Things are getting a little heated over on the Republican side of the Senate with Sen. Lindsey Graham saying that Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul are “empowering the enemy” Lindsey Graham accuses Mike Lee and Rand Paul of ’empowering the enemy’with their criticism of yesterday’s Iran briefing:
Just asked Graham about the criticism from Paul and Lee over Iran briefing. “I think they’re overreacting. I’m going to let people know ..to play this game with the war powers act, which I think is unconstitutional, is that whether you mean to or not, you’re empowering the enemy” pic.twitter.com/pnlISwkORb
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 8, 2020
Sen. Rand Paul, for one, is not happy with the comments:
Paul fires back, says on @CNNSitRoom that Graham’s comments are a “low gutter type of response” and says that Graham “insults the Constitution and founding fathers.” He adds: “He hasn’t even read the history of the Constitution.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 8, 2020
Rand Paul responds to Lindsey Graham on CNN: "I think it’s sad when people have this fake sort of drape of patriotism and anybody that disagrees with them is not a patriot … He insults the constitution … by making light of it … I think that’s a low gutter type of response."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 9, 2020
Yesterday, Sen. Mike Lee called the Iran briefing “the worst briefing I’ve had on a military issue in my nine years” in the Senate:
GOP Sen. Mike Lee railing on the Iran briefing just now from senior administration officials, calling it “the worst briefing I’ve had on a military issue in my nine years” in the Senate
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 8, 2020
Sen. Lee was particularly incensed that the administration officials briefing the Senators would not commit to a single scenario that needed Congressional authorization:
Lee calls the way this played out as “unAmerican” and “completely unacceptable” given Congress role shut out – and would not commit to new AUMF. I asked if Trump should have authorized the Soleimani attack, and Lee said he’s “agnostic” on that bc the briefers didn’t give details
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 8, 2020
Sen. Paul called the administration’s justification for its attack on Soleimani “absurd”:
Sen. @RandPaul on Iran briefing: "They have justified the killing of an Iranian general as being something that Congress gave them permission to do in 2002. That is absurd, that's an insult." pic.twitter.com/ReCWW2Nbm3
— The Hill (@thehill) January 9, 2020
And the briefing was so bad, Senators Lee and Paul said they now support Sen. Tim Kaine’s resolution to “prevent further hostilities with Iran without any authorization”:
Thank you @SenMikeLee and @RandPaul — longtime champions of the need for Congress to check Presidents’ warmaking powers — for supporting my resolution to prevent further hostilities with Iran without authorization. It’s our constitutional duty. https://t.co/BLgbjHv4ge
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) January 8, 2020
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