[FOX] Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee declared in a heated press conference Wednesday afternoon that national security officials had just delivered the "worst military briefing" he had ever seen on Capitol Hill, even claiming that one official had warned during the "lame" and "insane" meeting that Congress shouldn't debate whether additional military action against Iran would be appropriate.
Democrats piled on, with Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerald E. Connolly calling the briefing "sophomoric and utterly unconvincing." Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, for her part, asserted that she has been "stricken with PTSD" due to recent developments and condemned President Trump's new sanctions against Iran as "economic warfare." (Omar and her family fled war-torn Somalia and spent years in a refugee camp. She also openly supports sanctions against Israel.)
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., called Omar's comments "a disgrace and offensive to our nation’s veterans who really do have PTSD," prompting Omar to respond, "I survived war as a child and deal with post-traumatic stress disorder‐much like many who have served or lived through war. It’s shameful that you as a member of Congress would erase the PTSD of survivors."
Amid the melee, Lee made clear that his response was directed primarily at the classified briefing for lawmakers on the Iran situation and not the White House's Iran policy generally. But, he said, the slapdash sit-down would have consequences.
"I want to state at the outset: I support President Trump," Lee began,
telling reporters that he appreciated the administration's efforts to keep the U.S. out of war. "The briefing lasted only 75 minutes,
| ...a substantial amount of time, given that the war itself, as Fred pointed out yesterday, only lasted four hours... |
whereupon our briefers left. This, however, is not the biggest problem I have with the briefing, which I would add was probably the worst briefing I've seen at least on a military issue in the nine years I've served in the United States Senate." |