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Senate Democrats demanded on Tuesday that President Trump immediately dispatch Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to testify under oath on the war in Iran, saying his administration had failed to explain the objectives, scope and endgame for the sweeping military operation in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
In a letter<\/a> sent to Mr. Trump, the Senate\u2019s top Democrat and the ranking members of the armed services and foreign affairs committees noted that it has been common practice for cabinet officials to come before Congress when the country is at war. And they pointed to the dizzying series of changing explanations from the president and senior officials about the justification and goals for the military campaign, along with its high cost.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the public\u2019s overwhelming concern about this war, your administration has provided shifting, and at times conflicting, objectives for this war, refused to define the scope of U.S. operations or the measurements for success, and failed to articulate an end game,\u201d wrote Senators Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader; Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mounting cost of this war requires answers to Congress and the public,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n As the party in the minority, Democrats have no power to summon Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Rubio to testify. But several Democratic senators have threatened to try to stall Republican legislative priorities on the floor by forcing votes on a series of resolutions seeking to limit Mr. Trump\u2019s authority to use military force in Iran, in a bid to get Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader, to agree to hold public hearings on the war.<\/p>\n \u201cPublic hearings would be a small but important first step to uphold your oath, to inform Congress, and to explain your actions to the American people whose sons and daughters are on the front lines of this war,\u201d Mr. Schumer, Mr. Reed and Ms. Shaheen wrote.<\/p>\n Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Republican, criticized the threat by Democrats to use potential votes on the war as a point of leverage, calling their strategy a \u201ccharade.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Thune did not answer on Tuesday whether he planned to hold public hearings on the war, but said members of Congress would be hearing from administration officials \u201con a fairly routine basis anyway,\u201d about the war.<\/p>\n But Democrats argued that was insufficient, noting that Mr. Hegseth\u2019s and Mr. Rubio\u2019s predecessors routinely appeared before congressional committees to testify on military engagements, including on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let the Senate go on with business as usual,\u201d said Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to let the Senate be silent until they make at the very least that commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n Senators from both parties emerged from a classified briefing saying the administration had not provided an estimate of the running costs of the war. But most Republicans appeared unconcerned about that issue.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously there\u2019s a cost to it, but the trade-off is exponentially more,\u201d said Senator Jim Banks, Republican of Indiana. \u201cThis has been a very effective operation so far \u2014 maybe the most sophisticated military operation that we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that \u201cthe timetable is yet to be determined\u201d on a Pentagon request for supplemental funding to cover the cost of the war.<\/p>\n But Democrats were already casting doubt on whether there would be sufficient backing for such a spending package.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, I am a hard no on a supplemental,\u201d Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said as she left the briefing. \u201cNo more money. The one thing Congress has the power to do is to stop actions like this through the power of the purse.\u201d<\/p>\n The calls for public testimony by the administration came as the Pentagon has said it was investigating whether the U.S. was responsible for an attack on a naval base beside an elementary school in Iran on Feb. 28 that killed at least 175 people, most of them children<\/a>. Mr. Trump has claimed without evidence that Iran was responsible.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly I don\u2019t believe there is any deliberate intent to target civilians in Iran,\u201d Ms. Shaheen said exiting the classified briefing on Tuesday. But the episode, she added, \u201craises concerns among the public.\u201d<\/p>\n Several Democrats said they would demand answers from Mr. Hegseth on whether the Pentagon had changed its policies on mitigating civilian casualties.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a stretch to say that this secretary of defense wants us to have looser rules of engagement,\u201d said Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii.<\/p>\n Most Republicans said they were waiting on the findings of the Defense Department investigation to weigh in on the deadly school attack.<\/p>\n Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana was the sole Republican to harshly criticize the strike. The U.S. made a \u201cterrible, terrible mistake,\u201d he said in an interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see any reason right now to hide behind the investigation,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we ought to just look the American people in the eye and say it looks like we made a mistake, and we\u2019re sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n