00:00Thank you. I now recognize the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Lynch, for five minutes.
00:05Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Subramaniam, Mr. Mahmoh, Major General Edwards, Major General Stilwell, and folks behind you.
00:17Thank you so much for your service to your country.
00:20We really appreciate you, and we honor your service.
00:23Thanks for being here and being willing to answer questions before the committee and help us with our work.
00:30Originally, I had planned to address the refusal of President Trump to consult with California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
00:39before making a unilateral decision to deploy the National Guard and the United States Marine Corps against the civilian population of Los Angeles.
00:48Unfortunately, more recent events have now overtaken and amplified this same problem of unilateral dictatorial decision-making by our president.
01:00I'm, of course, referring to President Trump's refusal to include Congress in a meaningful way on the decision to deploy U.S. forces in a military operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
01:14I won't ask you any questions about that. It would not be fair to you.
01:18You are not prepared to address that issue.
01:22But I do want to get this on the record.
01:24So this decision to deploy U.S. forces in a military operation against the Islamic Republic of Iran where uranium enrichment, potential nuclear weapons development,
01:39and the custody of over 800 pounds of near-weapons-grade fissile material remains unaccounted for.
01:45I think a lot of Democrats and a lot of Republicans agree that should be the hearing we are having.
01:52Well, the gentleman, you?
01:53Not yet.
01:54What is also deeply troubling is the deliberate decision by the president to share less than complete information with even some of my Republican colleagues,
02:03especially senior Republican members, while completely concealing information and thereby misleading duly elected Democratic members of Congress
02:12who should have been immediately and fully informed.
02:16And that is different in this country.
02:19That's a real departure from how we usually deal with moments of crisis in the country, especially when it involves our military.
02:26We've not seen that before.
02:28Because in the past, from President Washington to Wilson to President Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Johnson,
02:35to both President George H. and George W. Bush, and up until the present day,
02:40every one of those presidents, Democrat and Republican, has kept faith with the basic premise
02:45that on those very rare occasions when diplomacy fails and our national security is threatened
02:51and we need to send our sons and daughters into battle, that we don't do so as Democrats or Republicans.
02:59We do it as a country, as Americans.
03:04We go into battle together, fully informed.
03:07That principle was abandoned last week when President Trump allowed spiteful and small-minded mentality
03:13to get in the way of a larger mission.
03:15And he divided this Congress, and he divided the American people
03:20into those who were informed and those who were misled.
03:24He once again treated a very serious situation in an unserious way.
03:30We need to defend democracy.
03:31And remember, while the President is Commander-in-Chief, he is not a dictator and not a king.
03:37And Congress must be informed.
03:39And that decision to deploy U.S. forces must meet a higher standard.
03:43We owe that to our sons and daughters in uniform, and we owe it to their families.
03:48We don't want the U.S. military acting on the basis of some alternate reality that has no basis in fact,
03:55or on cooked-up intelligence.
03:57And that has happened before.
03:58There has to be someone in that circle and the gang of eight who is not afraid to point out to the President
04:03that he might be mistaken.
04:06And to be completely honest, there is very little risk today that anything Trump says would be challenged
04:11by a Republican member because they seem to be unwilling to do so.
04:17In a press conference yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Thun could not even answer basic questions
04:22about the attacks because he had not been fully informed.
04:25In fact, it became apparent that there was more communication between Trump and the officials in Iran
04:32than there was between U.S. elected officials in this government.
04:38At present, members of Congress only have access to Defense Intelligence Agency
04:42after-action battle damage assessment.
04:45And there seems to be, having read that battle damage assessment, there seems to be great difference,
04:55huge difference, between what the President has told us and what the Defense Intelligence Agency
05:02says about those same attacks.
05:04Again, I don't want this to reflect on the current chairman of this subcommittee or the current ranking member.
05:12They do serious work, bipartisan work, and I greatly appreciate that because it is rare.
05:18But those were facts that I just wanted to get on the record.
