Tim Kaine Claims Trump Acted ‘Prematurely’ In Striking Iran, Presses Ahead With War Powers Vote

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who is pushing the Senate toward a war powers vote, said on Sunday that President Donald Trump acted “prematurely” to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities this weekend without the consent of Congress.

On “Face the Nation” Kaine explained to CBS News journalist Margaret Brennan that he filed a War Powers Resolution that will “ripen” and be brought to a vote on the floor of the upper chamber this coming week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is working with Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to make the vote happen, he noted.

“The United States should not be in an offensive war against Iran without a vote of Congress,” Kaine said. “The Constitution is completely clear on it.”

He continued: “And I am so disappointed that the president has acted so prematurely. The foreign minister of Israel said Friday night that its own bombing campaign had set the Iranian nuclear program back, ‘at least two or three years.’ There was no urgency that suggested, while diplomatic talks were underway, that the U.S. should take this unilateral action by President Trump’s orders yesterday.”

Vice President JD Vance said on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump ordered the strikes on three of Iran’s facilities to prevent the country from being able to produce nuclear weapons.

“No, we’re not at war with Iran, Jon,” Vance told anchor Jonathan Karl. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”

Brennan pressed Kaine for a response to Vance.

“There seems to be a lot of legal parsing on the definition of the word ‘war’ here. What do you make of that description?” Brennan asked.

“I think it’s, it’s BS, and I think anybody hearing it would conclude the same thing. When you’re bombing another nation, ask them if they think it’s war,” Kaine said. “They do, would we think it was war if Iran bombed a U.S. nuclear facility? Of course we would. And the U.S., you know, we’ve invaded two neighbors of Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq, to topple their regimes since 2000. Those were wars. This is the U.S. jumping into a war of choice at Donald Trump’s urging, without any compelling national security interests for the United States to act in this way, particularly without a debate and vote in Congress. We should not be sending troops, and risking troops’ lives in an offensive war without a debate in Congress.”

Brennan pointed out that Trump has not authorized a ground invasion.

“In fact, he said he really doesn’t want to send in ground forces,” she said. “When it came to what was just described to the public by the Pentagon, it was really characterized as limited in scope. It sounds like you believe those early hour descriptions are going to turn out to be false.”

Kaine replied: “I do. The War Powers resolution says that a member of Congress can challenge the President, if the President initiates hostilities against a foreign nation. Doesn’t use the — even though the title is War Powers resolution, the statute says if you initiate hostilities without congressional authorization, even a single member of the House or Senate can force a vote on the Senate floor. There is no doubt that the U.S. sending this massive set of Tomahawk missiles and B-2 bombers and bunker busters on three Iranian nuclear sites is hostilities. Now, again, some in the Senate may say this is great and we want to vote for it. I happen to think that getting into a third offensive war in the Middle East in the last 25 years is absolutely reckless and foolish, and I’m going to be doing everything I can to convince my colleagues of that. I may or may not succeed, but Congress should have the debate and vote on this before we escalate the risk to American troops, which this action has done.”