Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois called his colleagues in Congress "children" for focusing more on Disney and culture war issues than the "genocide" happening in Ukraine at the hands of Russia.
Mr Kinzinger said that the "world order" was being challenged for the first time since World War II, but that his fellow Republicans were acting like "a bunch of children."
"They're sitting around thinking today about how we can win our next election, what the newest outrage is, what's the next thing we can do to get people angry and upset and get money from them for our re-election," he said. "We are being governed by a bunch of children."
He went on to say the lawmakers were not serious about running the United States, claiming they "do not understand the threat that's out there" from Russian President Vladimir Putin and from China.
"There is a genocide going on in Ukraine, and the outrage is over what's happening in Walt Disney. You guys deserve way better," he said.
He went on to say he was "glad" he was leaving office before taking a shot at his Republican colleagues.
"I mean, I'm glad I'm leaving here in a year because I'm just being surrounded by a bunch of children. So let's grow up," he said.
Mr Kinzinger announced last year that he would be leaving Congress after the Democratic majority in Illinois’ state legislature’s redistricting would have put him up against fellow incumbent Republican Representative Darin LaHood.
Republicans have been up in arms about Disney in response to the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay Law,” the Florida, which is formally titled the Parental Rights in Education Act. The law prohibits “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade education “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” in other grades.
Disney announced last month that it would pause political donations after it was revealed it gave money to politicians who pushed the law.
Republicans, including Gov Ron DeSantis’s spokeswoman, have tried to call it an “anti-grooming” law. In response, some Florida Republicans publicly floated whether to repal a decades-old arrangement with the Walt Disney Company that allows it to govern the district on which its parks and resorts are located.
“There are certain entities that have exerted a lot of influence through corporate means to generate special privileges in the law … I don’t think we should have special privileges in the law at all,” Mr DeSantis said.
