Video: After Hegseth Absurdly Claims 60-Days War Powers Deadline Not in Effect Because “we are in a ceasefire right now,” Sen. Tim Kaine Says the 60 Days Runs Out Tomorrow

A few minutes ago, Sen. Tim Kaine questioned Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine and Secretary of Defense (NOT “War”) Pete Hegseth. To put it mildly, and almost needless to say at this point, the responses he got were unsatisfactory, ridiculous, b.s., etc.  See below for video and a few “highlights” (actually lowlights with regards to the responses by Caine and Hegseth).

• First, Sen. Kaine received no serious answer on why the 800,000 CIVILIAN employees working for the US Department of Defense won’t get any guaranteed raises, even in a proposed $1.5 TRILLION Department of Defense budget.
• Next, Sen. Kaine got no serious answer from Chairman Caine on what – if any – legal justification there could “possibly be” for the U.S. military “to strike boats in international waters and kill the occupants of those boats without a showing of evidence that there’s narcotics on those boats.” Sen. Kaine said he’s looked at the details of the first 46 strikes and “I think there’s a profound mismatch between what is occurring and the underlying assumptions in the legal opinion.”
• Finally, on the war in Iran, Sen. Kaine said: “The War Powers Resolution specifies that a war initiated by a president without congressional approval must be concluded within 60 days. It can be extended by an additional 30 days if quote, ‘The president determines and certifies to Congress in writing that unavoidable military necessity respecting the safety of the US armed forces requires the continued use of such armed forces in the course of bringing about a prompt removal of such forces. We’re right at the 60-day deadline. Is the president intending to either seek congressional authorization for the war in Iran or send us the legally required certification that he needs an additional 30 days to remove US forces from the war?”
• Secretary Hegseth first went back to the strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, stating “we do know that these are designated terrorist organizations, so we treat them like the al-Qaeda of our hemisphere” and that “there’s no willy-nilly targeting of of drug boats.”  Sen. Kaine responded, “that was not the question I asked…I was asking about what’s on the boats.”
• Getting back to the Iran war, Hegseth claimed, “we are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire.” To which Sen. Kaine responded, “I do not believe the statute would support that; I think the 60 days runs [through] tomorrow and it’s going to pose a a really important legal question for the administration there. We have serious constitutional concerns and we don’t want to layer those with additional statutory concerns.”

UPDATE 2:40 pm: See below for video of Sen. Kaine’s weekly press availability, during which he elaborated on his questioning of Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Caine