U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., became the target of social media trolls and other critics – including Donald Trump Jr. – on Thursday for his abrupt reversal regarding when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should deliver articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate.
Early
Thursday, Smith said he believed Pelosi was looking to establish
negotiating leverage with the Senate by withholding the two articles of
impeachment against President Trump, which the House approved last
month. The articles charge the president with abuse of power and
obstruction of Congress in relation to a July phone call with the
president of Ukraine.
But ultimately, Smith said, he believed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was in charge of the Senate and should determine that body’s course of action regarding a Trump impeachment trial.
“I
think it was perfectly advisable for the speaker to try to leverage
that to get a better deal,” Smith told CNN, but adding “at this point,
it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”
“I think it is time
to send the impeachment to the Senate and let Mitch McConnell be
responsible for the fairness of the trial,” Smith said. “He ultimately
is.”
But just a short time later, Smith posted on Twitter what seemed to be a complete reversal from the statements he made on TV.
“I
misspoke this morning,” Smith wrote. “I do believe we should do
everything we can to force the Senate to have a fair trial. If the
Speaker believes that holding on to the articles for a longer time will
help force a fair trial in the Senate, then I wholeheartedly support
that decision.”
Critics quickly took note of the sudden retreat by
Smith, the 54-year-old chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,
and suggested that perhaps he was surrendering to pressure from
Democratic Party leaders.
“Hahahaha someones not allowed to think
for himself and got in trouble for breaking with Nancy’s narrative,”
Donald Trump Jr. wrote. “This has been the problem with the sham
impeachment from day one, no one actually believes this BS except for
the lunatic fringe who have hijacked the whole Democratic party.”
“Bang
bang Nancy’s silver hammer went down on Adam Smith’s head …” political
commentator Doug Heye wrote, alluding to an old Beatles song.
Smith’s flip-flop wasn’t playing well in his home state, either.
“He
has no courage of his convictions, and had to deny his own words an
hour later,” said Dori Monson, host of a Seattle radio show, according
to MyNorthwest.com.
Later, Smith tried to clarify his remarks during an appearance on Monson’s program.
“All I was saying was, ‘At the end of the day, we can’t force the Senate any more than they can force us,'” Smith told Monson, according to MyNorthwest.com. “‘We have to try to leverage them and persuade them.'” Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this story.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired back at one of his predecessors in an exclusive interview with Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" Thursday, saying that John Kerry was indulging in a "fantasy" by claiming that Iran had reined in its destabilizing behavior after signing the 2015 nuclear deal.
"It’s
a fantasy to think that the nuclear deal was good for the United States
of America, protecting the American people," Pompeo told Laura
Ingraham. "There were terror campaigns, there were missile systems that
were enhanced, improved during the [period of the] JCPOA [nuclear deal]
-- the money that the Iranian regime was permitted to have underwrote
the very Shia militias that were the ones that took on and ultimately
killed an American."
Kerry told MSNBC Wednesday night that there
is "no way at all" the world is safer after Trump ordered a drone strike
that killed Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad's airport last
week. The former senator from Massachusetts and 2004 Democratic
presidential nominee also claimed that Trump was "fixated on undoing
anything Barack Obama did ... [and] willing to run the risk of outright
war in the effort to fulfill his fantasy."
"This
isn’t about undoing what Obama did," Pompeo told Ingraham Thursday.
"This is about protecting and defending the American people. President
Trump has been incredibly resolute in that."
During an address to
the nation on Wednesday, hours after Iran fired 16 missiles at two Iraqi
airbases housing American servicemembers in response to Soleimani's
death, Trump claimed: "The missiles fired last night at us and our
allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last
administration." Pompeo doubled down on that claim, emphasizing
that money paid to Iran by the Obama administration "ultimately ends up
in the hands of people who wanted to do Americans harm."
In
September 2016, the Treasury Department acknowledged that $1.7 billion
was transferred from the U.S. to Iran in foreign hard currency. An
initial $400 million delivery was sent to Tehran Jan. 17, the same day
Iran agreed to release four American prisoners. The remaining $1.3
billion was paid in subsequent weeks. The $1.7 billion was the
settlement of a 37-year-old dispute between the U.S. and Iran over a
$400 million payment made by the last Shah of Iran. In addition to those
payments by the U.S., billions of dollars in Iranian assets held in
financial institutions overseas were unfrozen as part of the nuclear
deal.
"All
the things that we are now confronting are a direct result of the
resources that the regime had available as a result of that terrible
nuclear deal," Pompeo said.
Pompeo also responded to criticism of a
classified briefing to lawmakers Wednesday that was meant to explain
the rationale behind the Soleimani strike. Democrats have said they do
not believe the intelligence shown in the briefing proved that Soleimani
represented an immediate threat to U.S. interests, while Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called the briefing "lame" and "insane," describing it as the worst he had sat through in his time on Capitol Hill.
"I
thought we did a dynamite job," said Pompeo, who took part in the
briefing. "I mean that in the truest sense, but we did our level best to
present them with all the facts that we could in that setting." The
secretary of state also insisted that Soleimani was planning "a series
of imminent attacks" when he was killed.
"We
don’t know precisely when -- and we don’t know precisely where," Pompeo
said. "But it was real ... There was a real opportunity here and there
was a real necessity here. We made the right decision. The president
made the right call."
When Ingraham asked whether the
administration could trust Congress with classified information, Pompeo
said: "Well, we shared an awful lot with them yesterday ... I think
there are a number of people who are using this as a political ax to
grind. I think that’s most unfortunate."
Pompeo
also responded to the apparent downing of a Ukrainian International
Airlines plane by Iran early Wednesday that killed all 176 people on
board. U.S., Canadian and British officials said earlier Thursday it is
"highly likely" that the jet was struck by an Iranian missile.
"I’ve
seen the reporting. I can only say that we need to get to the bottom of
this very, very quickly," said Pompeo, who added that while a
mechanical failure could have caused the crash, "if, in fact, it’s the
case that there was something more insidious to this, the American
people should know that this would have been Iranian malfeasance that
caused it."
BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets and oil prices rebounded Thursday as anxiety over potential U.S.-Iranian conflict eased.
London and Frankfurt opened higher and Tokyo gained more than 2%. Shanghai and Hong Kong also advanced.
Markets
sank Wednesday after Tehran launched missiles at bases housing
Americans in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of an Iranian general.
Anxiety subsided after reports indicated no Americans were killed and
President Donald Trump said Iran “appears to be standing down.”
The
lack of casualties “gave the markets more confidence that the Iranians
had instigated little more than the intention to make a public show of
force mainly to save face at home,” said Stephen Innes of AxiTrader in a
report.
In
early trading, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4% to 7,609.67 and
Frankfurt’s DAX rose 1.5% to 13,520.35. France’s CAC 40 added 0.6% to
6,068.31.
On Wall Street, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up nearly 0.4%.
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% while the Dow advanced 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.7% to a record.
In
Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 powered ahead 2.3% to 23,739.87 and Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.7% to 28,561.00. The Shanghai Composite Index
added 0.9% to 3,094.88.
Seoul’s Kospi rose 1.6% to 2,186.45 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 added 0.8% to 6,874.20. India’s Sensex rose 1.4% to 41,409.69.
Taiwan and Southeast Asian markets also advanced while New Zealand declined.
Trump said he would add economic sanctions on Iran but the United States is “ready to embrace peace with all who seek it.”
Oil
prices rebounded Thursday after first surging on news of the Iranian
attack and then falling back once tensions appeared to be easing.
Benchmark
U.S. crude gained 43 cents to $60.05 per barrel in electronic trading
on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract fell
$3.09 to settle at $59.61. It traded as high as $65.65 following the
missile attack.
Brent
crude, used to price international oils, advanced 52 cents to $65.96
per barrel in London. It fell $2.83 the previous session to $65.44.
Gold had a similar whipsaw day. It climbed as high as $1,604.20 per ounce before settling at $1,560.10.
Also
Thursday, China reported consumer prices rose 4.5% in December over a
year earlier, propelled by surging pork prices due to an outbreak of
disease.
In currency trading, the dollar gained to 109.34 yen from Wednesday’s 109.08 yen. The euro advanced to $1.1120 from $1.1105.
An Indiana congressman who served in Afghanistan as a member of the Navy Reserve spoke out on behalf of America's military veterans Wednesday after U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
U.S.
Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican, said Omar's comments were a "disgrace,"
calling the remarks "offensive to our nation's veterans who really do
have PTSD after putting their life on the line to keep America safe."
Omar
had made her remarks during a news conference with other Democrats on
Wednesday, at which she said she "felt ill" because of "everything that
is taking place" in the Middle East -- a reference to the recent U.S. tensions between the U.S. and Iran,
including last week's U.S. airstrike in Baghdad and Iran's missile
attacks early Wednesday against airbases in Iraq where U.S. service
members are stationed.
"And I think every time I hear about ...
I hear of conversations around war, I find myself being stricken with
PTSD," she said. "And I find peace knowing that I serve with great
advocates for peace and people who have shown courage against war."
After
Banks took issue with her comments, Omar posted a reply on Twitter,
making reference to her youth in war-torn Somalia. After leaving her
homeland with her family near the start of the Somali Civil War in 1991,
she would spend four years at a Kenyan refugee camp before immigrating
to the U.S. in 1995.
"Hi Jim, I survived war as a child and deal
with post-traumatic stress disorder—much like many who have served or
lived through war," she wrote in the tweet, which was addressed to Banks
but not tagged. "It’s shameful that you as a member of Congress would
erase the PTSD of survivors."
But Banks doubled down on his
comments later Wednesday evening, posting a video that showed Omar and
other Democrats giggling in the background as their colleague, U.S. Rep.
Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, spoke to reporters about the more than
4,000 U.S. service members killed in Iraq over the years.
"Your
words and actions at today’s press conference reveal your feelings
toward our soldiers serving abroad and the video speaks for itself,"
Banks wrote, including a video of the news conference shared by Rep.
Jody Hice, R-Ga.
Omar posted another message about a half-hour
later, elaborating that she had "lived in a war zone" and had "seen what
conflict does to families and communities.""If you aren't familiar with Banks, he's been with the Navy since 2012,"
one Twitter user wrote, "and was deployed to Afghanistan about 6 years
ago. So he knows a little something about PTSD."
Democratic presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders
faced criticism online Wednesday for participating in a conference call
with an Iranian-American advocacy group just a day after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack in Iraq aimed at U.S. military personnel. The
group was the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which critics
claim lobbies in Washington on behalf of the Iranian government.
The “#NoWarWithIran Strategy Call,”
hosted by MoveOn.org, another advocacy group and political action
committee first organized in 1998 in response to former President Bill
Clinton’s impeachment, also included commentary from Jamal Abdi,
president of NIAC. U.S. Reps. Barbara Lee and Ro Khanna, both California
Democrats, and others also participated.
Charlie
Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, called Warren and Sanders
“disgraceful” for participating in the call with “pro-Iran group NIAC
the day after Iran bombed our military bases.”
“Whose side are the Democrat frontrunners actually on?” he asked.
“How
is this conference call with Sanders/Warren/ pro-Iran lobby group NIAC,
with ties to Tehran & Iranian govt (who just bombed our military
bases) different than the claims they made against Trump??” another user
asked. “Are they conspiring with the enemy to overthrow our govt??
Start impeachment?”
"Willingness to engage with NIAC - the
Khomeini lobby in DC - should be automatic disqualification for any
candidate," another user wrote.
NIAC has been accused by other
members of the Iranian-American community of working as part of a
U.S.-based pro-Islamic jihad alliance. A former CIA officer alleged in a 2009 brief that NIAC
was actively working to influence Democrats -- in Congress and the
Obama administration -- to push a foreign policy that would benefit
Tehran’s cleric regime. A federal judge ordered NIAC to pay more than
$180,000 in 2013 after its failed defamation lawsuit against
Iranian-American writer Hassan Daioleslam, who published pieces showing
NIAC's links to the regime, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the work of
NIAC’s founder, Trita Parsi, was "not inconsistent with the idea that he
was first and foremost an advocate for the regime." Parsi lobbied
Congress and met with Obama administration officials before the signing
of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Documents uncovered during the defamation
lawsuit also showed correspondence between NIAC and Iran’s Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The group, meanwhile, insists it
works independently from the Iranian government. According to its
official website, NIAC is a “nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the
voice of Iranian Americans and promoting greater understanding between
the American and Iranian people.”
On the call, Warren, D-Mass.,
and Sanders, an independent from Vermont, both slammed President Trump
for what was described as his “march to war” with Iran that they claim
first began in May 2018 when he announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal with world powers.
Trump
had signed a presidential memorandum withdrawing the U.S. from the
controversial agreement signed by his predecessor, former President
Barack Obama. He said he will be re-instituting the highest level of
sanctions and warned other countries against helping the Iranian
government. The deal had allowed the Iranian regime to garner up to $150
billion in cash – most of which was used to fund state-run terrorist
operations, the Free Beacon reported.
The conference call came
after Wednesday morning's firing of as many as 15 ballistic missiles at
two bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops in a major retaliation by the
rogue regime after the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force
Gen. Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport last week.
Iranian
efforts to killed American service members were thwarted by the
military's Early Warning Systems, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen.
Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told
reporters Wednesday. No U.S. casualties were reported.
“There
seems to be a pause in the hostilities for now, and I hope it endures
but let’s be clear – this is a crisis of Donald Trump’s making,” Warren
told those who dialed in Wednesday night. “The first job of the
president of the United States is to keep America safe, but this
president’s reckless actions have made us far less safe.
“He
started this back in 2018 when he tore up the Iran nuclear deal. Iran
had agreed not to advance its nuclear program, and the international
community had already certified that Iran was following the terms of the
deal. Our allies wanted to stay in it but not Donald Trump.
“Instead he decided just to tear it up,” she said.
Warren
also accused Trump of “tweeting threats of war crimes” when he
threatened attacks on Iranian cultural sites, which she said was “not in
America’s favor and it is wrong.” Trump had subsequently said he would
take no action that violated international law.
Speaking later on
in the hour-long call, Sanders accused Trump of telling “the same old
lies” told by the Bush administration in 2002-03 that he said lead to
the deaths of 4,500 “brave American soldiers,” the death of “hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis” and veterans suffering from PTSD still today.
“When
I think back in my lifetime to the disastrous wars, the unnecessary
wars that have taken place. I think back to Vietnam where people I knew
got killed, where my generation suffered so terribly – 59,000 dead, God
knows how many wounded. People still sleeping out on the streets today
from that war,” Sanders also said, recounting his personal history of
America fighting in foreign wars oversees.
“I think the lesson is
that war should be avoided in every way that we can. War is the last
response, not the first response,” he continued. “I will do everything I
can to prevent this war.”
“I’ll be working to make sure that we
pass a War Powers Act that makes it clear that the Constitution says
that it is the Congress – not the president – who determines whether
this country goes to war. And that I’m afraid Congress has forgotten
about that under Republican and Democratic administrations. And we’re
going to do everything we can to pass that resolution.
Sanders
closed out his remarks referencing health care, climate change and
homelessness – issues that he said were more deserving of U.S.
investment than a potential war with Iran.
MoveOn
used the call to promote #NoWarWithIran rallies to be held Thursday
across the U.S. in an effort to show public opposition against war with
Iran. Both Warren and Sanders urged listeners to attend their nearest
event. Move On said more than 7,000 people dialed into the call. More
than 70,000 also listened to the call on Facebook Live.
More Democrats are urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate so a trial can get underway.
Those joining the list include Sen. Dianne Feinstein from Pelosi's home state of California, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and independent Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats.
“The
longer it goes on the less urgent it becomes,” Feinstein told
Politico about Pelosi's withholding of the articles approved last month,
charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. “So if
it’s serious and urgent, send them over. If it isn’t, don’t send it
over.”
Manchin
agreed with Feinstein that the House “should move on” and deliver the
articles to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"It is time," King said Tuesday, according to NBC News.
Pelosi
has been holding on to the articles since December in an effort to get
McConnell, R-Ky., to agree to certain conditions for a trial, such as
allowing witnesses to testify.
“We need to get folks to testify
and we need more information ... but nonetheless, I’m ready,” Sen. Jon
Tester, D-Mont., said, according to Politico. “I don’t know what leverage we have. It looks like the cake is already baked.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is seen in her Capitol
Hill office in Washington, Feb. 11, 2015. (Associated Press)
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., also said it was time.
“We are reaching a point where the articles of impeachment should be sent,” Blumenthal told reporters.
Former national security adviser John Bolton
on Monday said he would be willing to testify in a Senate trial if he
was subpoenaed and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he wants to hear from
him.
Still, McConnell said Tuesday he has the votes to move forward with a trial without any witnesses.
House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has also left open the
possibility that Bolton could appear before the House if the Senate
doesn't call him.
Pelosi said she plans to hold on to the impeachment articles until she learns about how the Senate trial will proceed. Fox News' Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
