Chris Deluzio Reacts To Iran Strikes, Calls On Congress To 'Assert Its Role' Over Declaring War

On "Forbes Newsroom", Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) spoke about President Trump's recent strikes on Iranian nuclear facitlies.

Transcript

00:00Congressman, I would love to get your take and turn to things abroad and the situation

00:04specifically in the Middle East. Last month, the United States bombed multiple Iranian nuclear

00:09sites involving us in a war between Iran and Israel. President Trump announced days after that

00:15that the two countries reached a ceasefire agreement after a tumultuous 12 days of fighting.

00:20Now, President Trump says Iran wants to meet with the U.S. for talks.

00:25What do you make of where diplomacy now goes from here?

00:27Look, I think diplomacy can succeed. I think it was important that the president secured a

00:34ceasefire agreement between the Israelis and the Iranians. As I'm sure you know and your viewers

00:39know, the Trump administration was pursuing diplomacy with the Iranians before the decision

00:45to strike. I think it's wise, given how weakened the Iranians are, to try to reach an agreement

00:51to limit and make it impossible for them to obtain a nuclear weapon, which I think would be disastrous.

00:57for our interest and for the region. And so I would urge any administration, I urge the last one,

01:04I urge this one, to try to reach a deal that can constrain the Iranians' ability to develop a

01:09nuclear weapon. We've got pretty clear data that when there was a nuclear agreement in place, the

01:14Iranians were enriching less uranium than they were able to enrich once the Trump administration took us

01:20out of the nuclear deal with the Iranians. That tells us that a deal with, I think, strict scrutiny and

01:27safeguards can work. The devil will be in the details. But I very much encourage this administration

01:32to get back to the negotiating table in diplomatic talks and try to hammer out a deal that can protect us and our

01:38interests in the region.

01:39And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he touted the U.S. strikes as a historic victory that has already changed the face

01:47of the Middle East. What are your thoughts on that characterization?

01:51Well, I think we've seen some jockeying back and forth from our own intelligence and defense

01:57communities assessment of the attacks. And as a member of the Armed Services Committee, as you can imagine, I won't get into the

02:03kinds of briefings I receive in those classified settings. But let's start with number one. I share the goal that the

02:10Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon, period. I'm also someone who believes deeply, and I've thought this, whether there was a

02:16Democratic president or a Republican president, that we have seen presidents for too long ignore Congress's constitutional power here to

02:24decide whether we send Americans to war. And in my book, certainly sending Americans over the airspace of a foreign country and

02:31dropping bombs is the kind of conduct that only the Congress can authorize in this kind of strike. And so I've been

02:38disappointed to see this president do that. I've been disappointed in the past to see Democratic and Republican

02:43presidents ignore Congress. And I think Congress has to step in to assert its role and to frankly stand up for the American

02:49people who get to decide whether we send Americans into the hell of war, as I say. I'm a veteran of the war in Iraq. I know what it is to

02:58see our country deliberate and deliberate poorly, to be frank, as they did 20 plus years ago to with the decision to invade Iraq.

03:06And to that point, Congressman, after the U.S. struck the Iranian nuclear sites just a few weeks ago, there were real fears of a

03:14potential World War Three, the United States entering another war in the Middle East. As someone who is a veteran who was deployed to the

03:22Middle East, I mean, do you share those fears right now?

03:27Yes. And I don't want to see us embroiled in another Middle Eastern war with who knows what timeline to end. So I'm glad to see that this

03:35ceasefire was brokered between the Israelis and the Iranians. I hope that it can hold. I hope that diplomacy can be successful with the

03:43Iranians to reach some agreement to block their development of a nuclear weapon and to give us some pretty strict safeguards in place.

03:51But certainly, I don't want to see young Americans fighting in another forever war in the Middle East.

03:55I don't think that's a partisan position. I think if you ask veterans of my generation, Republican or Democrat, they tell you the same thing.

04:01They want our government to be much, much more careful about committing American lives and American treasure to fight.

04:07And I don't think it's in our interest to send Americans off to fight another war in the Middle East right now.