TOLEDO, OH — President Donald Trump mocked a law that requires Congress be given consent before the U.S. can engage in an armed conflict, alleging Thursday that Democrats would leak sensitive national security information if it were shared with them.
At his first campaign rally of 2020 in the crucial battleground state of Ohio, Trump said he hadn’t had time to call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, adding that “she is not operating with a full deck now.” He then acted out a parody of how House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., might leak the planned killing of Soleimani to reporters.
“Schiff is a big leaker, you know he leaks like crazy,” Trump said, claiming Democrats “want us to tell them so that they can leak it to their friends in the corrupt media.”
The White House has not cited any instances of Democrats leaking sensitive national security information to the media.
Trump also expanded on his explanation for why the killing of Soleimani was necessary, saying the Iranian general was plotting attacks on multiple embassies. Earlier in the day Trump had suggested Soleimani was planning to blow up the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
“Soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad,” Trump said.
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Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Thursday afternoon ahead of the rally on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that “none of the facts presented at the classified briefing supported” the president’s claim about a plot to blow up the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
“You have [the president’s advisers] saying they can’t provide this kind of information to senators in a highly classified setting, but the president is going to say that to the country. It just shows how they’re making this up as they go,” said Van Hollen. “They would have presented that kind of evidence yesterday if they had it.”
At one point the rally was interrupted by a small group of protestors holding up a “no war” sign.
The administration has sent out mixed messages about the nature of the attack that Soleimani was plotting, which the White House initially said was “imminent.”
Trump’s comments came hours after the House adopted a war powers resolution mostly along party lines on Thursday that seeks to limit Trump’s military actions against Iran.
The five-page non-binding resolution, sponsored by freshman Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a former CIA analyst, emphasizes that if the president wants to take the U.S. to war, he or she must get authorization from Congress.
Specifically, it directs the president to terminate the use of U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities against Iran unless Congress has declared war or enacted a specific authorization or unless military action is necessary to defend against an imminent attack.
The legislation also states that Iran’s government is a lead state sponsor of terrorism and that Soleimani was the “lead architect” of destabilizing activities around the world. It further says the U.S. has an “inherent right to self-defense against imminent armed attacks” and “maintains the right to ensure the safety of diplomatic personnel serving abroad.”
Trump on Thursday also took fresh aim at 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has consistently remained near the top of Democratic presidential primary polling. The Trump campaign ratcheted up its focus on Sanders this week, blasting two back-to-back emails labeling the senator a “wealthy, fossil-fuel guzzling millionaire” who “can’t be trusted to defend American lives.”
Though Trump often refers to Sanders as “crazy Bernie,” he has previously reserved his most stinging attacks for Democrats like former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. But on Thursday, he slammed Sanders several times, attacking the senator’s health care plan and his criticism over how the Soleimani killing was carried out, while seeking to paint him as a leader of the Democratic Party.
“Democrats are taking their cues from socialist Bernie Sanders” along with the group of freshman Congresswomen known as “the squad,” said Trump. “They’re the leaders of the party.”
The president said that he was saving most of his attacks until closer to the election, when he believes they will be more effective.
