House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday questioned the justification for recent U.S. airstrikes on Iran. He said the administration has not provided evidence of an imminent threat that would make the attack legal without congressional approval.
“Not a scintilla of evidence to date has been presented that I have seen to justify the notion that there was an imminent threat to the United States of America,” Jeffries said.
He called on the administration to present its case directly to lawmakers.
“If the administration has evidence to the contrary, come up to present it. We’re not hard to find,” he stated.
Jeffries argued that an offensive strike of this nature required authorization from Congress under the War Powers Act and the Constitution. When asked if he would have granted approval, Jeffries said the administration first had a duty to make its case to Congress and the American people.
“That hasn’t happened,” he said.
The minority leader said a “gang of eight” briefing with top congressional leaders has been requested for Tuesday.
Jeffries promised that every House member would soon get their chance to question the administration, but he made it clear their story won’t get a free pass. He then laid out exactly what they should expect: “It will be probed, it will be tested, it will be aggressively pushed back against,” he said, “and then we’ll see what the outcome is.”
When asked how close Iran was to obtaining a nuclear weapon, Jeffries deflected the question. He said that was information “the administration is going to have to provide to us and to the American people.”
