Hakeem Jeffries (4:26)

Constitution is very clear on this issue that only Congress has the power to declare war and to authorize the type of offensive military action that Donald Trump deployed in striking Iran. Now, Donald Trump is going to have to demonstrate to the American people and to us in Congress that there was an imminent threat that justified his actions. It's hard to imagine that he has the ability to actually prove that, because we've seen no evidence to justify this type of offensive strike. And the problem with it is that there doesn't also seem to be a plan for how to avoid the type of escalation that could result in America being dragged into another potentially disastrous Middle Eastern war, which the overwhelming majority of the American people want no part of at this moment.

Host (5:26)

Seemed that less than 90 days ago, Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified under oath that there was not an imminent threat of Iran getting a nuclear weapon. Then all of a sudden, it seemed like in the past two weeks, behind the scenes, I mean, we would get drips of things happening. Things started escalating very, very quickly, and then all of a sudden, these strikes happened. There wasn't even any communication at all with the American people of what was happening. I mean, we get Trump's social media posts online, including this morning, that looks like the rantings and ravings of a lunatic with exclamation points. We'll talk about the one from this morning, but it's unclear what the hell is even happening. I think that's what American what the hell is happening is a common thing. I'm hearing from our audience.

Hakeem Jeffries (6:15)

The reason that the Constitution and the wisdom of the framers gives Congress exclusively the power to declare war and authorize military force is so that there can actually be an informed debate that in public that allows the American people, through their elected representatives in the House and in the Senate, to make a decision about what is right for the country, what's in our best interest, what's in our national security interests. And so the failure to have that happen. There's a high bar that Donald Trump needs to cross in order to demonstrate that Aggressive diplomacy, which I called for, wasn't the right way to go. And what was strange about it all is that on Friday he indicated that we're going to allow for two weeks to take place so that we can see if we can arrive at an agreement related to stopping Iran from becoming nuclear capable, which is a goal that we all share. Iran is a sworn enemy of the United States of America. We cannot allow them to become a nuclear power. The question, of course, is, is what is the best way to do that? And the moment seemed to call for aggressive diplomacy, not a strike that was not authorized by the United States Congress.

Host (7:38)

Then a week before, Trump said that there was supposed to be, I think, the sixth round of discussions with Iran on the prior Sunday. And then Israel struck, I think two or three days before they were supposed to be the sixth round. And then the Trump regime was basically saying, oh, that was all part of our decoy. We said we were doing a sixth round of discussion, but trickedia and we did this because nothing's making sense. Have you been briefed? Have Democrats been briefed? Has Congress been briefed? Is there going to be a briefing? What's going on?

Hakeem Jeffries (8:12)

So we'll have an all member briefing that takes place for the House of Representatives tomorrow. I spoke to the White House on Saturday and I asked them for a leadership briefing which has yet to be forthcoming. And if you have evidence that justifies a strike because of an alleged imminent threat of Iran becoming nuclear capable, all of a sudden present that evidence. And in the absence of doing that, you're hiding from congressional leadership on the Democratic side and you're hiding by extension from the American people. So tomorrow at that all member classified briefing, I expect that on the Democratic side at least, and perhaps a handful of Republicans are going to highly scrutinize the Trump administration, both as it relates to the justification for this strike, without following the constitutional process and the boastful claims that Donald Trump has made that the Iranian nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated. We've also seen no evidence to suggest that that in fact was the case, notwithstanding the bravery of the men and women in the armed services who carried out the strike. And we continue to pray for them and for their safety. But this is about the Trump administration and the constitutional process that's in place. The law that is required in order to authorize military force that they have not adhered to, as far as we can tell at this moment, and, and questioning the aftermath of the strike in terms of was it even successful and what's their plan to avoid entering into another potentially disastrous Middle Eastern war.

Host (10:03)

How unusual is it that there would not be a Gang of Eight brief or a leadership brief at this stage and that it's the very first time that you or other leaders of the House Intelligence Committee are going to find out anything about what happened would be a few days after the strike. How unusual is that?

Hakeem Jeffries (10:24)

It's highly unusual that there wasn't a briefing in advance of any potential military action being contemplated by the Trump administration. Then he strikes Orion without congressional authorization. And then days have gone by without even a Gang of Eight briefing, which of course represents the top four legislative leaders in the Congress and the top four leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committee. I mean, this is extraordinary. And I explicitly asked on Saturday at the highest levels of the White House for a Gang of Eight briefing and they have failed to produce it. What are they trying to hide from the American people by hiding from the legislative leaders in the House and in.

Host (11:14)

The Senate while this is going on too, you have the disastrous budget bill working its way now through the Senate. They're making it. This was even possible. Worse than what it looked like in the House. More cuts to Medicaid. More issues that are going to cause massive amounts of money being trillions added to the debt. What do you want the American people to know about that? Because, you know, it's seems like kind of whack a mole here. But we have to focus on all of this that's going down.

Hakeem Jeffries (11:45)

Yeah. The one big ugly bill. This GOP tax scam represents the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. Children and families and people with disabilities and seniors and everyday Americans are going to be hurt. Hospitals will close, nursing homes will shut down. People will are not going to be able to get the care that they need in community after community all across the country, including in rural America. And as a result of that, people will die. At the same time, the Republicans in this one big ugly bill are trying to enact the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history. They are literally ripping food out of the mouths of children, veterans, seniors, small business owners and others in order to provide their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks. And they want to stick all of us with the bill by exploding the debt by more than $3 trillion. This GOP tax scam hurts everyday Americans in order to reward billionaires. That's why we're doing everything we can to stop it. Stop it in the Senate. It limped out of the House by barely a vote. It may come back to the House of Representatives. And we're going to do everything that we can to shut it down when it comes back to us, if it even makes it out of the United States Senate.

Host (13:11)

Finally, I think you've seen the energy on the ground with those no Kings protests. Millions of Americans peacefully protesting across the country. Red states, blue states, purple states, big cities, small cities, towns of all sizes. What Americans see as an authoritarian regime that is constantly violating the law. And we see an example of it here just going to war without providing any information, without seeking authorization. So when we say it's unconstitutional, when we say that he's violating the law over and over again, what else can be done? I mean, I think you see people taken to the streets peacefully, but what else can be done to stop this unconstitutional encroachment? Frankly, what many people and I believe is actually a dictatorship here in the United States, as we see our brothers and sisters being disappeared by ICE agents or people who are being deputized as ICE agents terrorizing our streets, what do we do?

Hakeem Jeffries (14:12)

Well, the peaceful protests that have taken place, millions and millions of people coming out to the streets, peacefully demonstrating, pushing back against the tyrannical government that they're seeing, this flood of extremism that has been unleashed on the American people is incredibly important. You know, it's an all hands on deck moment in terms of aggressively pushing back in the Congress, which we'll continue to do, aggressively pushing back in the courts, which we'll continue to do, but perhaps most importantly, aggressively pushing back in community after community after community all throughout the country to win the hearts and minds of the American people, as is being done. You know, we're about to celebrate our 250th birthday next year. And when this democracy thing got started, it was once said that if the people fear the government, there is tyranny, but when the government fears the people, there is liberty. And if we want to get back to a place where there's liberty and justice for all in the United States of America, it's going to be important for us to continue to peacefully show up, stand up, speak up for what is right, make sure we do what is necessary, of course, to win elections all across the country, including, perhaps most importantly, taking back control of the House of Representatives so we can cut Donald Trump's presidency in half, legislatively and together. I'm confident that if we continue to do the things that have been done, and we are in a more is more environment, so we have to continue to do more, all of us, that we will, one Day soon. End this national nightmare and get our great country back on track.

Host (16:06)

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, thanks for joining us.

Hakeem Jeffries (16:09)

Thank you, man.

Host (16:10)

That was the interview with Democratic Leader Jeffries. Now let me play you the interview of Democratic ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, Congressmember Himes. Let's play it. I'm joined by Democratic Congressmember Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. Congressmember, I just gotta, you know, show you what Donald Trump posted just moments ago and get your reaction to it as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. Here's what he's posting. I think he coined the term panicin. He said, don't be a panikan. But he seems to be a panicking right now. Everyone keep oil prices down. I'm watching, exclamation point. You're playing right into the hands of the enemy. Don't do it all in caps. And then he posts to the Department of Energy, drill, baby, drill. And some of those words are in caps. And I mean now, I mean, does he actually think that they do the drilling at the Department of Energy? And then he says this message to Russia's former President Medvedev. Did I hear that former President Medvedev from Russia casually throwing around the N word nuclear and saying that he and other countries would supply nuclear warheads to Iran. Did he really say that or is it just a figment in my imagination? If he did say that, if, if he did confirm, let me know immediately. The N word should not be treated so casually. I guess that's why Putin's the boss. By the way, if anyone thinks our hardware was great over the weekend, far and away the strongest and best equipped we have. 20 years advanced over the pack is our nuclear submarines. They are the most powerful and lethal weapons ever built and they just launched the 30 Tomahawks. Congressmember Himes, you know, as. Who is it that one said, walk softly and carry a big stick. And I think that policy was probably the right way. What in the world is this?

Jim Himes (17:59)

Yeah, yeah, look, I think this is his advisors telling him, well, you know, oil prices could go up if the, you know, Iranians decide to shut the Straits of Hormuz, which is where 20% of global oil comes through. You know, I think that's probably what's going on. And by the way, I can confirm for him, not that I, not that he listens to me, but I can confirm for him that Medvedev put up some sort of social media post so I can at least make get that done for him today. Medvedev did in fact say that he may, you know, Russia may provide nukes. But, you know, I don't believe that that's going to happen. I don't believe that individually we've got the ability to keep oil prices down. And I also don't believe that the Department of Energy has anything to do with oil drilling. Now, that said, what's really going on here, of course, is, you know, maybe the man's a little nervous because he's, he's, he's gotten himself and us into a massive, massive gamble that involves gasoline prices and nuclear weapons and all sor of serious things. But, you know, look, it's the classic Trump thing, right? It's the game of chicken. Or I think this goes back to the Nixon administration. You know what, if you're the craziest guy in the room, if you're the craziest guy in the room and you've got nuclear weapons and don't really understand what's going on, which is certainly all of those posts suggest to be true, people are likely to give you a wide berth and a big margin. So I think that's what's going on.

Host (19:22)

Well, I think that worked with Kim Jong Un. We see how powerful they are in North Korea. I'm being sarcastic. I mean, the thing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant in Donald Trump's trade policies referred to it as the Crazy Ivan theory. He goes, he's crazy. That's the unifying principle right now in American foreign policy and trade policy is that we're the craziest and you don't know what we're going to do. You're going to wake up. Is he gonna start posting n word nuclear bomb crazy guy, or is he gonna go golfing? What's gonna happen? But we're the United States of America, damn it. Don't we go through deliberative process and Congress is supposed to be the ones who authorize war and they talk about these things. So we know we have good intelligence. We don't have a Director of national intelligence show up 90 days ago and say, nope, nope, we don't see a major threat right there anytime soon. And then have the President go, yeah, don't believe her. She doesn't know what she's talking about. That kind of. I don't like crazy Congressman.

Jim Himes (20:23)

Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. You know, I'm quite sure the Canadian people would be very happy to receive you into the warm embrace of their citizenship. If you're not going to make it this Next three years are crazy. But. Yeah, look, I. You know, I also think I've been thinking a lot about this. You know, I think that there is not likely to be a lot of really good news here. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is that, you know, we don't even know if the uranium was in Fordo or Natanz or Esfahan. You know, it's quite possible, since this was an advertised raid, that the Iranians loaded that stuff up into a truck or a bunch of trucks, I should say, and moved it. Now, maybe we'll figure that out. But I think there's one thing that would be a good and visible outcome here, and that's what the President was contradicting all of his people on yesterday, which is regime change. Look, if the Iranian people finally find a way to get rid of these evil sobs under whom they have labored so brutally for decades now, that would be a very visible sign of success. But, you know, I really worry about this because, you know, what appears to be a sign of success, which is that the regime doesn't attack military, our military, around the world. But what if the uranium is in a warehouse somewhere right now and the Iranians are working like crazy North Korea style to actually create a weapon? We might not know about that. So I think, I think it's dawning on the president that he had successful military raids in the sense that we shook a lot of facilities, broke a lot of stuff, and got our pilots and naval assets out of the way quickly. But I don't see that they're, short of regime change going to be obvious good news coming out of this. And I think that's beginning to dawn on the president.

Host (22:16)

And when they talk about regime change, I have to imagine, though, I mean, number one, regime change also can mean civil war, can mean boots on the ground, can mean a broader regional conflict. And I may be naive here, but I don't think that the Iranian people are going to warmly welcome a Benjamin Netanyahu proxy leading Iran or a Donald Trump pick, you know, and I wonder, I worry that it's pushes them in another direction than where they were heading when you saw protests on the street in Taiwan that they were clamping down on. If you, if, you know, if, if regime change is coming from Netanyahu and Trump. But, but what are your thoughts?

Jim Himes (23:02)

Yeah, yeah, look, I mean, you know, all we have is history to go on, and we engineered three regime changes in the region over the course of the last 20 years, right. Muammar Gaddafi And Libya, we had a lot to do with that. We destroyed the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. And of course, Iraq. Right now, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Did any of those go our way? No, they did not. Regime change in Iraq led to a brutal war that killed 4,400Americans. It empowered Iran. Libya is a hellscape right now, chaotic. And Afghanistan is right back under the direction and lead of the. Of the Taliban. Now, there are differences to be fair here, right? You know, Iran is a nation of 90 million people. Note that, Senator Cruz. That is actually, you know, commercially, it's not Afghanistan. You've got educated people. You know, these people can't stand their own regime. So I'm not gonna say that it's impossible. I'm just gonna say that the historical record is not a happy one. You know, and as long as we're on the topic, you know, we haven't talked about it yet, but this is precisely the kind of action that Congress should have been consulted on. There's not a lot of ambiguity in the War Powers Act. The War Powers act says the president can go to war if there is an imminent, an immediate attack on the United States or if there's been a declaration of war, of congressional approval. Now, there's a lot of whataboutists out there right now saying, oh, well, Biden did it, and Bill Clinton sent tomahawks into Somalia and stuff. And yes, yes, presidents have consistently abrogated congressional power. But here's the difference, right? When President Clinton sent a bunch of missiles into Somalia or when Joe Biden put troops on the ground in Syria, we weren't playing with. We weren't playing a nuclear game the way we're playing right now. We didn't have 40,000 troops that were very much under the guns of the people that we were going after. And so the Constitution would say, you always do this, and I get it, presidents haven't always done it, but you sure as hell do it when the stakes are as high as they are in this Israeli and subsequent US Strike on Iran. And you know that that was the intention of the founding, the founders in the Constitution. And we gotta not forget that if there's 40,000 people at risk, the people who represent those 40,000 people and their families get to have a conversation about whether this is a good idea.

Host (25:27)

Breaking news. We're learning from Axios and other reporting that it does appear Iran is now launching missiles at United States assets in the Middle East. Axios is reporting right now that Israel detected the launch of at least six Ballistic missiles by Iran against Qatar. Explosions are currently being heard over Doha in Qatar. There's also now reports of missile launches now against United States bases in Iraq as we've been recording this. Now I'm obviously just getting this information. I need to go and further verify it, but some credible sources are reporting it. I'll start with the caveat of if that is true. What's your reaction?

Jim Himes (26:08)

Well, it's a, that's a very, it's not surprising, but it's pretty scary, right? And it's pretty scary in the sense that we can defend those bases. And I'm thinking of the naval base at Bahrain, I'm thinking of the air base that we have in Qatar and obviously other, other deployed troops around the region. The Iranians have the ability to do a lot of harm. We're pretty good at defending those bases and those assets, but they could. You know, I pray God this doesn't happen. But if the reports are correct, you know, we may close out the day today with American casualties, which again, I'm not sure anybody would have supported or at least should have been taken into account by congressional debate and congressional approval of this strike. And look, it's fairly obvious to say that if there are American casualties, there will be a response to that. And now we are in a war. I mean, you saw the President, the president was doing everything he could to say this is a one off, we're just going to destroy a whole bunch of your stuff. But that's it. That's it. Don't worry about it. That's not the way the world works. Right. The Iranian regime has their own politics and they're already looking humiliated and weak. And if they do nothing, they do nothing. I suspect they fear for their own survival. So anyway, if those reports are true, let's just pray that Americans there stay safe.

Host (27:36)

I think it was General Mattis who said the other side in a war also gets a vote. And that's one of the problems in war. Wanna get just your final thoughts about everything right now? I mean, your message to the American people. I mean, you're the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and for everyone, what that means is you're the, you're the top guy, the top person on the Intelligence Committee that's usually supposed to be consulted on things like this. You're supposed to be intimately involved in this process. You have a wealth of experience to come to bear, to be helpful, usually to be working with the Director of National Intelligence and people like Hegseth and others. And normal times Collaboratively, that didn't happen here. What's your overall message?

Jim Himes (28:23)

Yeah, look, my overall message is we shouldn't be in this place. We should not have taken an act of this consequence without somebody other than the guy in the Oval Office deliberating. There's way too much at stake. There's 40,000 troops. There's the survival of allied regimes like Jordan. Right. You know, I keep pointing out that the King of Jordan sits in a very precarious throne. Right. Because the Jordanian street is not one bit happy that the Israelis and the Americans are attacking Iran. There are military assets there. Again, if the Straits of Hormuz close, stand by for a major spike in the price of gasoline. And it's fascinating from a political standpoint, if I may just take this detour for one second. Here's a president who won election saying, you're paying too much for stuff. And I think these, whatever we are here, 120, 140 days are all about stuff that is going to make Americans prices higher, including gasoline, by the way, if this thing goes south as it appears to be doing. And so look, what can we do right now? We can just hope that sanity prevails. The truth socials and tweets that you posted don't give me a lot of confidence that sanity is going to prevail. But the stakes are way too high right now. We have to go back to the one thing, the one thing, the one thing that has actually proven effective at stopping the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon, and that is a negotiated solution. The jcpoa, which was controversial, was the one thing that caused the Iranians to ship their uranium out of the country and to stop their progress. Now the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of the United States decided they would try something else. But you know, if, if, if this starts getting as ugly as it could get, we better get back to that diplomacy, which is the one thing that has been shown to actually slow the role of the Iranians in their, in their development of a nuclear program.

Host (30:14)

Congressmember Jim Himes, thanks for joining us.

Jim Himes (30:18)

Thanks a lot. Take care.

Host (30:19)

Those were those two interviews. We'll keep you posted with more, but we here at the Midas Touch Network are going to be interviewing all the kind of top Democratic leaders, top officials in this area. We'll keep you posted. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store. Midas touch all 100% USA union made.