from their districts like peanuts or candy.”

The grenades were the most recent theatrical defense of the guns by a Republican member of Congress.

Under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a policy was imposed after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, require legislators to be screened for weapons before entering the chamber of the Chamber. Visitors to the Capitol are prohibited from carrying firearms, but federal law provides an exception for lawmakers that some House Democrats have been pushing to remove since the mob attack.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who opposed the policy, was house floor guard after she refused to allow Capitol Police to search her bag. In 2020, another Colorado Republican, Ken Buck, handled an AR-15 in his Capitol Hill officechallenging President Biden to take it.

The metal detectors installed after the attack were removed this month, at the start of the 118th Congress, at the request of the new Republican majority.

Neither the Capitol Police public information office nor the House sergeant-at-arms office responded to repeated requests for information about the delivery of the inert grenades.

Mr. Mills won the election for the northern Orlando district last year, flipping a seat previously held by Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat and member of the House select committee that investigated the mob attack on Capitol Hill.

In a statement this month, Mr. Mills, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, encouraged his fellow Republicans to “disavow the awakening ideologies that plague our military and return to our armed meritocracy.”

In one campaign adbefore last year’s election, he compared mask mandates to the tyranny of the Taliban and appeared on Fox News to criticize the Department of Defense for encouraging diversity and equity in the military.

mr mills received the endorsement of Donald Trump after repeating his debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 general election.