Jeffries fumes at Trump for blindsiding Congress on Iran strikes
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on June 23. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday flashed some fury with the Trump administration for sidelining Congress on its strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Why it matters: Jeffries notably did not weigh in on a measure to limit Trump's ability to carry out such attacks unilaterally and signaled that evidence the administration presents to Congress will be key.
- Jeffries said in a letter to fellow Democrats that all House members will be briefed Tuesday afternoon about the situation in the Middle East.
- "We haven't gotten an initial briefing from the White House," he said at a subsequent press conference.
- "All we received from the White House is a so-called 'courtesy call' ... I asked for a Gang of Eight briefing, it has yet to occur!"
What we're hearing: Behind closed doors, Jeffries is "very" frustrated about Congressional Democrats being bypassed, a senior House Democrat told Axios on the condition of anonymity to provide insights on sensitive internal dynamics.
- He wasn't the only one: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) received a cursory notification ahead of the strikes similar to the "courtesy call" Jeffries described, Axios' Stephen Neukam reported.
- Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, were also not briefed before the attack, even as their Republican counterparts were.
The other side: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News appearance that Jeffries "couldn't be reached" prior to the strikes "but he was briefed after."
- She added: "The White House was not obligated to call anyone because the president was acting within his legal authority under Article II of the Constitution ... we gave these calls as the courtesy."
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters that Trump "made an evaluation that the danger was imminent enough to take his authority as commander-in-chief and make that decision."
- Johnson said it is not an "appropriate time" for a vote on the war powers resolution — which is supported by dozens of House Democrats but just one Republican — and that he "doesn't think it is necessary."
Zoom out: Jeffries is making the case that the White House ran afoul of the Constitution by not seeking congressional authorization and now needs to prove that Iran posed an "imminent threat" to the U.S. or its military forces.
- "Not a scintilla of evidence to date has been presented, that I have seen, to justify the notion that there was an imminent threat. ... If the administration has evidence to the contrary, come up to present it," he said.
- Jeffries said he hopes the briefing on Tuesday will be "comprehensive," and said it "will be probed, it will be tested, it will be aggressively pushed back against, and then we'll see what the outcome is."
What to watch: The war powers measure is "privileged," meaning its authors, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), can in, theory, force a vote on it without Johnson's approval.
- But Johnson is reportedly considering slipping language into an unrelated procedural measure that would effectively shut down a forced vote.
- Jeffries said he hadn't "taken a look at" the war powers measure, but said Johnson's potential side-stepping maneuver is "outrageous."
- "House Republican leaders are going to explain that to their own base, which also does not want to see another dangerous, potentially disastrous, Middle Eastern war," he said.
— Kate Santaliz contributed reporting.
