Louie Gohmert leaves Congress having passed one law and spread countless falsehoods

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, speaks on primary election day 2022 about his bid to be attorney general. In many ways, his retirement from Congress will be a changing of the guard as the House attracts younger, like-minded firebrands. (Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)

WASHINGTON — In 2010, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert warned the nation from the floor of the House of Representatives about a looming threat: terrorist babies. He described — without providing evidence — a diabolical and far-fetched scheme in which foreign enemies were sending pregnant women to the U.S. to birth babies that would emerge decades later as terrorists.

He found out about it, he said, from a conversation with a retired FBI agent on a flight, even as the FBI said it had no information about any such plot.