NPR’s Leila Fadel asks Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, about President Trump’s unilateral authorization to strike Iran.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Let’s turn now to a voice from Congress, which Trump did not consult before launching the war on Iran with Israel. Congressman Adam Smith is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, and he joins me now. Congressman, welcome back to the program.
ADAM SMITH: Yeah. Well, thanks for having me on. Good morning.
FADEL: Good morning. Now, President Trump said the attack on Iran was necessary due to a, quote, “imminent threat.” Was there anything in the briefing he gave lawmakers over the weekend – and that includes you – that showed there was, in fact, an imminent threat?
SMITH: No. I mean – and that’s just completely dishonest. I mean, he hasn’t even offered any facts to back that up. There’s no evidence whatsoever that Iran was preparing to attack us, Israel or, frankly, anybody. And the Trump administration still has not given us any sort of detailed update on where Iran’s nuclear program was at. They’ve bounced all over the map on where it’s at, but we have not seen any specific intelligence.
So, no – I mean, I don’t think there’s any credible claim that there was an imminent threat coming from Iran, which is not to say that Iran isn’t a problem. But there certainly was no imminent threat to the U.S. or even any of our allies or partners.
FADEL: So what did you learn in that briefing?
SMITH: Well, first of all, the briefing you’re referring to was for staff yesterday. So I was not actually in the briefing.
FADEL: Oh, I see.
SMITH: I spoke to my staff about it today. At 1 o’clock Pacific time, we’re going to have a secure brief for the chairs and rankings of key committees with Hegseth, Rubio, et cetera. So we’ll see what we learn there. But what are our objectives? We do not know.
They keep saying we have them, and we’re going to keep fighting until we achieve them, but they have not said what they are. And that is just incredibly irresponsible given the level of destruction that is currently going on in the Middle East and the number of American lives that have been placed at risk, as well, of course, the lives of people in more than a half dozen countries.
FADEL: Right. And President Trump has talked about more lives possibly being lost. Is bypassing Congress and declaring war as Trump did legal?
SMITH: Well, no, it’s not. Look, I mean, you got to think about this. There’s two sets of problems here. One is the way he did it, and two is what’s going on. Both are huge problems. No president has ever gone to war, you know, had this – I mean, we’ve launched a full-scale war in the Middle East, and the president has not made his case to the American people. He’s not made his case to Congress. He’s not asked for congressional support.
That’s illegal. But it is also directly contrary to how a constitutional republic is supposed to function. This is more of an autocratic, monarchical decision, where he just sort of decided, I’m going to war, and did it without getting that approval or even making the case. But then even if he had done all that the right way, we still have major problems with the war itself.
FADEL: What recourse, though, does Congress have? I mean, Republican leaders in Congress have expressed support for the attack on Iran. There are some dissenting voices, but very few among the Republicans. Polling shows this isn’t popular with most Americans, including Americans who heard Trump’s campaign promise of no forever wars. But what can Congress do if there isn’t agreement?
SMITH: Yeah. There’s two ways of looking at that. First of all, Congress can – theoretically, if we have the votes – do a lot of things. Certainly, we can require the president to stop the war until he gets congressional approval. We could also cut off the money. We could pass laws that say no appropriations go forward for the war…
FADEL: Right. But do you have the votes?
SMITH: Well, that’s why I said there’s two things.
FADEL: I see.
SMITH: You got ahead of me on the second one. The second one is the fact that the Republican Congress under Mike Johnson and John Thune have simply abdicated all responsibility as the legislative branch and as an Article 1 part of our Constitution. And this has been happening now ever since Trump got in the White House. You know, Mike Johnson has decided that Congress will simply do whatever Trump wants without questioning them. And so that is a major, major problem.
You know, Congress is supposed to stand up for itself and for the country. Yes, you can agree with the president sometimes. But you’re also supposed to be able to independently disagree with him. This Congress isn’t doing that. The Republicans say, whatever Trump wants. And by the way, if he wants one thing one moment, yes. If he wants the exact opposite thing the next moment, then they also say yes to that. So we need to keep putting pressure on Congress to change that.
FADEL: Representative Adam Smith of Washington state is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, thank you for your time.
SMITH: Oh, thank you for giving me the chance.
FADEL: We asked multiple Republican lawmakers to join us. Those invitations remain open.
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