The Trump administration has yet to provide any concrete evidence of an "imminent" attack that multiple officials and Donald Trump himself have said warranted the sudden decision to assassinate a top Iranian general. Democrats are calling for both more accountability and more transparency, and House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff said Monday that he wants to hold hearings on the matter.
“I think there should be open hearings on this subject,” Schiff told The Washington Post's Greg Sargent. “The president has put us on a path where we may be at war with Iran. That requires the Congress to fully engage.”
As Sargent notes, multiple reports have surfaced that raise serious questions about the rationale behind Trump taking the type of drastic action that both President Bush and President Obama opted to avoid. Some reporting suggests that Trump chose the most dramatic option of several made available to him by senior military officers. Iran's leadership has now vowed revenge, as masses of Iranians took to the streets over the weekend shouting, "Death to America." The spike in tensions has already resulted in Trump deploying some 4,000 more troops to the region in the last several weeks.
Schiff suggested that Trump is now shooting from the hip, pointing to the fact that Trump threatened over the weekend to bomb Iranian cultural sites in contravention of international warfare conventions. “None of that could come out of the Pentagon,” Schiff said. “Absolutely no way.”
Schiff said he's seen no convincing evidence that killing Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani prevented upcoming attacks on Americans abroad, as Trump and his top officials have claimed. “If anything, that risk is going to go up, not down,” Schiff said, adding that he believes Trump made an "impulsive judgment."
But hearings would allow for public examination of whether Trump's decision was warranted and deliberative. “I fear this [assassination] is the result of the president purging anyone of stature who could stand up to him,” Schiff told Sargent. “I think this is the result of a dysfunctional and nonexistent National Security Council process.”