Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Donald Trumps war in Iran is creating 'perpetual global chaos' - Rep. Adam Smith

Transcript

Donald Trumps war in Iran is creating 'perpetual global chaos' - Rep. Adam Smith · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Today is day one hundred and forty of Donald Trump's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: unauthorized and illegal war in Iran. And in his twenty
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: five minute speech last night, this is all Donald Trump
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: had to say about that war.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: We are likewise winning big in Iran, and you will
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: see the fruits of that labor very very shortly.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Just a delusional statement about a war that has killed
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: fourteen American service members and made prices soar here at
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: home and across the globe. And as for very shortly,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: nearly half of voters think Trump's war will drag on
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: well into twenty twenty seven. A recent poll from the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Economist in Yugov found that forty six percent of Americans
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: think the war will go on a year or more.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Add to that, the phrase forever war has entered the chat,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: as the conflict appears to be in a salemate, The
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: New York Times is chief diplomatic correspondent writes in a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: new analysis, with diplomacy at a dead end, at least
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: for now, a frustrated mister Trump finds himself back at war.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: The ceasefire broken, the straight blocked. The memorandum of understanding,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: he said, achieves everything we set out to accomplish despite
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: wildly divergent interpretations of it is in tatters after less
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: than a month. Both sides look to the Memorandum of
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Understanding as the continuation of the war by other means,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: not as a bridge to peace, said Alivayas, Iran Project
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: director for the International Crisis Group. Without a long term
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: strategy to produce a sustainable settlement, he said, there's a
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: risk of creating the circumstances for a forever war. With
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: one hundred and nine days until the midterms, Democrats are
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: making sure voters know they do not support a forever
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: war in Iran, or more US troops to Iran, or
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: blank check to try to help Trump say face in
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Iran Congress and Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on that
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: House Budget Committee, put it this way.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: You might think, given that the top issue in the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four election was affordability, and that the top
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: issue today is affordability, you might think the majority would
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: want to spend time in a reconciliation bill addressing the
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: number one issue on voters' minds. Well, I can tell
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: you forty seven pages in their bill, six five hundred
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: sixty words, and not one word on bringing down costs
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: for the American people, not one word. Instead, we have
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: tens of billions of dollars for the most unpopular war
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: in American history.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Joining US now Congressman Adam Smith of Washington State. He
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is the top Democrat on the House Arms Services Committee.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Congressman Smith, thank you for coming back to the last word.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Have you been briefed on the current situation in Iran
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that we are quote winning big according to President Trump?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: We have not gotten a direct brief. My staff works
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: very diligently to keep in touch with the Pentagon and
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: try to find out what's going on. But no, there
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: hasn't been a brief to Congress for quite some time,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: and there's not really secret going on here. Trump just
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: keeps thinking that he's going to drop a few more
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: bombs in Iran and he's going to win, despite the
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: fact there's no evidence of that. And what he's really
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: creating is what you just described, sort of perpetual global chaos.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: You know, given how important that region is, certainly for
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: oil but for other things as well. As this war
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: just keeps going on and on and on. It is
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: massively disruptive, certainly to the US economy, to the global
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: economy as well. And Trump has no better idea now
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: how he's going to get out of it than he
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: has at any point in this process.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Coverson, do you support blocking the National Defense Authorization Act
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: then THEA as some of your fellow Democrats are.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Well, it depends on what. I don't support just blocking
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: it no matter what.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Look, we need to support our military. Our troops need
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: their pay raises, they need to pay they need housing allowances.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: You know, the basic oversight that we need to conduct
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: needs to be done. And I think that's an important point.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: If we decide we're just not going to pass legislation
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: to protest Trump, well that weakens the legislative branch in
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: favor of the executive branch. So no, I'm not blanketly
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: going to say, no matter what, I'm not going to
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: pass an in DAA. But I don't support the one. Well,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I have major problems with the one that we're putting
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: together now, A because it doesn't do anything about the
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Iran war. B because it's one point one five trillion dollars.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: It's a massive defense budget in part to help continue
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: to fund a war that's taking us in the wrong direction.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: So on the substance of the bill, I have deep
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: concerns and am likely going to oppose it. But no,
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't blanket say no matter what, we're not going
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: to pass anything. This is how we exercise oversight if
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: we do it right.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Let me get on another topic we've been talking about
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: last night on this program. You're a colleague confresce in
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Jim Hines, excuse me, warned about what Trump's election obsession
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: could lead to. Do you have any concerns about how
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Trump might try to involve the US military, especially with
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the emphasis he put on malign foreign actors last night.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. I think it's more likely that he will rely
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: on sort of the personal police force that he's created
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: over at the Department of Homeland Security. Remember in last
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: year's reconciliation bill, the Republicans plus that up by one
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: hundred and ninety billion dollars. This is an agency this
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: yearly budget is like sixty so they gave him three
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: times as much money, well on top of what they
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: got in that year. And we've seen the result with
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: ICE agents all across the country. It's like Trump's own
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: personal paramilitary force more. But yeah, no, I think he
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: could also try to use the military. And I completely
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: degree with Jim Hins's remarks. I think this is an
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: incredibly dangerous moment for democracy, and you can even marry
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: the two. We've got this issue of Trump, you know,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: basically setting up for the possibility of you know, overturning
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: legitimate elections, and also the war in Iran. I mean
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: he threatened that when the US was going to take
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: over the straight of horror moves and charge the rest
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: of the world to go through that. I mean, freedom
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: of navigation is a cornerstone of what we believe. We
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: are witnessing a fascist takeover of this country, and I
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: really hope the Republican Party wakes up to that and
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: starts helping us those of us who want to stop it.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Stop it.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Commerce Fman Adam Smith of Washington State, thank you as
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: always for coming to the last word.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Thank you,