Leading Democrats have called on President Donald Trump to "immediately declassify the War Powers Notification sent to Congress" about Iran and the U.S. airstrike that killed an Iranian general last week.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote an open letter to Trump on Monday, urging him “to immediately declassify in full the January 4, 2020 war powers notification” that he “submitted to Congress following the U.S. military operation targeting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.”
Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Soleimani last week, in response to a violent protest at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires that the president issue a notification to Congress within 48 hours of committing an action with American military forces, which the White House did on Saturday.
“It is critical that national security matters of such importance be shared with the American people in a timely manner,” the senators wrote. “An entirely classified notification is simply not appropriate in a democratic society, and there appears to be no legitimate justification for classifying this notification.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also issued a statement about the notification, which she said “raises more questions than it answers,” and “prompts serious and urgent questions about the timing, manner and justification of the Administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran. The highly unusual decision to classify this document in its entirety compounds our many concerns, and suggests that the Congress and the American people are being left in the dark about our national security.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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