Alabama freshman Congressman Dale Strong blasted Democrats for not attending a House Homeland Security committee hearing in Texas this week.

A visibly angry Strong, in a brief clip from the hearing Wednesday aired by Fox News, points to empty seats reserved for Democrats at the hearing.

“The thing I’m most distraught about,” Strong said as he turned to point toward seats for Democrats and his voice rising, “there’s not a Democrat here. This is an American issue. It’s appalling that the Democrats didn’t show up and America is under attack.”

Describing the country as under attack echoes a theme throughout Strong’s first House floor speech earlier this month as he described what he saw when visiting the southern border.

The committee held two days of hearings in McAllen, Texas, on the Mexican border. Strong, a Republican from Monrovia near Huntsville, is a member of the committee.

“The House Homeland Security Committee was supposed to have a full committee hearing to learn about the border crisis from witnesses who are impacted through their first hand experiences— but no Democrats showed up to McAllen, Texas,” Strong said in a post on Facebook. “The Homeland Security Committee is supposed to be a bipartisan committee, but you can’t have bipartisanship if the other side fails to show up for their duty.”

In a statement opening the hearing Wednesday, Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Md.) also noted the absence of Democrats.

“This was supposed to be a full committee, but as you can see the Democrats are not here,” Green said, according to a transcript on the committee’s website. “They decided not to show, why? Well, they said coming here was a political stunt. You tell me, taking a hearing to the point of the crisis for a firsthand view, or boycotting a hearing because you know we are going to shine a light on the truth? Which of those is a political stunt? I’d say the political stunt is those empty chairs.

“The Democrats also talk about bipartisanship, how this committee is supposed to be a bipartisan committee. I guess for them bipartisanship is only when you agree exactly with them.”

On Thursday at the hearing, Green asked Raul Ortiz, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, if the Department of Homeland Security has “operational control of the entire border?”

Ortiz responded, “No, sir.”

Strong has co-sponsored legislation calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkis.