Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Thursday about what President Donald Trump‘s next moves in the war against Iran could be.
Himes told CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown that after the Senate rejected a resolution to limit Trump’s war powers without congressional permission—a measure also expected to fail Thursday in the House—lawmakers were now in a difficult position regarding military action against Iran, with few options remaining.
“There’s a really kind of dark answer to that question, which and the answer to that is, and I hate to be this blunt and honest with the American people, but it’s true. The answer to that question is nothing,” Himes said. “Even if the war powers resolution were to have passed the Senate and to have passed the House, there is no reason to believe that Donald Trump would have taken that into account.”
Himes argued that Trump would have vetoed the resolution regardless of what lawmakers said. He predicted what Trump would do.
“And so what eventually is going to end this war is what we’re beginning to see already, just in the fourth or fifth day of this war, gasoline prices are already up $0.22 a gallon on average across the country,” Himes said. “They are now higher than they were when Donald Trump took office the stock market is stumbling today. And by the way, I should have put this first. But most tragically and most importantly, there are now six Americans dead in this war. Eventually the pressure of those losses in the context of the administration’s inability to tell us how this ends, you know how or when this ends, eventually the American people are going to be even more sour on this war than they already are now. And I suspect what happens then is that Donald Trump just pulls the plug, declares victory, and walks away.”
And despite reports that Iranian military forces have weakened, that doesn’t mean they’re done fighting, Himes explained.
“There’s no question that the Iranians are being very badly hit right now most of their navy is gone,” Himes said. “There’s lots of almost MTV-quality videos that you can watch on an hourly basis being released by the White House and by the Department of Defense. The reality is that the Iranians maintain pretty shocking military capability and asymmetric capability. That’s what we, you know, the fancy term for the terrorists that they have for generations now been planting in the region, and scarily outside of the region.”
He also described another troubling concern for American intelligence involved in the strikes against Iran — and how a move by the FBI could be putting troops at potential risk.
“As this regime gets increasingly desperate, they are going to reach for those tools at a time, by the way, when the FBI has fired the people who are Iran counterterrorism experts and whatnot,” Himes said. “So it is a very, very real danger. And I just pray that this administration sobers up, takes their eye off of their constant need to praise this president, and actually gets into the business of defending and standing for the security of the American people.”
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