Ted Lieu is a Democrat congressman from Los Angeles, California.  When he was first elected in 2014, he seemed pretty reasonable with his views.  Chosen to replace Democratic Party leader Rep. Henry Waxman, it is not surprising that he was, at a minimum, left of center.  But his recent actions have shown that there are no longer any moderate Democrats left, at least in California.  In a recent town hall conference call, he made outrageous and non-factual statements only an extremist could make.  Here is a look at some of his comments and my take on why he is so wrong.

To start, he did not consider all his constituents, or the Constitution, when he opted to join 66 other Democratic congressional representatives who boycotted President Trump's inauguration.  It is sad that he did not have the same attitude as President Obama, who declared: "It is no secret that the president-elect and I have some pretty significant differences.  We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country."

By his petty sit-out alone, it is obvious that Congressman Lieu is a divider, not a uniter.

Next, he stated several times that Trump is "a president who lies pathologically.  This is how authoritarian regimes get started."

How sad that he never spoke out when the leader of his own party, then-president Obama, lied to the American people numerous times regarding the Operation Fast and Furious gun-running scandal, the Benghazi attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound, the IRS scandal targeting dissidents, and Obamacare.  On the latter, maybe Lieu should remember the famous words of President Obama: "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it," not to mention your own doctor.  Obama and his administration claimed the Benghazi attack was due to a video rather than a premeditated terrorist attack.  The IRS scandal, meanwhile, as he told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, had "not even a smidgen of corruption."  This despite the fact that Tea Party members were audited ten times more often than regular Americans.  As for Fast and Furious, President Obama's comments earned three Pinocchios from the Washington Post.

When asked about President Trump's mental state, Lieu's response continued the same divisive, dishonest pattern.  At the town hall, he told voters:

This is a great question.  We are looking into that issue. ... Isn't it about time there is a White House psychiatrist since the presidency is such a demanding job.  Now we do have a president that has a disconnection of the truth, and this is highly troubling.  It is an issue we are researching and investigating[.] ... The administration gets crazier by the week.

Why didn't Lieu wonder about President Obama's mental competency?  There were questions about this former president's mental state when a renowned expert on narcissism, Dr. Sam Vaknin, noted how Obama's language, posture, and demeanor, as well as the testimonies of his closest friends, suggested that he either is a narcissist or may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

Speaking of President Trump's terror-state travel ban, Lieu described it as incompetent and irrational.  People might agree that the rollout was poorly done, but irrational?  Really?

Lieu went on to say:

No one from the seven countries on the ban has killed any American on U.S. soil.  It is exactly zero.  The libertarian Cato Institute did a study showing that your chances of dying from any refugee terrorist attack on U.S. soil are one in 3.6 billion.  Compare that to being struck by lightning twice, which is one in nine billion.  This shows how irrational the executive order by President Trump is.  It does not make any sense and tries to solve a problem that does not exist.

Although the dangers of terrorism from outside our borders have not hit America in a widespread capacity, it is also true that Europe is an example of what can occur.  Maybe the congressman should do his homework to remember that one of the Paris terrorists in 2015 was embedded with the Syrian refugees who entered the European Union states.  Also in 2015, Sweden reported that 77.6% of its rapists were "foreigners," a word synonymous with "immigrants from a Muslim country."  In Germany, there were a number of rapes committed by Muslim migrants.  There are many more examples of how European women were abused and raped by Muslim "refugees," but the congressman appeared to be ignoring this when he called the executive order "irrational."

Anyone can play the numbers game.  But isn't one person who has been killed or raped one too many?  Most people agree that the rollout of the travel ban was done poorly, but the point of needing to strongly vet refugees is not wrong, and by the congressman's logic, it needs to be expanded to other countries.

Lieu went on to claim that President Trump did not read this executive order and that Steve Bannon "takes on a more important role because there are so few advisers to the president."  

I wonder why!  Maybe because the Democrats are being obstructionists in Congress and have tried to delay a vote on getting the president's Cabinet approved?

Faulting the current and past administrations for the deaths of women and children during the Yemen raids, Lieu called those atrocities, saying:

I have been pushing to stop helping Saudi Arabia commit what looks like war crimes.  Reuters reported Trump approved the raid without sufficient intelligence, ground support, or adequate backup preparations.

Using his own words and statistics shows the hypocrisy.  In Yemen, how many died from collateral damage?  I bet it was not billions.  There is far more of a chance that someone from Yemen would be struck by lightning than killed by an American military action.  Lieu fights for Yemenis more than he fights for Americans.  He desires to ignore the reason why both the Obama and Trump administrations are targeting terrorists in Yemen and are coordinating with the Saudis.  It's called ISIS.  In fact, Pentagon spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said, "I can confirm for you that based on initial indications, valuable and actionable intelligence was taken in this operation," but the congressman chose to ignore this.  Maybe he should speak with a former acting CIA director, Mike Morell, who in 2015 said, "The last three attempted attacks to the United States were by al-Qaeda in Yemen."  This one statement supports the travel ban and the military missions there.

Regarding the Russian cyber-attack, Lieu says the reports concluded:

The cyber-attacks were done to undermine faith in the U.S. elections, to hurt Secretary Clinton's election chances, and to help Donald Trump's election chances[.] ... What I can say is that President Donald Trump is lying when he said that Russia did not help him.  Again, he is lying pathologically.

He and his Democratic counterparts should be more worried about what was done and why it was able to be done.  Could it be that Hillary Clinton's campaign did not have adequate security procedures?  What we know is that her campaign chairman, John Podesta, made all the classic mistakes: a terrible password, an emailing of that password, and different sites having the password.  Let's not forget Clinton's private server as well.  What the congressman should be worried about is why President Obama did not keep his campaign promise when he said in December 2008, "As president, I'll make cyber-security the top priority that it should be in the 21st century."

It appears that bipartisanship is dead.  There is no need for Congressman Lieu to use insulting rhetoric.  Instead of using the Democrat talking points, he should consider the facts.  Whose interests does he truly care about? The American people's, or the Democratic Party's? After hearing him, no wonder people want to drain the swamp.

Elise Cooper writes for The American Thinker.  She has done book reviews and author interviews and a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.