Mark Levin endorsed Afghanistan War veteran Brian Mast for Congress on his radio show Wednesday, calling him "a real conservative American hero."
Mast, who is running as a Republican in Florida’s 18th congressional district, was a bomb technician in the highest level of special operations in Afghanistan. During his time being deployed, he lost both of his legs.
"The short version of my story is that I found one bomb too many while I was serving in Afghanistan," Mast said Wednesday on Levin’s show. "And after I learned to walk again, went through some recovery at Walter Reid Army Medical Center, I went back to work with three different federal agencies in counterterrorism."
After serving in Afghanistan, Mast finished his degree from Harvard University with a concentration in economics and a minor in environmental studies. He then served with the Israeli Defense Forces, which he described as one of the great honors of his life.
He talked about why he chose to serve in Israel.
"This was when Operation Protective Edge was going on, one of the most recent Gaza wars, and up in Boston in general, and around Harvard, there was a lot of ... anti-Israel protests," he said. "And one night, I was out in the Boston Commons, just enjoying time with my family and some anti-Israel protesters, largely Arab males, raising Palestinean flags, starting harassing me for being a U.S. service member ... These guys were harassing me about that and I think it’s because of the parallel that they see between U.S. service members and Israeli service members, that we fight for the same things: freedom, democracy, human rights for all people ... That night I told my wife, I said, ‘I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I’m going to find a way and I’m going to go and show my support for the nation of Israel and everything that it represents.’"
Mast told Levin that he is running against a "quintessential insider with a lot of money" in his congressional race.
"You know, one of those insider Goliath’s versus the outsider," he said.
Mast added that when insiders gave him money for his campaign, he gave it back.
"You have to show what you believe in your actions," he said.
Mast then recounted a visit he had on Capitol Hill with a Democratic lawmaker.
"Well, you know, this simply speaks to what I–it was really a turning point moment for me to just realize how important this fight is that we’re in," he said.
Mast described how he was invited to the Hill to give a motivational speech to congressmen and senators, talking about the time he spent in Afghanistan and losing both of his legs. He said he chose to talk more about the inspiration he got from the men and women he spent time with at the Walter Reid Army Medical Center.
"After, you know, I started speaking about them–I started telling them about the amazing things that these fellow injured service members were doing; they were back to work full-time, starting their own non-profit organizations, participating in Paralympics or the Invictus games–just doing amazing things every single day," he said.
"And you know, I thought, ‘Man, I’d really gotten to these representatives; I’ve really told them a motivational, you know, a motivational story,’" Mast continued. "And afterward, they became very political because they all knew that I was a candidate for Congress and depending on the side of the aisle they were on, they were either going to pigeonhole me or they were going to bat me."
He said they started to ask him questions on topics such as immigration and the welfare state.
Mast said that after he talked about the welfare state, he got one the most "disturbing" questions from a Democratic representative that he ever heard in his life.
"And this man says to me, ‘Brian, you know, you’re in our highest level of special operations, your friend missing three limbs, he was a Green Beret, your friend that you told us about missing four limbs, you know he serves alongside the Navy SEALs, you guys are stronger and tougher than the average American. We can’t expect the way that you guys recovered–we can’t expect that from every American out there,’" Mast said.
Mast said he was astonished to hear a sitting member of Congress, someone who is supposed to be a leader, make such a comment.
"For him to tell me that there’s people with an excuse to say ‘poor me,’ that person either never knew who we are as Americans or simply wants to ignore who we are as Americans," he said. "That’s what we have to fight against."