Trump’s Iran mess is getting worse. Here’s Adam Schiff’s idea on what to do about it.
The Plum Line Opinion
By Greg Sargent Opinion writer Jan. 6, 2020 at 9:18 a.m. CST
The deliberations that went into President Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian general Qasem Soleimani are looking more slapdash and reckless by the hour. What we’re now seeing will require House Democrats to make a serious and sustained effort to get to the bottom of it all.
And guess what: We may soon get just such an effort.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, told me in an interview that he wants to see the House hold open hearings on multiple aspects of this spiraling situation.
Meanwhile, Trump is firing off deranged, Dr. Strangelovian tweets threatening to strike Iranian cultural targets — a war crime — while blithely asserting zero obligation to inform Congress of any future attacks.
On Trump’s unhinged threat of war crimes, Schiff offered an interesting but overlooked point. He noted there is no chance Trump’s threats to bomb Iranian cultural sites, or his related threat of “disproportionate” military responses to future Iranian attacks, reflect any actual planning in the Pentagon.
“None of that could come out of the Pentagon,” Schiff told me. “Absolutely no way.”
That Trump is threatening to deploy our military to commit war crimes in a manner entirely severed from real-world military planning is deeply abnormal and must not be allowed to slide by as just Trump being Trump.
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