Nancy Pelosi: Drone Strike Launched Against Qasem Soleimani Without Consulting Congress

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized President Donald Trump for launching a drone strike against Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani without consulting her or prominent leaders in Congress.

“[T]his action was taken without the consultation of the Congress,” Pelosi said in a statement, noting that Trump did not have an Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iran.

Pelosi criticized Trump’s successful drone strike for “provocative and disproportionate actions” against Iran, which she argued endangered Americans in the region. An aide to Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer confirmed that the senator was not informed about the drone strike.

“The full Congress must be immediately briefed on this serious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region,” she said.

Trump did not give Democrat leaders advance notice of the strike, according to a report from CNN’s Phil Mattingly:

As for the Intelligence *Committee*, as of last night there had been no formal briefing for the Gang of 8, per sources.
Some key lawmakers were contacted at various points, but Dem leaders did not get advance notice.

— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) January 3, 2020

Pelosi spoke to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper after the United States launched the attack, a spokesman confirmed to NBC News reporter Alex Moe:

Speaker Pelosi spox says she spoke to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper after the Soleimani strike as no advance notification was given as statement indicated. Pelosi + Esper connected last night via text phone around 9:40pm. Call lasted 13 mins.

— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) January 3, 2020

Democrats were critical that Trump also did not inform them about a planned military strike against Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October.

Trump said at the time that he did not trust Democrats with the information.

“We were going to notify some of them last night, but we didn’t do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before,” he said the morning following the military strike.