With news breaking that the U.S. island territory of Guam experienced a 5.2 magnitude earthquake Tuesday, Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson made sure his Twitter followers knew he had previously — and hilariously — warned of an unlikely tragedy on the military-heavy island.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn y’all,” Johnson tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “’Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake – Guam Region.’” Johnson ended his tweet with a link to a U.S. Geological Survey website with the details of the Guam quake.
Johnson was referencing a comment that made him nationally infamous during a 2010 House Armed Services Committee hearing. Johnson told Admiral Robert F. Willard, the commander of the U.S. pacific fleet, that he feared Guam “will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”
WATCH: Rep. Hank Johnson seems to think Guam is a boat or a Frisbee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg
Shortly thereafter, Johnson insisted in a statement that he was only making a metaphorical statement.
“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over,” Johnson wrote. “I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents, an additional 80,000 people during peak construction to the port on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 could be a tipping point which would adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and overburden its already overstressed infrastructure.”
Johnson’s spokesman told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that the congressman was just showing his sense of humor with this latest tweet.
“He’s making a little fun of himself,” Johnson’s spokesman said. “He’s making a joke. That’s all.”