The top two Democratic leaders in Congress say the Trump administration is not being transparent about its justification for the weekend bombings in Iran or how it plans to prevent the U.S. from being dragged further into the Middle East conflict.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, went as far as to question whether President Trump lied when he said the strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities were successful in annihilating Iran’s nuclear program.
“There’s zero evidence that I’ve seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated, as Donald Trump has claimed – no evidence that has been presented to Congress to suggest that that has occurred,” he said.
“Did Donald Trump tell the truth, or is he lying again?” Mr. Jeffries said.
Mr. Jeffries said he will see what the Trump administration says when it sends top officials to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to hold separate classified briefings for House and Senate lawmakers.
But he and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, are frustrated that the administration has yet to brief Congress, particularly top leaders in the “Gang of 8” who would usually be read into such national security matters.
Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Schumer are part of the Gang of 8, along with the top Republican leaders, House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, and the top four leaders in both parties of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
Gang of 8 members have special clearance to receive classified intelligence that other members of Congress do not.
Mr. Jeffries said that, after the strikes on Saturday, he requested an immediate briefing for the Gang of 8, but one has yet to happen.
“Why not?” he asked at a press conference Monday. “What is the administration hiding from the elected representatives of the United States Congress if they’re willing to stand behind their actions?”
The Trump administration does appear to be sharing intelligence with top GOP lawmakers. Mr. Johnson told reporters he received a classified briefing on Monday morning.
Mr. Johnson said Monday that Mr. Trump acted within his constitutional authority.
“For 80 years, presidents of both parties have acted with the same commander-in-chief authority under Article II,” Mr. Johnson said. “President Biden used it three times in Middle East operations. President Obama went on an eight-month campaign of bombing Libya to take down the regime there. I never heard a Democrat balk about any of that, and suddenly now, they’re just up in arms. It’s all politics.”
As an example of that, the speaker pointed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, suggesting Mr. Trump should be impeached for not getting approval from Congress for the Iran strikes.
“Absolute nonsense,” Mr. Johnson said.
Mr. Jeffries also dismissed the talk of impeachment from some members of his caucus. He said Democrats are focused first on demanding information from the Trump administration and debating a war powers resolution that would assert Congress’ authority over engaging in hostilities with Iran.
“And then we’ll see where we’re at thereafter,” he said.
Mr. Jeffries and many Democratic lawmakers, as well as a few Republicans, have said Mr. Trump violated the Constitution by not seeking congressional approval for the offensive strikes on Iran. They say only an imminent threat to the U.S. would have given the president the authority to bomb Tehran without a vote from Congress.
“Not a scintilla of evidence to date has been presented that I have seen to justify the notion that there was an imminent threat to the United States of America,” Mr. Jeffries said. “If the administration has evidence to the contrary, come up to present it.”
Mr. Schumer issued a statement Monday on the need for a briefing, particularly after Iran launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. military bases in the Middle East.
“I’ve asked the Trump administration to give me a classified briefing to lay out the full threat picture, the intelligence behind Iran’s retaliation, and the details, scope, and timeline of any U.S. response,” Mr. Schumer said. “Most importantly, I’ve demanded they lay out exactly what measures they’re taking — right now — to keep our servicemembers safe.”
Mr. Schumer said the law requires the Trump administration to consult with Congress and urged administration officials to be more forthcoming about a potential response to Iran’s retaliatory strikes than it was about the initial U.S. bombings.
“The Trump administration should not make the same mistake it made this weekend by launching strikes without giving any details to Congress,” he said.
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries are backing a bipartisan push for Congress to vote on a war powers resolution that makes it clear the president must end hostilities with Iran unless he receives congressional authorization or he is defending the U.S. from imminent attack.
The Senate could vote as soon as this week on a war powers resolution introduced last week by Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat.
But the House process is moving more slowly because Republicans changed the rules on privilege of resolutions brought under the War Powers Act.
“Those resolutions would ordinarily be required to be presented for an up or down vote within 48 hours because they were privileged in nature,” Mr. Jeffries said. “For some reason, House Republicans don’t want to have a full and comprehensive and swift debate on the War Powers Act issue before the American people. So they’ve changed the rules, such that the resolutions aren’t even eligible for debate on the House floor until several weeks from now. That’s outrageous.”
Mr. Johnson signaled he may take further action to block a vote on a war powers resolution.
“I don’t think this is an appropriate time for a war powers resolution, and I don’t think it’s necessary,” he said.
