[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 2 (Monday, January 6, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11-S12]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  IRAN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as the Senate convenes this afternoon, 
we find our Nation facing two grave and serious choices. One concerns 
our unity at home and the future of our Constitution. The other 
involves our strength abroad and the security of our homeland. Both 
situations demand serious, sober treatment from Congress. Both require 
that we put enduring national interests ahead of the factionalism and 
short-termism the Founding Fathers warned us about. But, unfortunately, 
seriousness has been in short supply lately--in very short supply--from 
the determined critics of President Trump, and our Nation, of course, 
is worse for it.
  Last Thursday, the United States took decisive action to end the 
murderous scheming of Iran's chief terrorist. Qasem Soleimani had spent 
numerous years masterminding attacks on American servicemembers and our 
partners throughout the Middle East and expanding Iran's influence. 
Despite sanctions and despite prohibitions by the U.N. Security 
Council, he roamed throughout the region with impunity.
  His hands bore the blood of more American servicemembers than anyone 
else alive. Hundreds of American families have buried loved ones 
because of him. Veterans have learned to live with permanent injuries 
inflicted by his terrorists. In Iraq, Syria, and beyond, the

[[Page S12]]

entire region felt the effects of his evil tactics.
  We should welcome his death and its complication of Tehran's 
terrorism-industrial complex, but we must remain vigilant and soberly 
prepared for even further aggression.
  It is completely appropriate that this decision would generate 
interest and questions from this body. We can and we should learn more 
about the intelligence and thinking that led to this operation and the 
plan to defend American personnel and interests in the wake of it.
  I am glad the administration will hold an all-Senators briefing on 
Wednesday. It will be led by Secretary of Defense Esper, Chairman of 
the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley, Secretary of State Pompeo, 
and CIA Director Haspel.
  Unfortunately, in this toxic political environment, some of our 
colleagues rushed to blame our own government before even knowing the 
facts, rushed to split hairs about intelligence before being briefed on 
it, and rushed to downplay Soleimani's evil while presenting our own 
President as the villain.
  Soon after the news broke, one of our distinguished colleagues made a 
public statement that rightly called Soleimani a ``murderer'' and then, 
amazingly, walked that message back when the far left objected to the 
factual statement. Since then, I believe all of her criticism has been 
directed at our own President.
  Another of our Democratic colleagues has been thinking out loud about 
Middle East policy on social media. Mere days before President Trump's 
decision, this Senator tore into the White House for what he described 
as weakness and inaction. ``No one fears us'' he complained. ``Trump 
has rendered America impotent in the Middle East.'' But since the 
strike, he has done a complete 180. That same Senator has harshly 
criticized our own President for getting tough. Ludicrously, he and 
others on the left have accused the administration of committing an 
illegal act and equated the removal of this terrorist leader with a 
foreign power assassinating our own Secretary of Defense.
  Here is what one expert had to say about it. Jeh Johnson, President 
Obama's own former Pentagon general counsel and Secretary of Homeland 
Security, said:

       If you believe everything that our government is saying 
     about General Soleimani, he was a lawful military objective, 
     and the president, under his constitutional authority as 
     commander in chief, had ample domestic legal authority to 
     take him out without--

  Without--

     an additional congressional authorization. Whether he was a 
     terrorist or a general in a military force that was engaged 
     in armed attacks against our people, he was a lawful military 
     objective.

  That was the former Secretary of Homeland Security in the Obama 
administration, Jeh Johnson, an expert on these things.
  Our former colleague, Joe Lieberman, who ran for Vice President on 
the Democratic ticket in 2000, wrote this morning: ``In their uniformly 
skeptical or negative reactions to Soleimani's death, Democrats are . . 
. creating the risk that the U.S. will be seen as acting and speaking 
with less authority abroad at this important time.'' That is how a 
former Democratic Senator sees it.
  The Senate is supposed to be the Chamber where overheated partisan 
passions give way to sober judgment. Can we not at least wait until we 
know the facts? Can we not maintain a shred--just a shred--of national 
unity for 5 minutes--for 5 minutes--before deepening the partisan 
trenches?
  Must Democrats' distaste for this President dominate every thought 
they express and every decision they make? Is that really the 
seriousness that this situation deserves?
  The full Senate will be briefed on Wednesday. I expect the committees 
of oversight will also conduct hearings and that the Senators will have 
plenty of opportunities to discuss our interests and policies in the 
region.
  I urge my colleagues to bring a full awareness of the facts, 
mindfulness of the long history of Iran's aggression toward the United 
States and its allies, and a sober understanding of the threat Iran 
continues to pose.
  Could we at least remember we are all Americans first, and we are all 
in this together?

                          ____________________