WASHINGTON – He’s trading the River Jordan for Jim Jordan.
Rep. Cory Mills is on his way back to Capitol Hill to help his party select a new House speaker after shuttling 77 Americans out of Israel via neighboring Jordan during a two-day visit, he told The Post Thursday.
On Tuesday, Mills (R-Fla.) read a Post report highlighting the plight of Silver Prout, an American trapped in Israel with a California-based church group who had been on a Holy Land tour when the Hamas terror group attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7.
The account was one of several Mills had heard of US citizens stuck in a war zone after major airlines grounded flights to and from Israel.
“I just immediately left DC and I just decided within an hour’s notice that I couldn’t sit there and do nothing anymore,” Mills said.
“… I campaigned on the fact that I wanted to be a statesman who acts – and not a politician who talks.”
Despite a lingering leadership crisis in the House after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted Oct. 3, Mills used his former Army expertise to fly to Jordan on Tuesday, cross into Israel by land and get his fellow countrymen out.
“I feel like I’m going to get back just in time for the vote, as well; I’m not going to miss that,” said Mills, who is supporting Jordan (R-Ohio) in the speakership race.
“God put me exactly where I was supposed to be, which is to help these people as much as I can.”
It was especially important to take action, Mills said, after he’d helped rescue Americans and allies left behind in Afghanistan by the Biden administration in the chaotic August 2021 withdrawal from Kabul.
“I literally tried to do this from start to stop to make sure that they know, one, that they’re going to be taken care of and that they’re not left behind and not forgotten by their own government,” he said.
“I couldn’t care less what district they’re from, whether they can vote for me, whether they’re Democrat or Republican … these are Americans who wanted to get home.”
Hours after The Post published Prout’s story, Mills was en route to meet her, crossing through Jordan into Israel – a country he’d never before visited – via taxi cab.
On Wednesday, Prout became the first of 32 Americans that Mills took out of Israel by coordinating with his contacts in the region – footing the bill for a bus to take the group to hotels in Jordan, from where they could book flights home.
“I will be eternally grateful to Congressman Mills for the way he saw my story and selflessly jumped into action, literally walked into a war and personally evacuated me,” Prout told The Post on Thursday.
“While our administration failed to put Americans first, he showed the world what it means to be a true public servant that cares about his people.”
“He is a hero and total badass that saved many lives and our nation is lucky to have him as a leader,” she added.
On Thursday, Mills got another 45 Americans out of Israel, something he said he felt “blessed” to do.
“My question is that if me, by myself, in a country I’ve never been in my life, can go and coordinate and get 77 Americans out in two days, how is it that the whole power of government and the president himself United States hasn’t gotten out a single one?” he told The Post.
Frustrated by a lack of action by the Biden administration and with the House still without a speaker, Mills has decided he must return to Washington and try to help more Americans from the Capitol.
“‘I’ve not missed anything [by being in Israel], in reality. They’re also still squabbling,” he said.
“The thing that I feel confident about is we got 77 Americans safely out of Israel and going home – that was worth every single members’ meeting that I’ve had.”
After National Security Council spokesman John Kirby’s announcement Thursday that the US would begin chartering flights out of Israel for Americans there, Mills is feeling more confident that his mission will continue once he leaves.
Still, he said more work needs to be done to help others left in Israel as it wages its first declared war in 50 years – calling it a “joke” that the Biden administration is chartering planes “only after Americans are stepping up and doing these rescues on their own.”
“By the time I get back, hopefully we’ll have rallied around a good, strong conservative leader (and I can) put my vote in, happily do my job as an elected representative of the people and we can get back to work,” he said.