See below for video and highlights of Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07) talking to Fox5 (yuck) about the situation with Iran. According to Rep. Vindman:
- “Look, I will not shed a tear for the Ayatollah or for the Iranian regime, who was responsible for more deaths than just about any regime in the world. And I’ve spent time in Iraq during the war. I know how horrible this regime is. And just in recent weeks, executing 30,000 of their own civilians, citizens.”
- “But let’s think about how bizarre the last 36 hours were. The president announces a major war from Mar a Lago, his private resort, on his personal social network, and without any debate in front of the American people, in front of Congress. No authorization. Really? An illegal war under international law and illegal under domestic law, without congressional authorization. And even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appears in a stylish Pentagon vest rather than uniform. The whole thing is bizarre. And in the context of the last 13 months, this is now the sixth conflict that the president has initiated – twice now in Iran, Nigeria, Yemen, Venezuela, the Caribbean. And that’s not to mention a a trade war, tariff war with the entire country. This is an imperial presidency.”
- “You need to brief Congress. Congress has a constitutional obligation as a co-equal branch of government. This is not a process argument. This is about what is right or wrong. There is no debate. Briefing the Gang of Eight is very different than laying out a case for the American people of why we need to go to war. Literally eight months after the president has claimed that we obliterated [Iranian] nuclear capabilities, he was either lying then or he’s lying now. And so he’s committed. He said himself that he’s committed us to a conflict where American heroes may end up sacrificing their lives. So this is American blood and treasure. Now on the line for a man who himself has not ever served in uniform and in fact, shirked that responsibility. And all at the same time that affordability and costs are skyrocketing. This operation is costing billions of dollars.”
- “We don’t know. The Pentagon never briefed us…the president never took the case to Congress or the American people. And so this is a campaign of hope. The president is hoping that air power is sufficient. He’s hoping that the Iranian people rise up. I mean, I would certainly love to see the Iranian people overthrow this regime, but this is all based on a campaign of hope. The Iranian regime still has a million man army, 200,000 of hardened…zealots, fundamentalists. This is all based on hope and prayer and not a plan. And that’s certainly not my experience on how things ought to work in the in the military.”
- ‘[Congress taking up the War Powers Act] needs to be first thing this week. We need to hear the plan. We need to hear how the plan the president intends to achieve his objectives. That’s the real question here – where does this end?”
