Trump Isn’t Telling Congress What’s Really Going On With Iran

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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said that Trump and his administration are intentionally not telling Congress what’s really going on with Iran.

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Sen. Merkley said on MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber:

Specifically, they are addressing the issue of bringing a resolution to the floor, one that discusses, for example, the war powers act or an authorization for use of military force, that this would be very divisive and show division when we shouldn’t be showing division.

In other words, there’s no respect for the fact that the constitution lays out that no president should be able to take us to war, only a collective decision by Congress because decisions of war involve so much blood and so much treasure that it can’t be entrusted to one person. That was our founders’ fear of the damage of war, and there’s no respect or understanding of that. In fact, they proceeded to that in terms of future consultation just talking to us in this briefing was their consultation according to the secretary of state. This wasn’t a consultation. This was a — I don’t know, a kind of brush over all the facts because they’re not going to really tell us what’s going on.

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Sen. Merkley also called the briefing patronizing and said that the senators were told that debating war powers or authorization to use force resolution would be disrespectful to the troops. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) blew his stack after the briefing for a very good reason. Trump is trying to hide the truth about what’s going on with Iran from Congress.

Democrats in the House will pass a war powers resolution on Thursday, and if Trump keeps pushing, the Senate might join them in checking Trump’s power.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association