Gang of Eight Tries to Gauge How Close Trump Is to Military Action Against Iran

Lawmakers left a classified briefing on Iran Tuesday with a sense that President Donald Trump could move quickly to launch military action against the country, as lawmakers try to gauge what role, if any, Congress would play before it happens.

“This is serious, and the administration has to make its case to the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said after Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed the Gang of Eight, the small group of congressional leaders who receive sensitive intelligence updates.

The closed-door session came hours before Trump’s State of the Union address, and as U.S. officials continue to press forward on diplomatic efforts with Tehran.

The briefing follows weeks of increasingly direct signals from the White House that military action could swiftly follow if negotiations fail. Trump has publicly confirmed he is weighing a limited strike meant to increase pressure on Tehran as nuclear negotiations continue, suggesting a decision could come within days.

But Trump’s public confidence has not matched what his top military adviser has said in private. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has cautioned in closed-door meetings about the risks and complications of any strike, multiple outlets reported Monday.

Trump has publicly pushed back, insisting Caine was not “against us going to war with Iran” and portraying him as confident the operation would be “something easily won.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s response was brief, according to Punchbowl News: “They’re giving a lot of thought to the situation. And I appreciate where they’re coming from.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also questioned the urgency of possible action as he left the classified Iran briefing Tuesday, pointing to Trump’s past claims about the effectiveness of U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.

In recent days, the administration has backed up its warnings with a show of force, surging air and naval assets into the region, including two carrier strike groups and a larger screen of warships, along with a rapid influx of aircraft and air defenses meant to give Trump a credible option to strike on short notice.

On Capitol Hill, despite the stakes, there has been little public debate, limited briefings and no vote that would force Congress to weigh in before any strike. Tuesday’s Gang of Eight session was the first such classified briefing in weeks, even as tensions have been rising.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he still has not seen a clear justification or plan for military action.

“The president has not come to Congress… about any rationale or why he will attack. What’s the game plan?” Meeks said. “This is not Venezuela. You’ll be putting a lot of the United States military at stake, those that are in the areas with other allies.”

Sen. Chris Coons said Congress is being cut out despite having the constitutional power to declare war. He contrasted the current moment with the run-up to the Iraq war under George W. Bush and the debate over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under former President Barack Obama when there were “dozens of briefings, debates and a vote.”

“President Trump has had the time to amass a very large deployment of naval and air assets into the region, he has had the time to consult with Congress,” Coons added, “It should not be done at the last second.”

Some lawmakers are trying to force Congress into the discussion before events overtake them, as war powers measures begin to circulate in both chambers. Sens. Tim Kaine and Rand Paul introduced a measure in January aimed at limiting Trump’s war powers against Iran, but it has not received a vote. In the House, Rep. Ro Khanna said he and his Republican colleague, Rep. Thomas Massie, plan to try next week to force a vote on a war powers resolution.

Massie, who is working with Khanna on the effort, said Congress often gets squeezed out of these decisions.

“If you bring it before they strike, they say, ‘oh, it’s premature,’ and if you bring it after they strike, they say, ‘Oh, it’s too late.’ There’s never, there’s never a time that’s good enough for these folks.”

Massie also questioned the need for military action in the first place, saying, “We don’t need to be doing it. We took out their nuclear capability, and we don’t need a long and protracted war in the Middle East, and this is not America first.”

Massie said the war powers vote they had hoped to tee up this week is being pushed to next week.

Republicans, while broadly supportive of confronting Iran, were less unified on how far that should go. House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers said he would support a strike focused on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, if necessary. “If he needs to strike their nuclear capabilities to degrade them? I would support that,” Rogers said.

Rogers signaled caution about escalation and said he preferred to avoid any scenario that leads to U.S. troops on the ground.

Others in the GOP argued that Trump should not be constrained. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast dismissed the push for a war powers vote outright, saying, “It’s beyond stupid.”

Mast added that Iran has long posed what he views as an imminent threat and defended the administration’s approach to “limited” military operations, arguing that past strikes had not led to the prolonged conflicts critics predicted.

Rep. Don Bacon, one of the few Republicans who previously supported a war powers effort on Venezuela, alongside Massie, sounded less interested in putting guardrails on Trump when it comes to Iran.

“War is risky, but Iran has been a threat to us for so long. Can’t ignore them.” Bacon said.

Pressed on whether he would vote for the Khanna-Massie war powers resolution, Bacon replied: “Probably not.” He added, “I think Iran’s a problem.”

The U.S. and Iranian negotiators are set to meet Thursday in Geneva for another round of nuclear talks following talks last week that kept channels open but produced no breakthrough.