WASHINGTON — As the Iran war stretches into its third week, Democrats say all classified briefings by top administration officials have been completed.
They now want public hearings on whether President Donald Trump plans to put U.S. boots on the ground in Iran, how to secure nuclear material there and how he plans to end the deadly conflict in the Middle East.
Some Republicans agree that such hearings are needed. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., suggested that public hearings would compromise operations in Iran.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. Trump, who has unsuccessfully tried to pass war-authorization resolutions to control Trump’s military operations, said Trump “hasn’t provided a convincing rationale for this. … We’ve said we’re tired of classified briefings. We’re tired of hiding this from the public.”
“When you keep something secret, the reason you keep it secret is because you don’t believe it will stand up to analysis in the light of day,” he said.
A member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “If this administration thinks it can defend this war — I don’t know how it can — then Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio should be sent to the Senate next week for hearings before the relevant committees,” Murphy said of Trump’s secretaries of defense and state.
If Republicans ignore their demands, Murphy and Kaine said, Democrats will demand more votes on Trump’s war powers, putting more political pressure on the GOP.
“I think he would lose votes in the Senate if he had to actually go in front of the American public and explain why gas prices are up, explain whether we’re engaged in regime change or not, explain how they’re going to get nuclear weapons and nuclear material without a ground invasion,” Murphy said. “I don’t think they have an answer for that.”
There is confusion on and off Capitol Hill about Trump’s strategy with Iran. Who exactly will seize Iran’s nuclear material? Does the president want regime change? And how does he intend to end Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which is causing oil prices to rise?
Just this week, NATO allies and other nations rejected Trump’s pleas to pressure Iran to end its blockade of a key waterway. The president later wrote: “We don’t need anyone’s help!”
A prominent Republican, Sen. of South Carolina. Lindsey Graham, who has been pushing Trump privately and publicly this year to strike Iran, says she believes Republicans should hold public hearings at an “appropriate” time.
“I think we need to. I think we need to demonstrate what we did and why we did it, but we’re in the middle of doing that,” said Graham, who is running for re-election this year. “But it’s very important for me to tell the people back home that the Americans there must be there to prevent the Ayatollah from getting a nuclear weapon.”
A member of the armed services, Sen. Mike Rounds, RSD, said he had no objection to holding public hearings, “but I still want my classifications.”
And retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C., acknowledged that hearings will happen “at some point” because “we need to learn from our successes; we need to learn from any mistakes.”
But the top two Republicans in Congress — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-Sd. – Both pushed back on Democrats’ call for public hearings.
Thune said Trump’s top officials have been holding “numerous news conferences” with reporters and multiple closed-door briefings with lawmakers. Hegseth, Rubio and others have held separate classified briefings with all members of the House and Senate.
On Tuesday, US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Wittkoff held a classified briefing with a small, bipartisan group of senators.
“I’m not sure what the Democrats’ intent was in that case, other than to try some way to embarrass them,” Thune said of the hearing. “But honestly, I think we’re obviously asking the tough questions that you’re asking them in closed sessions.”
Johnson argued that holding public hearings on the war – just weeks after it began on February 28 – could harm US operations there.
“We are in the middle of a couple of weeks-long operation that is sensitive in its mission and scope, and you cannot go outside of a classified briefing to give information to the public, because it will adversely affect our operations,” the speaker told reporters on Tuesday. “He explained this well to members of Congress in multiple briefings before, during and after the operation began.”
After receiving multiple classified briefings, Johnson said he was confident Iran posed an “imminent threat” to the U.S. and “mass American casualties” if Trump did not act.
Asked whether he plans to hold public hearings on Iran, Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. told NBC News: “I don’t have those plans.”
Sen. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said she didn’t think public hearings would be that helpful. Things she’s heard in classified briefings she’s already seen on the news, Lummis said.
“I learned more about the war by listening to the news than I did in the administration’s classified briefings,” Lummis said in an interview. “You all know as well as we do, so there is no additive benefit to having an inquiry.”
