Exclusive — Mike Braun: Democrats Hypocrites on Trump Iran Policy

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview Thursday that Democrats have displayed a hypocritical view of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy regarding Iran.

Sen. Braun spoke to Breitbart News after a contentious classified briefing on the Trump administration’s strike against Iranian top military commander Qasem Soleimani.

The Hoosier senator said Democrats would have criticized Trump for not attacking the Iranian commander in the face of a reportedly imminent threat or for attacking him without authorization from Congress.

Sen. Braun said, “I didn’t get the chance to ask the question, mostly aimed at the Democrats, ‘What would your response be if that had occurred [an imminent strike on Americans] and you had not taken him out and a lot of lives were lost?’ I’m guessing that they would have been angry at Trump because he didn’t do what they were saying. … So I think there’s a lot of hypocrisy there.”

The Indiana conservative said that Congress has “ceded” most of its authority to declare war to the presidency and that Congress should revisit that conversation but not in the context of Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) War Powers Act resolution.

“I think right now, there is some confusion, and we have purposefully created that by ceding that authority increasingly to presidents and not making an issue of it,” the senator said. 

Braun said the American military could also respond to Iranian aggression while at the same time moving towards withdrawing troops from the Middle East, contending that modern technology does not require a substantial troop presence in the region. He explained with our American military “comparative advantage” we can respond to future aggression.

“We have way too many troops spread across the world,” he added.

 “In general, we need to shrink our longterm presence. we never win these wars in the long run,” Braun said.