Representative Adam Schiff has demanded that there be a public hearing on the drone strike attack that took out Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander.
“There Should Be Open Hearings”
Soleimani was taken out at an Iraqi airport in a targeted strike last week by American forces, something Rep. Schiff isn’t too happy about. Schiff, the head of the House Intelligence Committee, spoke to the Washington Post on Monday about the strike on Soleimani.
“I think there should be open hearings on this subject,” Schiff said. “The president has put us on a path where we may be at war with Iran. That requires the Congress to fully engage.”
It follows an interview Schiff conducted with CNN’s Jake Tapper on his show, The State of the Union.
“It was a reckless decision that increased the risk to America all around the world, not decreased it,” he told Tapper. “When Secretary Pompeo says that this decision to take out Qasem Soleimani saved American lives, saved European lives, he is expressing a personal opinion, not an intelligence conclusion.”
“I think it will increase the risk to Americans around the world,” Schiff added. “I have not seen the intelligence that taking out Soleimani was going to either stop the plotting that is going on or decrease other risks to the United States.”
RELATED: Obama Sanctioned Soleimani in 2011 for Attempted Terror Attack in Washington, DC
“HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD”
President Trump defended the strike on Soleimani in a series of tweets.
“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,” the President tweeted.
“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations,” Trump added. “Iran has been nothing but problems for many years. Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats.”
RELATED: Democrats Vote Against Requiring Adam Schiff to Testify in Impeachment Inquiry
Shifty Schiff Doesn’t Care About Soleimani
While there are absolutely legitimate concerns about whether the strike on Soleimani was the right call, we all know that Shifty Schiff really doesn’t care at all whether it was right or wrong. All he wants to do is embarrass the President and paint him out to be some rabid war-mongerer, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Unlike drone-happy Obama, the President has used a few targeted strikes on select occassions to take out significant figures who are threats to America, and has also taken great care not to entangle the country in any more foreign conflicts.
Iran attacked the US embassy only a few days before the strike, and Soleimani has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. This is not Iraq, or Afghanistan. If this does spark a war, I for one, will be one of the first to criticize the President, but I highly doubt anything will come of it.
So shut your mouth Schiff – let the big boys do the talking.