Rand Paul, Mike Lee rip administration over Iran briefing

This could be pretty bad news for Deep Neocons , Deep Pockets (parasitic factions) supported globalist interventions.
 
Trump comments on Lee:

President Donald Trump on Thursday defended senior administration officials from forceful criticism by Sen. Mike Lee, after the Utah Republican called their classified briefing on the killing of a top Iranian military commander “the worst” he had participated in during his tenure on Capitol Hill.

“I get along great with Mike Lee. I've never seen him like that,” Trump told reporters at a White House event, referring to Lee’s fiery remarks Wednesday following the congressional briefing, which included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and CIA Director Gina Haspel.

“I had calls from numerous senators and numerous congressmen and women saying it was the greatest presentation they've ever had,” the president claimed.

Sprinting across several morning television news programs to address Washington’s heightened tensions with Tehran, Vice President Mike Pence also pushed back against Lee’s complaints.

While Pence said he had “great respect” for Lee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who joined with his GOP colleague in blasting the briefing, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “the truth is both of them have voted against the military action that’s been taken by this administration in self-defense in Yemen and in the region, and we respectfully disagree with them."

The briefing Wednesday focused primarily on Trump’s order last week to eliminate Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite paramilitary Quds Force, in an overnight U.S. drone strike near Baghdad’s international airport. That assault prompted a missile salvo from the Iranian military against two Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops.

Although senior administration officials have claimed Soleimani’s removal from the battlefield prevented an imminent threat that could have endangered as many as hundreds of American lives in the region, congressional Democrats have evinced skepticism regarding the intelligence behind the strike.

Lee appeared to echo those concerns, branding Wednesday’s session “the worst briefing I’ve seen — at least on a military issue — in my nine years” in the Senate.

He fumed that the administration officials in attendance warned against even debating legislation to restrict Trump’s authority to attack Iran, knocking such proposals as “un-American” and “unconstitutional.”

“They had to leave after 75 minutes while they’re in the process of telling us that we need to be good little boys and girls and run along and not debate this in public,” Lee said. “I find that absolutely insane.”

In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Lee sought to clarify that his anger “was not about the Soleimani killing” but was “instead about the possibility of future military action against Iran.”

“I want to be clear: With respect to the strike against Soleimani, that was arguably lawful. I still have questions that remain unanswered on that point. I'm going to set that aside a moment, and I'm going to assume for purposes of this discussion that that may well have been lawful,” Lee said.

“What I'm most concerned about is about where that goes from here," he continued. “What comes next? Is there another strike coming against Iran? If so, at what point do they need to come to us seeking an authorization for the use of military force? The fact that they were unable or unwilling to identify any point at which that would be necessary yesterday was deeply distressing to me.”

The briefing has prompted both Lee and Paul to throw their support behind a resolution offered by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) aimed at forcing the president to halt military action against Iran if not authorized by Congress except in a case of an imminent threat. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also announced Wednesday that the chamber would vote Thursday to limit Trump’s war-making powers.

“Mike and Rand Paul disagreed because they want information that, honestly, I think is very hard to get. It’s okay if the military wants to give it, but they didn't want to give it,” Trump said. “And it really had to do with sources and information that we had that really should remain at a very high level. Could we individually maybe give one or two of them some information? Possibly, if we can do that.”

On “Fox & Friends,” Pence praised Lee as a “great conservative and a great leader” and said the administration had “honest differences of opinion” with the senators regarding U.S. policy in the Middle East.

“But let me assure your viewers, I was there every step of the way,” Pence added. “And while to protect sources and methods, we’re simply not able to share with every member of the House and Senate the intelligence that supported the president’s decision to take out Qassem Soleimani. I can assure your viewers that there was a threat of an imminent attack.”

Pence was also pressed Wednesday by NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie on “Today” as to why the administration briefers could not, in a secure Capitol Hill setting, share with lawmakers the nature of the threat Soleimani posed.

“Well some of that has to do with what's called sources and methods, Savannah,” he responded. “That if we were to share all of the intelligence — and, in fact, some of the most compelling evidence that Qassem Soleimani was preparing an imminent attack against American forces and American personnel also represents some of the most sensitive intelligence that we have — it could compromise those sources and methods.”
Click to expand...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/09/pence-mike-lee-iran-briefing-096652
 
Trump should probably go out of his way to make Rand and Mike happy. Because, he's like, facing an impeachment trial soon.
 
Rand Paul believes Trump is working with allies on a new deal for Iran unfortunately i dont see that happening. If the new Iranian deal forces or questions Iran on Iranian activity in the middle east you will see Iran quickly reject the deal.

Its clear whoever is pushing the foreign policy of America wants no competition from anyone in the middle east. Whenever Mike Pompy say Iran should return to be a normal nation they mean that by becoming a useful puppet and a nation that lets America do whatever it wants in the middle east. Thats what the NeoCons want.
 
Warlord said:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1215369529112571905
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Paul fires back at Graham over Iran criticism: 'He insults the Constitution'

"I love my country as much as the next guy, but for him to insult and say that somehow we're not as patriotic as he is — he hasn't even read the history of the Constitution," Paul said.

"He insults the Constitution, our Founding Fathers and what we do stand for in this republic by making light of it and accusing people of lacking patriotism. I think that's a low, gutter type of response," Paul added.
Click to expand...

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate...CytLJHvDImWz9NB7OSVABsDZ08UCMgBk2NY-R3PgnSKuA
 
Graham actually believes the president can go to war whenever he wants. crazy guy.
 
Warlord said:
Trump comments on Lee:
While Pence said he had “great respect” for Lee and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who joined with his GOP colleague in blasting the briefing, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that “the truth is both of them have voted against the military action that’s been taken by this administration in self-defense in Yemen and in the region, and we respectfully disagree with them."


https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/09/pence-mike-lee-iran-briefing-096652
Click to expand...

Self defense in Yemen?
 
Origanalist said:
Self defense in Yemen?
Click to expand...

Remember in the debates when Trump didn't know what the nuclear triad was?

His lack of understanding of national security issues wasn't a existential threat when we were at relative peace. His ignorance is downright dangerous in times of hostility.
 
Pompeo just said in a joint press conference with Munchkin that these complaining Senators were told all about the intel. Essentially calling Rand and Lee and others liars.
 
I hope this means they are becoming more open to impeachment.

Trump is a threat to national security and must be removed.
 
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devil21 said:
Pompeo just said in a joint press conference with Munchkin that these complaining Senators were told all about the intel. Essentially calling Rand and Lee and others liars.
Click to expand...
FWIW, last night (before Trump's rally) I saw a brief snippet of Trump referring to them both. Apparently, someone had just asked him about Senators Paul and Lee, and his answer was something like - (paraphrasing), "Mike and Rand wanted more information and they wouldn't give it to them."

Trump made it sound like he wasn't mad at them, and the issue was between Paul & Lee - and the advisors that spoke at the briefing.
 
Sen. Mike Lee said Sunday that he did not fault President Donald Trump for the intelligence briefing on Iran last week, which he described as "insulting and demeaning," but rather the people who gave the briefing and Congress for ceding its authority on military matters. In an interview on CBS News' "Face the Nation," the Utah Republican said "an adequate amount of information was not shared" with Congress about the decision to kill top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike.
And Lee said administration officials who briefed lawmakers on the intelligence behind the decision "were not helpful" and "didn't reflect the president's great restraint" on Iran.
The meeting included Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel.
After that briefing, Trump told Fox News that one reason Soleimani posed an imminent threat was that the general was planning an attack on four U.S. embassies. Lee said that interview was the first he had heard of such a plot.


"I have great respect for President Trump for how he's handled this situation and how he's handled other situations involving his immense power as commander in chief," Lee said. "I believe more than any other president in my lifetime, President Trump has shown restraint in the way he's exercised that power."
Lee said that though he was not happy to first learn of the purported plot on television, "the problem there is not with the president."
"The problem is with those who were briefing us," he said. Lee believed the briefers "would have done a different job under the light of day had television cameras been there than they did in private" where their "boss couldn't see what they were saying."


Lee said the real target of his ire was Congress.
"Look, my grievance here is not with the president of the United States. He's exercised his power with great restraint and respect for the Constitution," Lee said. "It's not even really as much with the briefers, even though I didn't love the briefing the other day, as it is with Congress. Congress is the problem."
Lee plans to vote in favor of a resolution first introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would call for Trump to get congressional approval before taking further military action against Iran.
"We have to remember that this isn't just about this president or this war. This is about the future question of what any president can do to get us into any war," Lee said. "Over many decades, Congresses and White Houses of every conceivable partisan combination have put us down this path where it's very easy for members of Congress to wash their hands of it.
"We have created this problem," he said.
Like Lee, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is from the GOP's libertarian wing and was unsatisfied with last week's intelligence briefing. Paul also plans to vote for Kaine's war powers resolution.
Paul said he, too, was pleased with Trump's "restraint" on the use of military force, but he said "presidents of both parties have been trying to usurp the authority" of Congress to declare war.
"I'm willing to stand up even against a president of my party, because we need to stand up and take back the power," Paul said. "We also need to debate whether or not we're going to keep sending kids forever to Afghanistan and Iraq."

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/problem-not-president-sen-mike-150126503.html
 
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