00:00Mr. President, I'm on the floor to support yet another resolution to end the war in Iran.
00:07Here's the latest poll regarding public support or approval.
00:1318% of respondents to this latest CNN poll say that President Trump's decisions around the war in Iran are
00:22helping the United States.
00:2470% of Americans say that his decisions around the Iran war are hurting Americans.
00:32That is a stunning number.
00:34Basically, it is only the hardcore MAGA supporters that still believe this war is a good idea.
00:40Everybody else, independents, Democrats, independent-thinking Republicans, have all decided that this body needs to vote to end this war.
00:49And it's not hard to figure out why.
00:50Here's a chart that's familiar to my colleagues.
00:53This is the unreal spike in gas and diesel prices that has occurred solely because of this war.
01:01If you're in Indiana right now, diesel is $7 a gallon.
01:07That's why farms are going bankrupt right now in the Midwest at record rates, the tariffs and the high price
01:15of diesel.
01:16But for American consumers who are just filling up their tank with gasoline, the same disaster.
01:24In California, above $6 a gallon.
01:27In many states, above $5 a gallon.
01:29And it's just going up and up and up.
01:32But Americans also see that this has been a national security disaster for the country.
01:36It's obviously been an economic nightmare.
01:40Mortgage rates are at 7%.
01:42Again, by the way, if you hadn't noticed, that's because of the war primarily, the tariffs as well.
01:48But Americans oppose this war 70 to 18 in the current poll because they know that it's hurting our national
01:57security.
01:57We have not had a resolution on the floor in a number of weeks.
02:01So I just want to talk about four things that have happened in the last few weeks that show how
02:07this war is spiraling and spiraling out of control.
02:11Every single day, this war becomes more dangerous for the region, more of a disaster for the United States.
02:19One of the things that the administration said that was a motivating factor for the war was getting rid of
02:27Iran's missiles.
02:28I don't know how many times we heard Secretary Hegseth tell us that the goal was to destroy Iran's missiles
02:35and missile capacity.
02:36And back in April, he claimed that they had functionally destroyed, that's his word, functionally destroyed Iran's ability to make
02:45new missiles.
02:46Well, the Wall Street Journal just reported that Iran is producing ballistic missiles again at scale.
02:53And we only were able to eliminate around 30% of the missiles.
02:58They have most of their stockpiles from before the war, and now they are producing missiles again.
03:03Satellite imagery shows that Iran is rebuilding bridges and roads to production sites.
03:09They're restoring tunnel entrances, and they're building capacity again.
03:12Iran is building missiles again.
03:14This is the whole reason we were going into the war.
03:16A total failure to eliminate Iran's missile capacity.
03:20What's the strain on our service members?
03:22Well, we just learned this week that eight Navy sailors aboard the U.S. Abraham Lincoln have attempted suicide.
03:30Two of those sailors, as we all know, tried to jump overboard to end their lives.
03:35This is a ship that has been without a poor call, was without a poor call for 286 days.
03:43That is an abdication of leadership, an abdication of the responsibility to care about our troops' safety by our Department
03:53of Defense leadership.
03:54We have sailors and soldiers and airmen that are in crisis right now because we have put them in harm's
04:04way for far longer, for far longer than any brave man or woman who has signed up to defend this
04:12nation deserves to be in harm's way.
04:15We have a new war that has broken out.
04:17A new war has broken out in the last two weeks.
04:20This was totally predictable.
04:21Everybody said if you go to war with Iran, the Houthis are not going to stand put.
04:26They are going to start firing inside Yemen and at the Saudis, and that's exactly what has happened.
04:33Drone strikes from the Houthis have knocked out Saudi Arabia's bypass pipeline earlier this month.
04:39They have seized control of routes along the Red Sea, and functionally, the Red Sea is now shut down as
04:45a means for the Saudis to move oil out of the region.
04:49This is part of the reason why gas prices continue to go up.
04:52The Strait of Hormuz is partially open again, but at what expense?
04:57Pre-war, it cost a supertanker $200,000 to move through the Strait.
05:03Today, it costs one—this is a per-day cost—today it costs $1 million per day for a supertanker to move
05:12through the Strait.
05:14Five times the cost before the war.
05:16That alone adds $26 to the cost of each barrel of oil.
05:20So even though we're moving some transit through the Strait of Hormuz, it's at a cost that consumers can't afford.
05:28And finally, there is satellite imagery in the last few weeks that shows new construction inside Iran around a complex
05:36called Pickaxe Mountain.
05:38This is probably their new most important nuclear site.
05:42It looks as if they are digging a very deep bunker, deeper than Fordow, to restart their nuclear research program.
05:52And as one expert said, the window to strike Pickaxe Mountain has already expired because the regime has dug so
06:01far underground that we can now not hit it.
06:04And so they are restarting the nuclear program.
06:06They are restarting their missile production program.
06:09We have not eliminated their drone capability.
06:12We are leading to a mass suicide and self-harm crisis amongst our service members.
06:20Costs are spiraling out of control for consumers and for farms.
06:25A new war is breaking out in the region that threatens the stability of the Middle East and further drives
06:32up gas prices.
06:33That is why support for this war is at 18% at this country.
06:39We are supposed to be a democratic body that listens to the will of the people.
06:44The people, whether they're Republicans, Independents, or Democrats, are telling us loudly and unequivocally, end this war.
06:53And it's not like we can't.
06:55This resolution is a chance for this body to end the war.
07:00And so we are pleading once again, maybe the 10th time that we've had a resolution like this, for our
07:08colleagues to join us.
07:10The American public are making it clear.
07:12They can't handle the costs of this war and they can't stand for the national security harm it's doing to
07:19the United States.
07:20I yield the floor.
07:20I yield the floor.
07:20I yield the floor.
