See below for video and highlights from Sen. Tim Kaine’s appearance on Face the Nation this morning.
- “Congress needs to authorize a war against, this Trump war against Iran; we have not. Congress should be consulted with it; we were not. And Congress needs to be notified, not after the fact but in advance; we were not. That’s why I’ve filed a War Powers Resolution that will ripen and be brought to a vote on the floor of the Senate this week…The United States should not be in an offensive war against Iran without a vote of Congress; the Constitution is completely clear on it…”
- “There was no urgency that suggested, while diplomatic talks were underway, that the US should take this unilateral action by President Trump’s orders yesterday.”
- [Regarding JD Vance’s comments that “we are not at war with Iran, we are at war with Iran’s nuclear program”]: “I think it’s b.s., and I think anybody hearing it would conclude the same thing. When you’re bombing another nation, ask them if they think it’s war – they do. Would we think it was war if Iran bombed a U.S. nuclear facility? Of course we would…This is the U.S. jumping into a war of choice at Donald Trump’s urging without any compelling national security interest for the United States to act in this way, particularly without a debate and vote in Congress.”
- “The War Powers Resolution says that a member of Congress can challenge the president if the president initiates *hostilities* against a foreign nation…There is no doubt that the US sending this massive set of Tomahawk missiles, B2 bombers and bunker busters on three Iranian nuclear sites is hostilities…I may or may not succeed, but Congress should have the debate and vote on this before we escalate the risk to American troops, which this action has done.”
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