White House counselor Jared Kushner held talks with Mike Lee Wednesday night after the Republican senator expressed his fury with an administration briefing on Iran and said he would support a resolution to limit Donald Trump’s military power there as a result of it.
Kushner told the senator he would relay his concerns to the president.
‘Sen. Lee was planning on reaching out to President Trump but then Jared Kushner called Sen. Lee last night, and they talked, and Kushner said he would share Sen. Lee’s concerns with the president,’ a Lee aide told DailyMail.com.
Jared Kushner held talks with Mike Lee after the senator expressed his fury with an administration briefing on the killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani
Sen. Mike Lee was upset when an official wouldn’t answer when asked if Congress would be consulted if President Trump decided to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
Despite the outreach, Sen. Lee is not falling into line.
The conservative senator from Utah told NPR Thursday morning that he was upset when one of the administration officials in the briefing was asked if Congress would be consulted if President Trump decided to kill the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the official refused to answer.
‘As I recall, one of my colleagues asked a hypothetical involving the Supreme Leader of Iran: If at that point, the United States government decided that it wanted to undertake a strike against him personally, recognizing that he would be a threat to the United States, would that require authorization for the use of military force?,’ Lee said.
‘The fact that there was nothing but a refusal to answer that question was perhaps the most deeply upsetting thing to me in that meeting,’ he added.
Lee also expressed his disappointment that fellow Republican Sen. Marco Rubio
President Trump wants Republicans to vote against the War Powers resolution
Lee also expressed his disappointment that fellow Republican Sen. Marco Rubio praised Wednesday’s closed-door briefing on the president’s decision to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani as informative.
‘I literally find it difficult to imagine how my friend Marco, who is smart, who listens carefully, who cares about these things, how he could emerge from that meeting at say that it was good. It was terrible. It was an unmitigated disaster,’ Lee said.
Rubio, after Sen. Lee and and fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul expressed their disappointment with what they heard, took to Twitter to defend the briefing.
‘Natl Security officials gave a compelling briefing to Senators just now. They answered every important question. Anyone who walks out & says they aren’t convinced action against #Soleimani was justified is either never going to be convinced or just oppose everything Trump does,’ Rubio wrote.
Lee and Paul exited Wednesday’s briefing -which was conducted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, and CIA Director Gina Haspel – and went straight to the television cameras to rail about what they heard.
Both senators also said they would now support a War Powers resolution that would limit President Trump’s military power there.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee said the administration briefing on Iran convinced him to support a War Powers resolution limiting Trump’s power
Jared Kushner told Sen. Mike Lee he would pass on his concerns to the president
Sen. Rand Paul said he would now support a War Powers resolution
‘That briefing is what changed my mind. That briefing is what brought me on board,’ Lee told reporters after it concluded. ‘I’m now going to support it. I walked into that briefing undecided and I walked out of that briefing decided specifically because of what happened in that briefing.’
He said a request by administration officials to not debate Trump’s action in Iran in public is what pushed him over the edge.
He wouldn’t say what officials made the request but ABC News reported it was Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Jonathan Hoffman, chief Pentagon spokesman, told the network Esper was responding to a ‘direct question’ on the matter when he expressed concern ‘about unintentional messages to the force’ if Congress attempted to repeal an existing authorization for military force in Iraq ‘at the same time that American troops are in harm’s way.’
‘In follow up questioning, the Secretary made it clear that he was not questioning the appropriateness of Congressional debate on military force, but rather he stated a concern about how such a debate would be interpreted by the force,’ Hoffman said in a statement.
And Vice President Mike Pence defended the briefing, saying the officials couldn’t share more details on the risk Soleimani posed because it would compromise intelligence gathering methods.
‘Some of the most compelling evidence that Qasem Soleimani was preparing an imminent attack against American forces and American personnel also represents some of the most sensitive intelligence that we have. It could compromise those sources and methods,’ Pence told NBC’s ‘Today’ show Thursday morning.
Lee did not mince words about his feelings on how the Trump officials treated him when he left Wednesday’s briefing.
‘They had to leave after 75 minutes while in they’re in the process of telling us we need to be good little boys and girls and not debate this in public. I find that absolutely insane,’ Lee said.
‘One of the messages we received from the briefers was do not debate, do not discuss the issue of the appropriateness of further military intervention against Iran, and if you do, you’ll be emboldening Iran,’ Lee added. ‘I find this insulting and demeaning.’
It is not acceptable for executive branch to tell us ‘we can’t debate the appropriateness of military intervention in Iran. It’s unAmerican, it’s unconstitutional and it’s wrong,’ the senator from Utah noted.
Lee called the briefing ‘probably the worst briefing at least on a military issue I’ve seen.’
‘The administration was ill-served by this briefing today,’ Lee said.
His fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul agreed.
‘I join Senator Lee in also deciding to support the War Powers resolution,’ he said.
He said the administration’s request lawmakers not to debate military action in public as ‘particularly insulting.’
‘I think we need to debate about separation of powers,’ he said.
Both men stated they support President Trump politically but could not in this matter.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine introduced a War Powers resolution to limit Trump’s power
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper leave the Capitol after spending the afternoon briefing members of Congress
The two senators said they would support Sen. Tim Kaine’s version of the War Powers resolution that he introduced on Friday, on the heels of the U.S. strike that killed Soleimani.
President Trump on Thursday urged House Republicans to vote against Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to limit his military power in Iran but failed to mention two GOP Senators who are backing the legislation.
‘Hope that all House Republicans will vote against Crazy Nancy Pelosi’s War Powers Resolution. Also, remember her “speed & rush” in getting the Impeachment Hoax voted on & done. Well, she never sent the Articles to the Senate. Just another Democrat fraud. Presidential Harassment!,’ the president tweeted.
The House will vote Thursday afternoon on a War Powers resolution that would limit the president’s ability to go to war with Iran. It is expected to pass the Democratic-controlled chamber but Republicans want to keep all their members in line and voting against it.
The Senate version differs from the House version of the War Powers resolution in that it includes a timeline, saying U.S. forces must disengage from hostilities against Iran ‘by not later than the date that is 30 days after the date of enactment of this joint resolution unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war or specific authorization for use of military force.’
The text of the resolution also points out that Trump has stated in the past that he believes he has the authority to initiate military action against Iran without Congressional approval.
‘The question of whether the United States forces should be engaged in armed conflict against Iran should only be made following a full briefing of Congress and the American public of the issues at stake, a public debate in Congress, and a congressional vote as contemplated by the Constitution,’ the resolution says.
After 10 days, Kaine can force a vote on his motion in the Senate.
Trump officials spent most of Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, giving separate briefings to House and Senate lawmakers on the administration’s justification for the killing of Soleimani.
‘I thought we had a good set of briefings today,’ Esper told DailyMail.com.