Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) on Friday referred to Hillary Clinton as “mentally impaired.”
“You don’t make fun of people who are impaired, have special needs,” Gohmert said during his speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
“And whether you like her or not, Hillary Clinton has made clear she is mentally impaired. This is not somebody you should be making fun of,” Gohmert continued, to laughs from the crowd.
“I get the impression that in law school and along the way she’s been very, very smart. But I don’t know, maybe it was the concussion. … They won’t tell us what really is going on with her.”
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who Gohmert is backing, has made an issue of Clinton’s health during the campaign, with aides pushing claims that she has a brain disease and focusing on the concussion she suffered while serving as secretary of State in 2012.
Clinton’s campaign has pushed back vociferously against the attacks on her health, slamming Trump for pushing “deranged conspiracy theories” and “parroting lies.”
“We need to be praying for Hillary Clinton. There’s special needs there, there’s mental impairment,” Gohmert said Friday.
The GOP congressman acknowledged that he said earlier this week on Fox that Clinton’s “brain is still in a blender.” He said Friday that was “not a proper thing to say.”
Gohmert said it was a “no brainer” for Republicans to push for hardline legislation while they have majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“When you look at the kind of people running for president, no-brainers are a good thing now,” he said to laughs.