U.S. Senator Mike Lee, one of the most far right wing Republican lawmakers in the Senate, will vote for Democratic Senator Tim Kaine’s bill to limit Trump’s war powers against Iran, he says, after attending an administration’s briefing on the assassination of Iran top general Qassem Soleimani.
Lee, who has appeared on lists for Trump to nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court, called the administration’s briefing, and its order to Senators to not debate Trump’s actions, “unconstitutional.”
In a rare break from supporting Trump, Sen. Lee, a Republican of Utah, called it “the worst” he’s ever heard, and “insane.”
“They had to leave after 75 minutes,” Lee said of the administration’s representatives who went to Capitol Hill to brief them, “while they’re in the process of telling us that we need to be good little boys and girls and run along and not debate this in public. I find that absolutely insane. I think it’s unacceptable.”
And while Lee was angered over the unconstitutional restrictions the Trump administration tried to place on the Senators, he was also “unsatisfied” with the actual “legal, factual and moral justification for the attack” that killed Soleimani.
And he will now vote against the president and for the Democratic bill to limit Trump’s war powers in Iran.
“I walked into that briefing undecided as to whether to support the resolution under the War Powers Act introduced by Sen. Kaine,” Lee said. “That briefing is what changed my mind, that briefing is what brought me on board,” he added. “I’m now going to support it.”