U.S. President Donald Trump summoned congressional leaders to the White House Situation Room Thursday afternoon after Iran shot down an unmanned U.S. drone flying over international waters.
Tense moments in the Situation Room
In a sign of the seriousness of the confrontation, Trump’s impromptu meeting included ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) were also in attendance, setting aside political differences to address the growing crisis in the Gulf. Trump delayed a 3 p.m. meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to meet with members of Congress.
Tentative plan is for WH briefing on Iran for bipartisan/bicameral Congressional leaders in the Situation Room at 3 pm et. Capitol Hill visit for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be pushsd back. Timing is unclear
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 20, 2019
“Iran made a big mistake. This drone was in international waters, clearly,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. “We have it all documented scientifically, not just words. And they made a very bad mistake.”
Unprovoked attack
U.S. Army veteran and drone warfare expert Brett Velicovich agreed with the official U.S. line that the high-altitude RQ-4 was traveling over the neutral Strait of Hormuz when Iran shot it down. There would be a direct order for Air Force personnel to stay away from [Iran],” Velicovich said.
“I can tell you firsthand we would aboslutely not operate the RQ-4 drone in Iranian territory,” says @TheDroneWarrior Brett Velicovich, for two reasons:
• High tensions with Iran
• It’s NOT a stealth drone, It would be easily detected pic.twitter.com/kckfarpUe7
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 20, 2019
Even before their meeting in the Situation Room, Trump appeared to be interfacing with members of Congress and sharing information about the drone attack. For instance, McCarthy told reporters that Trump does not have to wait for Authorized Use of Military Force to respond to emerging threats from Iran, adding, “The President will have options before him.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he spoke to Trump about Iran on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. He said the president “believes that we’re … getting into a bad space that his options are running out that he’s not going to be intimidated to redo a nuclear deal that was terrible.”
The only thing Iran and every other thuggish regime understands is Strength and Pain.
Imperative the US clearly inform the Iranians that any effort to increase uranium enrichment will be seen as a hostile act against the US and our allies in Israel, and will not go unanswered
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) June 20, 2019
Change of heart
Following his meeting with congressional leaders, Trump was prepared to execute a plan to strike three separate targets in Iran but called off the attack at the last moment. The president reportedly canceled the strike package after learning that as many as 150 people could be killed.
Asked about his decision to abort the attack in an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press, Trump said that he didn’t feel it was the appropriate response to losing an unmanned aircraft. “I didn’t think it was proportionate,” he said.
“Look, I said I want to get out of these endless wars, I campaigned on that, I want to get out,” Trump said on Thursday.
“We beat the Caliphate. We took back the 100 percent of the Caliphate. At 99 percent, Justin, I said we’re going to get out we’re going to start peeling back and everybody went crazy because it was 99, and so I said all right, so we’ll finish it up. So we got 100 percent. And we’re pulling that back out of Syria. We’re pulling a lot of people back,” he said.
“But this is a new wrinkle,” Trump continued. “A new fly in the ointment what happened, shooting down a drone. And this country will not stand for it, that I can tell you.”
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