Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) told Fox News’s Shannon Bream on Thursday night that he was not upset with the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani last week and that his only frustration was over the lack of details that Senators were given about next steps.
“I’ve spoken to the president, we’re on great terms,” Lee said. “He understands my position. He understands that I support him, I support the fact that he, more than any other president in my lifetime and in your lifetime, has shown great respect and restraint in exercising his commander in chief power. I respect it.”
“My frustration there was that the briefers paid inadequate attention to giving us the details necessary to assess the situation and where it goes,” Lee continued. “And more importantly, on the next steps, on what level of authorization they need to obtain from Congress and under what circles. They were completely refusing to engage on that issue.”
“Okay, so on the next step, it wasn’t about necessarily, your frustration wasn’t necessarily about the intelligence that you were given about the Soleimani strike, it was about the next step and what role Congress should be playing?” Bream asked.
“Yes, yes exactly. I’ve never said that their attack on Soleimani was wrong. Never once,” Lee said. “In fact, I’ve acknowledged — I’m willing to accept the proposition that it was good for the American people, that it was safe, that it enhanced their safety. And I’ve never challenged their basis for doing it.”
“But they should have given us more information on it so we could assess it. And more importantly, they should have engaged on the topic of where we go from here,” Lee continued. “Instead they refused even to acknowledge that we had an appropriate role and that was shameful. It was unconstitutional. It was wrong of them to do that.”
“The House today has passed a non-binding resolution essentially taking a swipe at the president, what he can and can’t do moving forward without congressional action,” Bream responded. “Nancy Pelosi defended that and she said, ‘this is not toothless, this is Congress making a statement,’ but it really has no binding effect on the president.”
“I know you’re more interested on the Senate side getting involved in what Tim Kaine, a Democrat, has proposed moving forward,” Bream continued. “What is that? Why would you sign on?”
“The Kaine resolution, as he’s agreed to amend it for me, is completely non-controversial,” Lee responded. “All it says is that moving forward, setting aside what happened with Soleimani, it doesn’t address that at all, moving forward, if we were to engage in more hostilities between the U.S. Military and the government of Iran, the executive branch needs to go to Congress and get authorization from Congress to do that. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. We also make a carve out there for any attack that is necessary to repel an attack on the United States. And that’s well understood that — that’s established in the constitutional law. No one should fear that.”