Members of Congress are furious over the Trump administration keeping them in the dark and not answering questions on the war in Iran despite President Donald Trump declaring a military victory.
The criticism from both Republicans and Democrats came after a classified briefing with military officials on Iran.
“The President is sending thousands of Soldiers & Marines into a war zone—yet yesterday senior military leaders couldn’t even tell us what their mission is?! So yeah—it’s a s--t show," wrote Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan, a veteran, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Ryan wrote the post after appearing on MS NOW, where he also blasted the information the administration shared.
“It was a total s--t show, and we’ve been in a lot of these tough briefings over the last year,” Ryan told Jen Psaki. “It wasn’t even passive-aggressive. It was straight aggression from many Republicans and Democrats asking very reasonable questions like, you know, ‘What is our goal?’”
He claimed that when asked about the plan as the U.S. sends more forces to the region, those briefing told lawmakers they were “working on the plan.”
“You don’t send Americans to fight, you don’t squander the patriotism of our troops without a plan, without knowing what your operational goals are, without having some sense of what comes next, and how you’re going to get out of this,” added Democratic Rep. Chris DeLuzio, who also sits on the committee. “I have no confidence this administration has any of these answers.”
It would perhaps be one thing if it were just Democrats raising concerns after the briefing, but Republicans were unhappy as well and were public about it.
GOP Rep. Nancy Mace has been a vocal critic of putting boots on the ground. She went on CNN late on Wednesday after also attending the briefing.
“The minute that we have a single boot of a single soldier from the United States on the ground, and the views change,” she told Laura Coats. “I think it’s overnight, and I think it’s something Congress needs to weigh with all the information with the truth, that I don’t feel we got today.”
She argued that all members of Congress needed to be briefed. But right after she left the briefing, she wrote: “Let me repeat: I will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing.”
Republican Chairman Mike Rogers turned heads on Wednesday when he delivered a sharp rebuke after the Iran war briefing.
“We want to know more about what’s going on, what the options are, and why they’re being considered,” the Alabama lawmaker told reporters. “And we’re just not getting enough answers on those questions.”
He warned that the administration could quickly lose support if it couldn’t make the case to Congress and said he told them at the end: “This has consequences if you don’t remedy it.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker responded to Rogers’ criticism, with “I can see why he might have said that,” according to Politico.
Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton put it much more bluntly in a video he posted on social media.
“This morning we had another classified briefing on Iran that confirmed once again that there is no plan. They don’t know what they’re doing” he declared.
On Thursday, Trump claimed it was Iran that wanted to make a deal, stating at the White House: “The reason they want to make a deal is they’ve been beat to s--t.”
