Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Thursday about what President Donald Trump's next moves in the war against Iran could be.
Himes told CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown that after the Senate rejected a resolution to limit Trump's war powers without congressional permission—a measure also expected to fail Thursday in the House—lawmakers were now in a difficult position regarding military action against Iran, with few options remaining.
"There's a reallykind of dark answer to thatquestion, which and theanswer to that is, and I hateto be this blunt and honest withthe American people, but it'strue. The answer to thatquestion is nothing," Himes said. "Even if thewar powers resolution were tohave passed the Senate and tohave passed the House, there isno reason to believe that Donald Trump would have taken that intoaccount."
Himes argued that Trump would have vetoed the resolution regardless of what lawmakers said. He predicted what Trump would do.
"And so what eventually is going to endthis war is what we're beginningto see already, just in thefourth or fifth day of this war,gasoline prices are already up$0.22 a gallon on average acrossthe country," Himes said. "They are now higherthan they were when Donald Trumptook office the stock market isstumbling today. And by the way,I should have put this first.But most tragically and mostimportantly, there are now six Americans dead in this war.Eventually the pressure of thoselosses in the context ofthe administration's inabilityto tell us how this ends, youknow how or when this ends,eventually the American peopleare going to be even more souron this war than they alreadyare now. And I suspect whathappens then is that Donald Trump just pulls the plug,declares victory, and walksaway."
And despite reports that Iranian military forces have weakened, that doesn't mean they're done fighting, Himes explained.
"There's no question that the Iranians are being very badly hit right now most of their navy is gone," Himes said. "There's lots of almost MTV-quality videos that you can watch on an hourly basis being released by the White House and by the Department of Defense. The reality is that the Iranians maintain pretty shocking military capability and asymmetric capability. That's what we, you know, the fancy term for the terrorists that they have for generations now been planting in the region, and scarily outside of the region."
He also described another troubling concern for American intelligence involved in the strikes against Iran — and how a move by the FBI could be putting troops at potential risk.
"As this regime gets increasingly desperate, they are going to reach for those tools at a time, by the way, when the FBI has fired the people who are Iran counterterrorism experts and whatnot," Himes said. "So it is a very, very real danger. And I just pray that this administration sobers up, takes their eye off of their constant need to praise this president, and actually gets into the business of defending and standing for the security of the American people."