Sen. Kaine on Iran War: “Have we learned nothing?”

0:00Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin-slot games on chamba casino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me. You know what they were doing? They were also playing chamba casino everybody's loving having fun with it Chamba casinos home the hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime anywhere So sign up now at chamba casino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. It's chamba casino.com and live the chamba life Sponsored by chamba casino. No purchase necessary VGW group void for prohibited by law 21 plus terms and conditions apply Everybody to me Sam style managing editor at the book and I am joined by Senator Tim Cain the great Commonwealth of Virginia I got that right this time We're here to talk about what's happening in Iran and the effort to pass a war power resolution Senator thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it You and I've had this conversation a couple times throughout your time in public office because you're a champion of actual congressional input into acts of war

1:00Yes, it appears yet again that Congress is going to skirt the idea of voting on What is clearly an active war by Pete Hexas own a mission? Why should we feel any different or any more confident that the or powers resolution would pass this go around And how do you keep bang in this drum knowing that it's likely to have been met by defeat? Sam so a couple of things when I became senator in 2013 I came out of an experience where I'd been governor and Head watch thousands of my national guard troops deploy into Iraq and Afghanistan and I went to Deployments and I went to homecomings and I went to wakes and funerals and I just vowed when I became a senator that I would do everything I can to make sure we didn't go into war except for a really good reason after a congressional debate and vote and that we should do Everything possible to avoid student wars and My my advocacy around this I may or may not be successful. I haven't yet been successful in this

2:03I've been at it for 13 years whether it's a Democrat or Republican president I hold them to the constitutional standard. I feel like I'm duty bound to do it by my oath But also by my connection to our troops as you know Virginia very military heavy state very pro-military. I got a kid in the In the armed services, and so I just believe there shouldn't be an easy past lane or a shortcut on Go to war in this particular case We have a war powers resolution as you point out. It's a privileged motion that the statute gives us to challenge a president Who has taken the nation into hostilities without a congressional authorization in that circumstance? A president has initiated hostilities without Congress. You can force a vote on the floor of the Senate That's what I'm doing together with my Republican colleague Rand Paul that vote will be tomorrow, and it's a simple page long resolution no war against Iran without a vote of Congress I will get virtually every Democrat Republicans, you know kind of have to look in the mirror and listen to their constituents and decide whether they think

3:07More war in the Middle East is a good idea. I think it's a horrible idea But even if you think it's a good idea, you shouldn't want a president to do it unilaterally Without a without a rationale and without a plan, which is President Trump is now proceeding So the conventional wisdom Is that members don't like voting on these things because they don't want to be on the record having supported a Overseas military engagement that could go terribly wrong Is that your assessment of your fellow colleagues? Yes, Sam and actually that con Congressional lack of backbone Goes back to Wiggs and Federalists. It's not just 2026 Even though the Constitution is super clear on this and both the Federalists papers and the constitutional convention minutes Make very plain that as much as they love George Washington They didn't they didn't even trust George Washington to make a decision about war on his own because it's too consequential

4:09Members of Congress realized pretty early in our nation's history the war votes are tough Did even under the best of circumstances people might die and under lesser circumstances you can really get into a jam And so members of Congress would in many instances prefer to hide under their desk Let a president do it blame him if it goes wrong if it goes right say hey, we are with y'all along But as I as I said Not only because it's in the Constitution, but there is a value judgment Expressed in that provision it says if we're going to send our sons and daughters into war where they face Death or injury we should only do it if we have the guts they have the debate in front of the American public and say This is a mission. It's worth it. And if we won't do that work Let me just jump in I'm kind of curious because in a way This so we we had this a version of this debate a couple weeks ago a month ago And in a way correct me if I'm wrong there appeared to be more appetite on the Republican side

5:10for Putting this to a vote then there is now And now we don't know the final outcome of tomorrow's vote obviously But you know, we have people like Josh Holly who have come out very quickly and said Not going to vote in favor of this. They believe that President Trump has the authority to do what he wants Whereas Holly was more hemming and hawing Prior to the Venezuelvo What why do you what do you account for here to to make to understand the different? circumstances that's a hard one when I the first time I brought up a war power's resolution in Trump term 2 I only got one Republican vote on the Venezuelan vote a month or so ago. I got five votes, but then Donald Trump really whipped hard. He canceled the second invasion in Venezuela He agreed to finally have a public hearing and send his secretary stayed up to brief Congress and public not classified And then two of the five switch to nose. I ended up with three votes This one seems like it's harder and that may be Because people Think Iran is a bad actor and look nobody's warning that the Ayatollah is gone, but just to remind people

6:14You know We said Iraq was a bad actor and it was we were liberators and mission accomplished after a couple weeks And then it turned into a decade. I mean we lost 14,000 troops and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan more than 66,000 injured Hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths eight trillion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money These wars in the Middle East you might think they're going to be Smooth sailing or that you're up against a a bad actor, but they can produce a power vacuum Well, that's all the more reasons why they don't want to vote for it, right? I don't want to be on record And that's all the more and that's all the more reason than they should and so While they may vote against my Resolution they will all have been forced to vote I learned early if if you let people off the hook by well, I'm concerned or I want a briefing or I wouldn't it I would have done it differently That's just too easy and too cheap Make people go on the record and then they're going to be held accountable by their voters from whether they were four war Or against it at this moment in time

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8:18Visit upwork.com right now and post your job for free That is upwork.com To connect with Top Talent, ready to help your business grow That's u-p-w-o-r-k.com Upwork.com Well, let's talk a bit about briefings Because there's been a few I think of what's happened in Iran up on the hill We saw Hegseth and Rubio, among others, up there To the extent that you're able to reveal it What have you been told about the rationale for going in there? I know there's been about three or four, maybe five different ones But what is the, if you had to sort of say, this is where the administration Is in terms of the rationale for what they have done And this is where the administration is in terms of how long it's going to take And what they're hoping to produce Can you, can you do that? I can't I can, Sam, so I haven't been to a briefing yet I will go to one this afternoon Everything I'm going to tell you right now It's not based on what I heard in a skip

9:20It was based on news accounts The news accounts of the Rubio briefing of the gang of A Sort of the key leadership Chair and ranking on the key Appropriations and national security committee said They were asked the question, well why now? What was imminent about now? And the Rubio answer was deeply troubling Well, Israel was going to attack And if Israel attacked, we would face some retaliation So we decided to go ahead and go in We should not let any nation, even an ally Drag us into war or determine the timing that the US goes to war So the fact that Israel is going to attack Anyway, that's no reason for us to send our own kids Into face risk of death and injury Sadly, we've already seen six service members Killed we shouldn't do this because well, Israel is going to attack anyway that That's about the worst rationale For war that I've ever heard come out of anybody's mouth This was public reporting from that Briefing I didn't attend

10:20So is it accurate or not? I don't know But if that was said that would that should cause All right, let's play a game here then Because you will get a briefing you'll get a chance to ask I presume some members of the administration Some questions about what is going on here What's the one if you only got a chance to do one question What would it be? Sam here's the way they do it They jam the presentations They give you an hour they do presentations For 45 minutes and with 100 senators in the room All right, well, let's say you got asked But here, but you know, the legal rationale What was what was imminent What are your targeting criteria? The news is out that we we struck a school in 170 Possibly little school children were killed The US is usually really good at targeting And avoiding hitting women and children We've been very precise in the boat strikes In the Pacific and Caribbean on that Even though I don't think those are legally authorized I do acknowledge there's been an effort Thus far successful to minimize killing women and children

11:21So how strike a school killing kids If we changed our targeting criteria Or is it a mistake? Why did Kuwait shoot down three US F-15s? They're a friendly nation Normally they're not shooting down American aircraft It was a mistake that suggests some lack of Planning or preparation when that happened So the rationale The planning and preparation And then especially what's going to happen next Or do you even care? You assassinate the leader of a country Do you care who comes next? Do you have a favorite? What's your prediction? Or if it's just the regime back in power Like Delsey Rodriguez is back in power in Venezuela And the regime continues to oppress Iranian citizens every day Are you going to claim that this was a good outcome So I think you're going to see a lot of questions about what comes I know we're kind of pressed on time I have two more questions here One is you have constituents in Virginia That I presume at least some of them Are living abroad in the Middle East

12:25Yes There was an alert that went out yesterday From the State Department Encouraging every American In 14 Middle Eastern countries to get out It was rather abrupt And then this morning the US Embassy in Jerusalem said We cannot help you get out We don't have the capacity to do that Are you getting incoming from your constituents Who are in the Middle East about how to get out What are the interactions you're having with them How are you trying to assist in their departure from the region? It's chaotic Sam And I can't speak for my entire team I have a constituent service team that's taking a lot of incoming And I'm so focused on this vote tomorrow That I haven't checked in with them But I have had two interactions Just myself One is somebody in Saudi Arabia Who's a friend who was trying to board a flight to Washington Could he get out And he reached out to me and said What do I need to do before I could even figure it out He was on a plane to DC Thank goodness

13:25And then my hometown university Virginia Commonwealth University has a campus In Doha Shun And they switched all their classes to online Because they're so worried about Iranians sort of, you know, broadening the net In terms of retaliatory attacks And we've seen that happen So these things come home The sailors on the USS Ford The carrier strike group Heavily from Virginia And this is a carrier that's been out Supposed to be out for seven months I think we're passing nine or ten months It's on its way To maybe an 11-month deployment With some major issues on board That need to be solved And our sailors haven't seen their families In months And I am getting questions from family members What's the goal? What's the plan? When will I see my kid? When will I see my younger wife? All right, last question You're old but you're not that old Sorry, don't want to be insulting You were not 68 Well, you were not And you were not in Congress In 2002-2003 Let's just put it that way

14:25Right That was a different time for Democrats obviously And I think you alluded to it Where there's this perception That the Iraq war would go Swimmingly well Or that you had to be patriotic and support it And so a lot of Luminaries in the party leading figures did vote for it In fact, it ended up being the big Yes, pointed distinction between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton A couple of years later Yeah, I don't sense There is that The motive thinking right now among Democrats And I'm kind of curious if you can give us a sense Of what the vibe is like For lack of a bad word inside the party Yeah, Sam, I think the vibe is Have we learned nothing from 25 years I mean, I think that is the vibe And when I came into the Senate in 2013 One of the reasons I so embrace this We got to get it right on war Is watching the mistaken vote on O2 Remember President Bush brought the vote to Congress Right before the midterm in October Even though the attack didn't happen to March

15:26Wait, why bring the vote in October It was designed to affect the midterms I watched it at the time with no intelligence That I had access to I was lieutenant governor But I thought man, there's got to be a better way to make a decision about Going to war than to force a vote right before a midterm election So I came into Congress very much shaped by Iraq and Afghan decisions And that has made me extremely passionate about No easy pass lane, no shortcut You got to get it right And let Congress Sign their name to it before we order people to risk their All right, Senator Kim We've been doing this on and off for many years now I always appreciate when you come and join us Talk about this stuff And thank you for doing this And thank you for everyone who watched As always do sign up for the poll Where you get great conversations just like this Talk to you soon Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing Victory lane Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side Race to Chamba Casino.com Let's Chamba

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