Pelosi: I Didn't Know About Any Plan to Strike Iran

She says president shouldn't act without Congress
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2019 4:34 PM CDT
Pelosi to Trump: Don't Move on Iran Without Congress
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks with reporters at the Capitol Friday, June 21, 2019.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Among those surprised to learn that the US came within 10 minutes of launching a strike on Iran was Nancy Pelosi. The House speaker told reporters Friday that she was not informed of any such plan after she and other lawmakers were briefed at the White House on Thursday. “We left with the idea that the president was going to consider some options,” Pelosi said, per the Hill. “I did not receive any heads-up that there was a strike that was in the works.” She added that any such future action "must not be initiated" without the approval of Congress. Her comments came after President Trump tweeted that he called off an airstrike—in retaliation for Iran's downing of a US drone—with only minutes to spare.

In an interview with NBC News, Trump said no planes were in the air when he scrapped the mission. "But they would have been pretty soon, and things would have happened to a point where you would not turn back, you could not turn back," he told Chuck Todd. "Nothing was green-lighted until the very end because things change." The US and Iran continue to disagree on a crucial part of the drone shootdown: whether the drone was over Iranian territory, as Tehran claims, or international waters, as the US claims. (Chuck Schumer is worried about slipping into war.)

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