Dems emerged from a briefing today “wholly” unconvinced that Trump’s decision to kill Qassem Soleimani was justified by the presence of an “imminent” threat to Americans
Democrats emerged from an intelligence briefing on Wednesday “wholly” unconvinced that President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was justified by the presence of an “imminent” threat to Americans, as one put it—and that removing him has made the U.S. any safer.
Lawmakers said on Wednesday that that’s because there wasn’t a specific attack in the works—rather, the intelligence showed that Soleimani had broadly been pushing for a more aggressive posture toward the United States and creating conditions that might ultimately endanger Americans in the region. CIA Director Gina Haspel "gave the greatest breadth of information that was not only compelling but certainly exhaustive in terms of the number of attacks and planned attacks that have been contemplated and why the need for action was necessitated,” said North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, a close ally of the president who is retiring for an unspecified role helping Trump.
But Polymeropoulos, who stressed that he does not have access to current intelligence, noted that “Soleimani was always plotting against the U.S., but he wasn’t a cell leader. So the ‘imminence’ piece of this doesn’t make much sense if you wanted to thwart the actual attack.” And they’ve noted news reports suggesting that the president decided to strike Soleimani after stewing over news coverage of protests at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, which he referred to on Twitter as “the anti-Benghazi!”Rep.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Angry GOP Senator Trashes 'Insulting' Trump Administration Briefing On IranSen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, called it “probably the worst briefing, at least on a military issue, I’ve seen.”
Read more »
Trump administration briefing on Iran angers Republican senators, boosts effort to restrict presidential powerA briefing by Trump administration officials about the U.S. military strike that killed Iran’s most famous general backfired on Wednesday, angering two Republican senators and driving them to support a Democratic effort to require congressional approval for any further military engagement.
Read more »
Republican senator calls White House’s Iran briefing ‘insulting and demeaning’How bad was it? 'Probably the worst briefing I’ve seen, at least on a military issue, in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate,” Sen. Mike Lee said.
Read more »
Pentagon: Iran launched 'more than a dozen' missiles at bases in Iraq housing U.S. troopsWhite House officials said Donald Trump was briefed Tuesday about a reported attack by Iran on an airbase in Iraq that houses U.S. troops.
Read more »
GOP Sen. Mike Lee blasts officials for 'insulting and demeaning' Iran briefing'We have more questions than we have answers at the end of the day.' Republican and Democratic senators had starkly different reactions to the Trump administration's congressional briefing on Iran.
Read more »
House slates Iran War Powers resolution vote for ThursdayHouse Democrats will take up legislation on Thursday to restrain President Donald Trump's military actions amid hostilities with Iran, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced.
Read more »