During remarks on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about the Trump Administration's upcoming Iran intelligence briefing with Congress.
00:00The Trump administration has failed miserably, miserably in its responsibility to inform Congress about what is happening right now in the Middle East.
00:10Before the strikes, leaders in Congress got virtually no heads up.
00:15Then the administration delayed the briefing scheduled yesterday. It was scheduled a week ago.
00:21Now they're trying to get away with sending only the Secretary of State and Defense for tomorrow, instead of the usual intelligence officials that attend the briefings.
00:32Let's be very clear. Briefing from only the Secretaries of State and Defense would be woefully insufficient.
00:40If they are the only ones in attendance, they will only parrot whatever the President wants them to say.
00:47Sending intelligence officers to briefings in Congress is a long-standing bipartisan practice.
00:55And Congress is entitled, as the representatives of the American people, to hear from the administration about matters of national intelligence and national security.
01:07Refusing Congress like this would be egregious, troubling, and a violation.
01:12It would make Americans wonder, why would Donald Trump prefer to send two talking heads to meet with Congress instead of intelligence analysts and policy makers?
01:25Intelligence officials have an obligation to seek the truth, speak the truth.
01:30And perhaps that's why Donald Trump does not want to send the intelligence officials to talk to us.
01:36Maybe Donald Trump doesn't want Congress, or even America, to know the truth about what is going on.
01:47We know there have been a lot of confusing reports, some from intelligence sources, over the last days suggesting the strikes in Iran were not as successful as the President initially claimed.
02:00There may be questions about the accuracy of these reports.
02:05I have no idea if these reports are accurate.
02:08And today the President said earlier this morning that, quote,
02:11the intelligence was very inconclusive.
02:16The intelligence says we don't know.
02:20All this only underscores the need to hear from intelligence analysts and hear from them directly.
02:26What is the administration hiding?
02:28Were the strikes successful?
02:31How much enriched uranium does Iran still have?
02:35How many months will it take them to make a nuclear device?
02:41And are they locating centrifuges in a new place?
02:47And what is our knowledge of that?
02:49Are our troops safe?
02:51Are Americans in the region safe?
02:53Is the conflict contained?
02:55What happens next?
02:56And how will the administration achieve the critical national priority of preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon?
03:08Both parties, by and large, agree that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
03:13I do.
03:15But if the President is misrepresenting the impact of our military strikes, and these reports have some accuracy, we don't know if they do.
03:23And if the President is turning away from diplomacy with Iran, as his recent post suggested, then what the hell is going on?
03:31What is Donald Trump's plan?
03:32And we really don't know the answers to any of these critical questions.
03:38The administration refuses to be transparent.
03:41All we get are talking points and tweets.
03:44We know that Donald Trump makes things up day-to-day and then has to retract and turn around.
03:52And tomorrow, all we're going to get are talking points from Rubio and Hegseth, because that's what we know they're trained to do.
04:01So, on top of that, today it was reported the administration may actually start limiting intelligence sharing with Congress.
04:11The administration should immediately undo this decision if it's true.
04:15Are they afraid of the truth?
04:17Do they want to hide the truth?
04:20The intelligence agencies are known to tell the truth.
04:23Is that why they're so afraid to get their information out, the information of the intelligence agencies out?
04:31As I said yesterday, the administration's stonewalling of Congress is outrageous, evasive, derelict.
04:41The administration has no right to stonewall Congress on matters of national security.
04:48Senators deserve information, and the administration has a legal obligation
04:52to inform Congress precisely about what is happening right now abroad.
