Partisan splits on display as president accuses Democrats of leaking draft Pentagon report on bombings\u2019 impact<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican and Democratic senators have offered starkly contrasting interpretations of Donald Trump\u2019s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities after a delayed behind-closed-doors intelligence briefing that the White House had earlier postponed amid accusations of leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday\u2019s session with senior national security officials came after the White House moved back its briefing, originally scheduled for Tuesday, fueling Democratic complaints that Trump was stonewalling Congress over military action<\/a> the president authorized without congressional approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSenators deserve full transparency, and the administration has a legal obligation to inform Congress precisely about what is happening,\u201d the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said following the initial postponement, which he termed \u201coutrageous\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even as senators were being briefed, Trump reignited the row with a Truth Social post accusing Democrats<\/a> of leaking a draft Pentagon report that suggested last weekend\u2019s strikes had only set back Iran\u2019s nuclear program by months \u2013 contradicting the president\u2019s insistence that it was \u201cobliterated\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!\u201d he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The partisan divisions were on display after the briefing, which was staged in the absence of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, who previously told Congress that Iran<\/a> was not building nuclear weapons, before changing her tune last week after Trump said she was \u201cwrong\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, the briefing was led by CIA director John Ratcliffe, secretary of state Marco Rubio and defense secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a>, who had publicly assailed journalists over their reporting on the strikes at a Pentagon press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With intelligence agencies apparently in open dispute over the strikes\u2019 effectiveness, Thursday\u2019s briefing did little to clear up the clashing interpretations on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina senator and close Trump ally, said \u201cobliteration\u201d was a \u201cgood word\u201d to describe the strikes\u2019 impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey blew these places up in a major-league way. They set them back years, not months,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody is going to work in these three sites any time soon. Their operational capability was obliterated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he warned that Iran would be likely to try to reconstitute them, adding: \u201cHave we obliterated their desire to have a nuclear weapon? As long as they desire one, as long as they want to kill all the Jews, you still have a problem on your hands. I don\u2019t want the American people to think this is over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said Trump was \u201cmisleading the public\u201d in claiming the program was obliterated and questioned why Gabbard had not attended the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His skepticism was echoed by Schumer, who said the briefing gave \u201cno adequate answer\u201d to questions about Trump\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat was clear is that there was no coherent strategy, no endgame, no plan, no specific[s], no detailed plan on how Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon,\u201d he said, adding that Congress needed to assert its authority by enforcing the War Powers Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n