Several Senate Democrats are threatening to force numerous war powers votes and otherwise disrupt the chamber unless Republicans agree to hold public hearings with key Trump administration officials on the reasons for the attacks on Iran.
A group of Democrats, including New Jersey’s Cory Booker and Virginia’s Tim Kaine, told reporters late Monday that they would insist on the open hearings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, expressing frustration that all briefings to-date have been classified and behind closed doors.
“There’s a reason to keep it in secret, because you don’t believe it will stand analysis in the light of day, so that’s why we’re doing this,” Kaine said.
The group, which also included Illinois’ Tammy Duckworth, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and California’s Adam Schiff, said they were speaking for themselves, rather than the broader Senate Democratic caucus. They added that they plan to use their modest powers in the minority to slow down Senate business until top Trump officials testify in public about the White House’s reasons for striking Iran.
Baldwin conceded that Democrats have “a limited number of tools” to put meaningful checks on Trump, but vowed to use procedural obstacles to delay all other Senate business until Trump officials agree to public briefings.
That could include pushing additional war powers votes that require the Senate to act, crowding out other nominations and bills before the lawmakers. The Senate also operates under unanimous consent, meaning that any single senator’s objection can greatly hamper the chamber’s legislative proceedings.
“We have collectively agreed that we are going to use the levers that we have,” Booker added.
The Senate last week voted down a war powers resolution, which would have put curbs on Trump’s ability to use military force in Iran. The vote failed largely on party lines with most Republicans opposing the measure.
The war in Iran, which began a week and a half ago, has ballooned to a full-scale regional conflict, now involving more than a dozen countries and killed a range of Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Seven US service members have died in the conflict.
President Donald Trump on Monday said the war would resolve “very soon” as he confronted mounting economic and political pressures after days of dramatic fluctuations in oil markets. Yet he didn’t quantify how long he envisioned the conflict would continue or detail specifics goals to reach the end of the war.
Trump and other top officials have given various, and sometimes conflicting, reasons for the war. They have argued that Iran presented a grave nuclear threat with plans to strike Israel, despite last year’s US-led assault on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program, which Trump said “obliterated” their enrichment capability. The president has also mused about mounting regime change in the country.