Tim Kaine Begins Senate War Powers Debate After Trump Said He'd Consider Bombing Iran Again

Forbes Breaking News

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) initiated debate on a war powers resolution requiring President Trump to seek Congressional approval before striking Iran.

Transcript

00:00Madam President, we will begin a couple of hours of debate on this resolution prior to

00:06a vote that I understand is scheduled around 6 or maybe a little bit thereafter.

00:11And I rise to talk about the resolution for the second time in the last week, and I need

00:15to repeat all the points that I made when I spoke about it last week.

00:19But I'll just begin with this.

00:24I came to the Senate in January of 2013, and I tell people that I came with a hundred

00:30interests and ten passions and one obsession, and the obsession that I brought with me to

00:36this body was an obsession that I would do everything possible I could to stop the United

00:41States from getting into an unnecessary war.

00:46Why did I bring that obsession with me in 2013?

00:50I brought it with me because of the experience in Virginia during two wars over the course

00:56of 20 years from 2001 to 2021.

01:00I was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010.

01:06I was lieutenant governor of Virginia before that.

01:09And like every state in this country, Virginia was deeply, deeply affected by the global war

01:15on terror.

01:17When I was governor of Virginia, I had the honor and responsibility, but it was also

01:20a burden of being the commander-in-chief of the Virginia National Guard.

01:25And that meant that I was with our guardsmen and women when they deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan,

01:31when they came home.

01:33I went to funerals.

01:34I went to wakes.

01:37These were very, very moving experiences.

01:39I visited as governor our troops, our guardsmen and women, in both Iraq and Afghanistan during

01:44that period where the war was at a huge upsurge.

01:48Thousands of Virginia guardsmen and women were deployed during those four years.

01:53And of course, because of who Virginia is, it wasn't just our guardsmen and women.

01:56It was also our active duty, our DOD civilians, civilians from other parts of the federal family,

02:04reservists, military contractors, DOD civilians and their families.

02:11The cost of that 20 years of war on Virginia was very heavy.

02:17And I came with the obsession not only because of what I had seen in terms of the effect of

02:22these wars on my commonwealth and my country, the deaths, the injuries, the longstanding

02:29mental health needs, the tremendous expenditure of public treasure, the lack of clear and positive

02:39results from that 20 years.

02:42But I also came with an obsession on this topic because of watching the way the war started,

02:47particularly the war in Iraq.

02:50The United States was basically, the public and this body was basically lied to about the

02:57extent of the Iraqi program of weapons of mass destruction.

03:03And then an administration forced a vote on the floor of this body right before a midterm

03:08election.

03:10The debate and vote occurred in October of 2022.

03:12I remember at the time I was lieutenant governor and I was paying attention to this and I thought,

03:17what's the urgency about this debate in October of 22, right before a midterm election?

03:24You might remember the United States didn't even invade Iraq until March of 2023.

03:29There was no urgency.

03:31There was none.

03:32But it was determined to be politically expedient to force a debate before a midterm election

03:39to try to give one party an edge in those midterms.

03:42Yeah, there was a vote.

03:46But it was timed and structured for political rather than military reasons.

03:50And thousands of Americans, both soldiers and contractors, lost their lives as a result.

03:59And so I came to this body fully believing that, yes, I'm only one of 100, but I'm going

04:04to do everything I can to make sure the United States doesn't get into an unnecessary war.

04:09And that if the issue ever arises, Congress needs to fully debate any military mission

04:16before he sends our sons and daughters into war.

04:20Now, Madam President, I say this as a senator from, I'm going to argue this and the president

04:27will challenge me on this, but I'm going to say Virginia is the most pro-military state

04:31in the United States.

04:33Our military bases, our veterans population, our reservists, our guard, our military families,

04:39our DOD civilians.

04:40Our map is a map of American military history.

04:43Yorktown, Appomattox, the wilderness, Fredericksburg, 9-11, attack on the Pentagon.

04:50Everything about Virginia is connected to our nation's military mission.

04:54I know the president would make the same claim about Florida's connection to our military.

04:58And this would be a virtuous competition as we would all talk about how pro-military our

05:03states are.

05:04But I believe this deeply about Virginia.

05:08My dad was an army officer.

05:10One of my kids is a marine officer.

05:12I mean, this is family.

05:14And I'm connected deeply as a member of the Armed Services Committee to all of our military

05:19community.

05:21And I'm not a pacifist.

05:22Every year I work on the Armed Services Committee to help write a defense bill and try to get

05:27it passed.

05:28I whip votes on the floor for military aid packages to allies.

05:33There's bad folks in the world.

05:34The United States needs to defend itself and it needs to work with allies to help them defend

05:39themselves.

05:41But our troops, our sons and daughters, deserve to have wise civilian leadership that only make

05:46the decision to send them into war on the basis of careful consideration and a debate

05:51before the entire public.

05:54The other night when I spoke on the floor, I pointed out the history of the way the framers

05:58of our Constitution grappled with this question in 1787.

06:02And to just make it simple, they decided, contrary to the history of the world and the way virtually

06:07every other country did it, they decided that war was too big a decision for one person.

06:13I mean, they were making this decision at the time that George Washington was president.

06:18He was very respected and admired.

06:20He was a wartime general.

06:22Deeply respected, but as much as they respected leaders like George Washington, they said, war's

06:28too big a decision.

06:30It's too big a decision for one person.

06:34And so they wrote a constitution that said the United States should not be at war without

06:37a vote of Congress.

06:39Defense against an attack or an imminent attack, yes, the president as commander in chief has

06:44the power to do that.

06:45But to go on offense against another nation or an entity like a terrorist group, and there

06:52were terrorist groups back in the days like the Barbary Coast Pirates.

06:56From the very beginning, we have confronted threats not just by nation states but by others.

07:01But the decision was, it was too big a decision for any one person.

07:05We should only go to war after a debate, not only in Congress, where we put our thumbprint

07:12on this is a national mission, we're risking our sons' and daughters' lives war.

07:16We have a debate in front of the entire public so they can understand the stakes.

07:20War is too big for any one person.

07:25I think the events of this week have demonstrated that war is too big to be consigned to the

07:31decisions of any one person.

07:36Our current commander in chief on his social media account a day or two after the attack

07:42in Iran put up a music video.

07:45A music video with lyrics that were matched to a Beach Boys song, Barbara Ann.

07:50But the music video contained these lyrics, bomb bomb Iran, bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,

07:57went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks, time to turn Iran into a parking lot.

08:06We shouldn't premise a decision to send our sons and daughters into war on the judgment

08:13of a single person.

08:17The president patted himself on the back and he compared the attack to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

08:21That was a most unusual, most unusual comparison.

08:28I haven't put all the lyrics of the song up on my chart.

08:31One of the other lyrics was about sending the Ayatollah home in a box.

08:37Is this some kind of a joke?

08:41Is this the way we treat war now?

08:43Like we run a victory lap and we overstate it and we turn it into a funny music video

08:48or we use a Hiroshima and Nagasaki comparison as if that's like a good thing?

08:53War is too big to leave the decision to send our sons and daughters and risk their lives

08:59on the say so of one person.

09:03We had some turmoil this week in the Senate.

09:06We were gonna have a briefing on Tuesday that they had to, from the national security officials

09:11of the administration, they had to postpone it until Thursday because they were fighting

09:14with themselves and they were fighting with reporters about intelligence that had come

09:21out that the president wasn't happy about.

09:24In the immediate aftermath of the attack, he said that the Iranian nuclear program had been

09:28completely obliterated.

09:31All sources, Iranian sources, Israeli sources, the IAEA, the United States, have said severe

09:36damage.

09:37But because the president sort of went overboard with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki claims and

09:43completely obliterated, reporters started to dig into it.

09:47And then the president got mad.

09:49And then the secretary of defense started to name-call reporters who were asking basic questions.

09:54War is too big an issue to leave to the moods and the whims and the daily vibes of any one

10:02person.

10:03And that's why the founder said, unless it's an imminent defense, and in this case it wasn't,

10:09the Israeli foreign minister had said before the U.S. attack that their attacks had already

10:14set the Iranian program back at least two or three years.

10:17That's a direct quote from the Israelis who follow this very closely.

10:21If the program had been set back at least two or three years, what was the urgency that

10:26suggested we needed to take this action without a debate in Congress?

10:29And, Madam President, it was not only done without congressional authorization, it was

10:34also done without congressional consultation, and it was done without congressional notification

10:39of Democratic leaders.

10:42Republican leaders were given a briefing, but for the first time during my time here, no Democrat

10:48in a leadership position on the key committees was given an advance notice of this.

10:54Is war now to be a partisan thing?

10:58Where the White House just notifies those of the same party?

11:03I've tried to be consistent about this, Madam President.

11:06When I came to the Senate in 2013 with this passion that I'm not gonna, I'm gonna do anything

11:12I can't to stop an unnecessary war.

11:14Within a few months after arriving here, President Obama, who is a personal friend, was contemplating

11:21military action in Syria.

11:23And I looked my friend in the eye and I said, you do not have congressional authority to do

11:27that.

11:28You need to bring this to Congress.

11:30Hey, I thought you were my supporter.

11:32I thought you were my friend and you would support this.

11:35I do support you, and I think you have good judgment, and I think you're likely to make

11:39a careful decision, but war is too big an issue to leave in the hands of even a completely

11:48careful and deliberative individual.

11:50The framers didn't want to leave war in the hands of George Washington, for God's sake.

11:55They thought Congress should be involved in it.

11:57And I said to President Obama, you need to bring this to Congress, and guess what?

12:01A lot of members of this body said the same thing.

12:04Seven members in the Senate right now were in the House in 2013, and I have a letter that

12:10many of them wrote.

12:13Six members who are currently Republican members of the Senate signed this.

12:18August 28, 2013, dear Mr. President, we strongly urge you to consult and receive authorization

12:23from Congress before ordering the use of U.S. military force in Syria.

12:29Your responsibility to do so is prescribed in the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution

12:36of 1973.

12:38We were in a recess then, it was August.

12:41But they said, if you deem that military action is necessary, Congress can reconvene at

12:46your request.

12:47We stand ready to come back into session, consider the facts before us, and share the burden of

12:52decisions regarding U.S. involvement in the quickly escalating Syrian conflict.

12:58Six Republican members of this body signed that letter in 2013, but based on their public

13:04statements, they seem to have a different standard for President Trump than they did for President

13:10Obama.

13:11A different standard for war against Iran than they did for war against Syria.

13:16There's one member who signed this letter who is consistent.

13:20Congressman Peter Welch is now in the Senate.

13:22He signed this letter to a president of his own party saying you can't do this without a

13:26vote of Congress.

13:27Come to Congress.

13:28And he is taking the same position on the floor today consistently that he did then.

13:33Madam President, I'm going to conclude and just say this.

13:38I know everybody in this body is praying that the ceasefire that is in place now for a couple

13:42of days works and that it holds.

13:45I know everybody is praying that when the administration now says they're interested in a diplomatic resolution

13:51to this program, that they will have learned that they shouldn't tear up diplomatic deals

13:55as they did in 2018, but instead should prefer diplomacy and step back from war against Iran.

14:03I pray that that holds and that we won't need to be back here doing this again, but I do

14:09note that the President, even today, said he would certainly bomb Iran again.

14:17I'm hoping, I'm realistic, but I'm hoping that members of this body will stand up for

14:23the Constitution, will stand up for the proposition that war is too big to be decided by one person,

14:31will stand up for the principles that they articulated pretty clearly when it came to President Obama

14:36thinking about taking war into Syria.

14:39At that moment, when we urged President Obama to do that, he didn't use military force.

14:44He did bring it to Congress.

14:45We had a debate in the Foreign Relations Committee.

14:47We passed an authorization, and in that debate, Syria stepped forward and said they would give

14:53up their chemical weapons program.

14:55Diplomacy achieved a result.

14:56Just as diplomacy achieved a more effective control of the Iranian nuclear program, even

15:02than the bombs that we dropped last Saturday until it was torn up.

15:06I pray the ceasefire continues, but I fear we're going to be back here on this floor.

15:16And I hope when we are on this floor again, members of this body will stand for the proposition

15:22that has been part of our history, that war is too big an issue to allow one person to make

15:27the decision that sends our sons and daughters into harm's way.

15:30With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.

Category

Transcript

Recommended