Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) slammed President Trump for referring to the war in Iran as an \u201cexcursion\u201d on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t watch that and feel that that way of characterizing this is [not] deeply disrespectful,\u201d Kaine told host Kaitlan Collins on CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Source,\u201d after watching the dignified transfer of Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pennington, from Glendale, Ky., died on Sunday from injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on a Saudi Arabian military base seven days earlier. He is the seventh U.S. service member to die in the conflict with Iran since it began on Feb. 28, along with Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor of White Bear Lake, Minn.; Capt. Cody Khork of Lakeland, Fla.; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Neb.; Sgt. Declan Coady of Des Moines, Iowa; Maj. Jeffrey O\u2019Brien of Indianola, Iowa; and Chief Warrant Officer Three Robert Marzan of Sacramento, Calif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier Monday, Trump called the war \u201ca little excursion\u201d during a House Republican retreat at his golf resort in Doral, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil,\u201d the president said. \u201cAnd I think you\u2019ll see it\u2019s [going to] be a short-term excursion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats on Capitol Hill have largely criticized the war. Kaine was joined on CNN Monday by Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.), as the quartet called for public hearings from Trump administration officials on the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis president has been anything but clear from the very outset,\u201d Baldwin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Central Command said Monday that it has targeted Iranian command and control centers, headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and ballistic missile sites, among other facilities, during the operation. But as of Monday, over 1,240 Iranian civilians, including at least 194 children, have died from U.S. and Israeli strikes, according to the Iran-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All four senators also denounced the war on Monday as a waste of taxpayer dollars amid nationwide concerns over the cost of living. The Washington Post reported Sunday that the first two days of strikes in Iran cost the Pentagon $5.6 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCosts for average Americans are skyrocketing and this president wants to spend tens of billions of dollars in his adventures overseas without coming to Congress,\u201d Booker said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is the case to be made for this? When Americans can\u2019t afford their groceries, they can\u2019t afford their medicine, they can\u2019t afford the cost of living and yet we\u2019re dropping a billion dollars of bombs, it seems, every day in Iran,\u201d Schiff remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n