Video: Kaine Speaks Out Against Trump’s War in Iran

FULL VIDEO OF KAINE'S REMARKS IS AVAILABLE HERE.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, spoke at a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing urging an end to President Donald Trump's illegal, unnecessary war with Iran.

Kaine-whose bipartisan War Powers Resolution to end the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran unless explicitly authorized by Congress was blocked by Senate Republicans last week-is a leading voice in the Senate against the war. Kaine worked alongside Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) to file an additional set of War Powers Resolutions, as the war continues. Shortly after, the senators demanded that Republican Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) ensure the relevant committees of jurisdiction hold immediate hearings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the ongoing war to Iran. So far, Thune has refused to schedule those hearings with Rubio and Hegseth.

"America has been at war with Iran for 12 days. The costs to our troops, to everyday Americans, and to innocent Iranian civilians - even school children - are dramatic," Kaine said. "The war is deeply unpopular."

"The President has escalated his use of our military to carry out hostilities all over the globe without Congress while threatening military action against many more nations. We're at war because of the unilateral actions of one man who has grown very confident that Congress will not challenge his kingly behavior," Kaine continued.

Kaine said, "We owe our troops better than this. They serve with such skill and bravery. But as our experiences in Vietnam and Iraq have shown, the bravest patriotic service cannot overcome poor civilian decision-making - whether by a President grown too fond of war or a Congress unwilling to provide a check against such behavior."

"Like all in this room, I pray that this war ends soon. Virginians have suffered this year as a sputtering economy - burdened by tariffs and chaos - produces higher prices, fewer jobs, and slower growth." Kaine concluded. "We need a President who will honor his promises to avoid foreign wars of choice and strengthen the economy here at home. And we need a Congress who will not stand silent as those promises are broken."

Kaine has consistently raised concerns over presidents' efforts to use military force without congressional authorization, advocating for Congress to reassert its constitutional role in decisions of war and peace throughout his time in the Senate. He has spoken on the floor twice raising concerns about the costs of the war with Iran and urged Congress to pass his bipartisan War Powers Resolution. Kaine published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about why the U.S. Senate should end Trump's war with Iran.

A full transcript of Kaine's remarks is below:

America has been at war with Iran for 12 days. The costs to our troops, to everyday Americans, and to innocent Iranian civilians - even school children - are dramatic. The war is deeply unpopular.

To begin, the war is illegal. The Constitution makes plain that only Congress can declare war. The reason for this provision was articulated by Abraham Lincoln: "Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending . . . that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most kingly of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us."

The President has escalated his use of our military to carry out hostilities all over the globe without Congress while threatening military action against many more nations. We're at war because of the unilateral actions of one man who has grown very confident that Congress will not challenge his kingly behavior.

The war is unprecedented. We've heard from the President many shifting reasons for the war. But senators have now heard - both publicly from the Secretary of State and from multiple sessions with civilian and military leaders - a more precise and consistent reason. The President sent our sons and daughters, spouses, parents, into war because another nation was determined to invade Iran and if that occurred, Iran would likely target U.S. troops for retaliation. The trigger event of this war was Israel's decision to invade Iran on February 28.

We could have avoided this war by persuading Israel that it shouldn't invade and that doing so would hurt its ally America and cause instability. There's no evidence that we tried to do so. Or, we could have focused on protecting our own troops from retaliation following an Israeli invasion. Instead, President Trump decided to join an invasion of Iran initiated by another nation. He is not the first American President who has been urged to take this step. Others wisely resisted - he did not.

The war is unnecessary. Iran and America were allies during and after World War II until America engineered the toppling of Iran's democratically-elected government in 1953. That act, followed by 26 years of a brutal dictatorship that the U.S. helped fund, created deep hostility between our two nations - formerly friends. When the Iranian people finally threw off the oppressive dictatorship in 1979, that hostility resulted in nearly five decades of violence between our countries - the facts of which are well known to American and Iranian citizens alike.

Iran engages in dangerous behavior towards the U.S., its neighbors, and its citizens. But does this danger - more than 6,000 miles from our shores - warrant the sacrifice of our troops, the killing of innocent civilians, and the expense of billions of taxpayer dollars? If more war between Iran and the U.S. were the answer, we would have found it sometime in the last 73 years.

We had a diplomatic off-ramp to decades of hostility in the Iranian nuclear deal that the U.S. and Iran, together with our European allies plus China and Russia, negotiated in 2015. President Trump's decision to abandon that deal - even though it was working and even though many of his closest advisors told him to maintain it - ushered in a sharp spike in Iranian aggression. American troops are dying because this nation's political leadership tragically abandoned diplomacy.

We owe our troops better than this. They serve with such skill and bravery. But as our experiences in Vietnam and Iraq have shown, the bravest patriotic service cannot overcome poor civilian decision-making - whether by a President grown too fond of war or a Congress unwilling to provide a check against such behavior.

Virginians feel this deeply. One of the first casualties of this war, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Marzan, lived in Spotsylvania County. Hundreds of Virginians are now deployed with the Ford Carrier Strike Group. More have received orders that they will deploy with the Bush Carrier Strike Group. Their families ask me: "Have we learned nothing from 25 years of war in the Middle East? More than 14,000 American troops and contractors dead. More than 65,000 injured. More than $8 trillion dollars spent that could have gone to our education or health care or economic development. Have we learned nothing?"

Like all in this room, I pray that this war ends soon. Virginians have suffered this year as a sputtering economy - burdened by tariffs and chaos - produces higher prices, fewer jobs, and slower growth. Gas has gone up 60 cents a gallon in the last 11 days, costing Virginians nearly $5 million dollars a day just in increased fuel costs. We need a President who will honor his promises to avoid foreign wars of choice and strengthen the economy here at home. And we need a Congress who will not stand silent as those promises are broken.

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