Most conservatives were hoping to see a united front to support Trump’s decision to order the strike against Soleimani after Congress received its briefing, but that was far from what we saw.
The two Republican Senators most were concerned about were Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT).
Both were livid after the briefing and sounded like Democrats when they got to the podium…
GOP Sen. Mike Lee goes off on the Trump briefing: "They had to leave after 75 minutes, while they’re in the process of telling us that we need to be good little boys and girls and run along and not debate this in public. I find that absolutely insane. I think it’s unacceptable." pic.twitter.com/rs6LOimfAm
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 8, 2020
After the briefing, both Senators stated they would be siding with Democrats, which drew the ire of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
Party Rift
To be quite honest, the comments made by Lee after the briefing were a bit disturbing.
His account of the briefing was far different from what we heard coming from House members when they left their briefing.
Senators also seemed to get less time, so there is the possibility that there was some sort of time crunch, but it definitely created some concern both in the party and within the media.
After Paul and Lee spoke, Graham stated, “They’re libertarians.
“I think they’re overreacting, quite frankly.
“Go debate all you want to. I’m going to debate you.
“Trust me, I’m going to let people know that at this moment in time to play this game with the War Powers Act … whether you mean to or not, you’re empowering the enemy.”
After Graham’s comments, Paul went on the attack, stating, “I think it’s sad when people have this fake sort of drape of patriotism and anybody that disagrees with them is not a patriot.
“I love my country. I have many family members that serve in the military and continue to serve. I love my country as much as the next guy.
“For him to insult and say we’re not as patriotic as he is — he hasn’t read the Constitution … he insults the Constitution, our Founding Fathers, and what we do stand for in this republic by making light of it and accusing people of lacking patriotism. I think that’s a low, gutter type of response.
“To me, this is much bigger than the Trump administration.
“This question we have about who has the war-making power, this goes back to Truman in 1950. We fought war after war, the Korean War, the Vietnam war, without having them authorized by Congress.
“It’s been a tug-of-war. Many people have written that Congress and senators have abdicated their role in declaring war. That’s true. What Senator Lee and I are doing is standing up and saying the power resides in Congress and we’re going to fight for it.”
Paul and Lee seem to be spewing the same narrative as Democrats in terms of Trump starting a war, but I think most would agree after his speech yesterday, that is the last thing that Trump wants.
He and most of his supporters want the United States out of the Middle East, not digging in deeper.
Democrats will surely latch onto this and use it against Trump to create more fodder that the strike against Soleimani was a political assassination rather than a strike against terrorism.
Source: Fox News
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