During Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News Sunday, Sen. Mark Warner (D‑VA) accused President Donald Trump of failing to justify recent military action against Iran, claiming that Trump “has not made the case” for the operation, according to Breitbart.
Warner told host Shannon Bream that “Americans are paying $122 million a day extra in gas coming right out of their pockets, that, combined with the declining job numbers, that combined with the stock market crashing, going into this war without I don’t feel like the appropriate preparation or having made the case the American public, I think we’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”
“We don’t know how long Iran will last,” he continued. “The notion and I heard the general earlier, I think we are attiring some of their forces, but we still don’t know whether those ballistic missiles are being totally eliminated or they’re just being hidden. And my fear is that we are running down on the munitions that intercepts the missiles.”
The Virginia Democrat went on to describe the operation as a “war of choice,” claiming the Trump administration had acted prematurely and without demonstrating an “imminent threat.”
“I really do feel like when we’ve got America’s interest, when we’ve got dead service members, that we’ve not made the case, that the President has not made the case, that this was an imminent threat, and we don’t know where this is going to end up, I think on a war of choice, I think he chose the wrong time,” he said.
But his claim that the threat was not “imminent” appears to have ignored intelligence reports indicating that Iranian-backed militias had been coordinating strikes on U.S. personnel. Warner also warned that urging the Iranian people to rise against their government could lead to mass bloodshed, questioning whether the U.S. would then be obligated to deploy troops on the ground if Tehran responded violently.
“And frankly, one of the things that I would point out, the president said to the Iranian people to rise up,” Warner continued. “What happens if 200,000 Iranians protest in Tehran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard then massacres 20, 30, 40,000 of them? Will we have an obligation then to put troops on the ground?”
Warner’s remarks appeared to downplay Iran’s longstanding record of hostilities toward U.S. interests and allies. The senator expressed uncertainty about Iran’s missile capabilities, yet offered few alternatives for deterring Iranian aggression or preventing future attacks on American forces. His remarks reflect a broader Democratic reluctance to support strong military action when confronting adversaries such as Iran, and suggest a lack of confidence in U.S. military preparedness.