Conservative talk radio star Mark Levin rebuked claims that President Donald Trump required Congressional approval for the U.S.’s deadly airstrike on Iran’s top military commander, stating the president didn’t need to notify Democrats because they are “orchestrating a coup” against him.
“Trump didn’t confer with Congress? Uh, Congress has been on recess. Moreover, the House Intelligence Committee has spent months orchestrating a coup against our president rather than doing its job protecting America from, among others, the terrorist regime in Iran,” Levin wrote on social media Friday morning. “But a president is not required to alert Congress to a real-time defensive military action. So Pelosi and her ilk can leak and put the military action at risk? These Democrats are undermining our security. We were attacked by the Iranian regime.”
Early Friday morning, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ foreign operations unit, was killed by U.S. forces at Baghdad’s main airport.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the deadly strike came in response to intelligence that Soleimani was plotting an imminent attack on U.S. citizens.
“He was actively plotting in the region to take actions — a big action, as he described it — that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk,” Pompeo told CNN’s New Day.
“We know it was imminent,” the secretary of state added. “This was an intelligence-based assessment that drove our decision-making process.”
Among those perturbed that President Trump did not notify Congress of the strike was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who called on lawmakers to be “immediately briefed on this serious situation.”
“American leaders’ highest priority is to protect American lives and interests. But we cannot put the lives of American servicemembers, diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions,” Pelosi said in a statement.” Tonight’s airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America – and the world – cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return.”
“The full Congress must be immediately briefed on this serious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region,” the speaker added.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.