GOP Lays Groundwork to Blame Dems
It’s dangerous for President Trump to start a war that most of his constituents don’t want.
It’s politically dangerous; only the youngest Americans haven’t seen up close how an unpopular Middle Eastern war can drag down a presidency.
And it’s physically dangerous. Six American servicemembers have already been killed in Iranian strikes — more than the four Americans who were killed in the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Republicans got political mileage out of those deaths for years, making the Benghazi killings synonymous with Hillary Clinton’s supposed unfitness for any sort of office.
But it appears Democrats haven’t learned those lessons, as they still dismiss as uncouth and morally unappetizing that using tragedy to score points against your opponents is part of politics. And so they may be caught out again.
The reality is President Trump started the war unilaterally, without making the case to Congress or the American public. He did not attempt to obtain congressional approval, and would likely veto any constraints the legislature passes. He has already said publicly to expect more American deaths. If there were ever a clear shot to entirely fault one party, it’s this one.
But Republicans are already laying the groundwork to blame Democrats, should the (politically) worst occur: retaliatory violence on U.S. soil. (Law enforcement is already investigating an early Sunday mass shooting in Texas for motives; the shooter reportedly wore a shirt with an Iranian flag emblem.)
“Given the situation in the Middle East and the potential for Iran and its terrorist proxies to attempt some type of attack, it is imperative that @SenSchumer and @RepJeffries immediately drop all opposition to funding the Department of Homeland Security and pass the funding bill,” tweeted frontliner Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on Saturday.
“Now would be a good time for Democrats to drop their opposition to DHS funding and pass the bill to support our homeland security,” wrote Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA). “Continuing to play political games with our national security given the unfolding situation in the Middle East is dangerous.”
“As our military continues to carry out Operation Epic Fury, we cannot afford to take ANY chances when it comes to our homeland security. It’s time for Democrats to quit the political games and protect our nation by passing the DHS appropriations bill this week,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR).
You see what they’re doing, right (in suspiciously similarly worded tweets)? The biggest political risk to Trump, at this moment, is the killing of Americans who would have lived, if not for his war. So Republicans are preemptively shaping the narrative, getting a rebuttal into the bloodstream in case it happens. They’ll have a party line to coalesce behind, while Democrats — who overwhelmingly oppose the new war — will have to indignantly splutter their defense. All of a sudden, it’s a both sides story.
You’d think that watching Clinton get pummeled for over a decade for a tragedy that wasn’t her fault might whet the Democratic appetite to blame Trump for starting an unpopular conflict that has already left Americans dead. But while they’re being high-minded, Republicans are preparing to smear more blood onto Democratic hands.
— Kate Riga
‘Soon,’ ‘Nearly’: Trump Keeps Claiming Without Evidence That Iran Presented a Threat to the Continental U.S.
During his State of the Union speech last week, while discussing how the Iranian regime killed what is believed to be thousands of protesters, President Trump also made a vague allusion to what sounded like an impending threat against the United States.
“They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” he claimed of Iran.
“After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue,” he continued, referring to the U.S. strikes on nuclear sites last June. “They’re starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start it all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN this weekend that “there was no imminent threat to the United States” based on the intelligence that he has seen.
“I saw no intelligence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike against the United States of America,” Warner said on “State of the Union” Sunday.
“There was no imminent threat to the United States,” he continued. “So the decision to put our service members in harm’s way and bases around the region in harm’s way was entirely based upon the president’s decision, not an imminent threat to America.”
Trump doubled down on this claim that Iran had long range nuclear weapons that could potentially threaten the United States during remarks on Monday, emphasis mine:
“An Iranian regime armed with long range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people,” he said on Monday. “Our country itself would be under threat. And it was very nearly under threat. I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran Nuclear Deal by President Barack Hussein Obama that was a horrible, horrible, dangerous document.”
The Trump administration has also not yet offered any public evidence that a possible attack from Iran on U.S. allies or infrastructure was imminent.
— Nicole LaFond
POTUS Keeps Saying Strange Things On the Phone With Reporters
You may have seen that President Trump spoke to ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on the phone Sunday night, during which he reportedly confirmed that the U.S. strike on Iranian regime leadership also “knocked out most of the candidates” that the U.S. had identified as potential new leaders of Iran.
“It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead,” he said, per Karl. He also told Karl this about the death of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Trump also got on the phone with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday evening and bragged that U.S. is “knocking the crap out of them,” before alluding to another wave of strikes.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”
— Nicole LaFond
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Kate Riga: A Congress That Has Made Itself Irrelevant Plays Catch-Up as Trump Unilaterally Pushes US Into War
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The rhetoric has changed from “no boots on the ground” to “maybe boots on the ground” to “we don’t have boots in the region yet”. If this ends up as a ground war, Republican talking points won’t mean shit. MAGA will act excited about this farce until the moment they’re expected to actually participate.
long range nuclear weapons = WMD of the Bush era.
And boy does he like to make up stuff so he can brag and puff out his chest (verses the belly).
Perhaps the Democrats should introduce a Bill to repeal the Tax Cuts of the BBB. In order to pay for this war of choice by the GOP.