THE TOP
Happy Thursday morning.
News: President Donald Trump has been surveying Hill Republicans on whether he should fire Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to multiple Republicans who have spoken with the president. We have much more on this below.
Bombshell Senate news: Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), the 63-year-old former NRSC chair, announced late Wednesday that he won’t seek a third term in the Senate.
Daines withdrew from the November ballot just minutes before the 5 p.m. filing deadline. That was around the same time that Kurt Alme — the U.S. attorney for Montana — filed to run for the seat. In a statement announcing his retirement, Daines endorsed Alme as his successor, raising questions about the coordinated timing of Daines’ withdrawal and Alme’s entry into the race. Alme has twice served as the U.S. attorney in Montana under Trump, plus he’s a former state budget director.
Department of Waffling. Congress seems to want it both ways as the war with Iran progresses: Republicans want a piece of overseeing the unfolding conflict, but they don’t want to do it publicly — lest they risk being saddled with the consequences.
With few exceptions, top Republicans have no plans to hold public hearings or exert any immediate pressure on the Trump administration for more disclosure as U.S. and Israel forces continue to attack Iran.
Instead, senior Republicans say they’re satisfied with the classified briefings they’ve gotten from top Trump officials and are hoping the military campaign wraps up quickly.
“Ultimately, if we can prevail here — in weeks, not months — take away [Iran’s] offensive capability, get these other countries working with us, this is a chance to change the paradigm and hopefully end this 20-year global war on terror,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said, noting that Iran is “at its weakest point.”
“Weeks, not months” is the key line here. Hoeven was speaking for most Republicans on this. Nobody knows how long the bombing campaign against Iran will last, and another war powers vote could be triggered — as Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has threatened to do. Republicans would prefer to keep their hands clean on the conflict for as long as possible, especially given the uncertainty over how long this could last and how it’ll play politically.
Senators were forced Wednesday to go on the record on whether to back a war that Trump senior administration officials are warning could drag on for weeks and may eventually include U.S. boots on the ground.
Even Republicans who have supported war-powers efforts in the past and could face political blowback by voting to back the Trump administration’s actions are defaulting to a position that unites the GOP: Hawkishness toward Iran.
That includes Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the most at-risk Republican in the midterms, who voted against reining in Trump over Iran.
The House will take an identical war powers vote later today, and that’s also expected to fall short due to Republican opposition. The anticipated outcome means GOP lawmakers across both chambers will officially have an ownership stake in the conflict.
That reality hasn’t changed Republicans’ clear preference to keep the war in Trump’s hands for as long as they can without requiring further congressional action. That’ll shift if the Trump administration requests supplemental funding to carry out combat operations, although this vote could be a tough one for Democrats too, as we’ve reported.
Several Senate Republicans told us they don’t think public hearings are useful at this moment, arguing they won’t learn much that they haven’t already gleaned from classified briefings.
“There’s nothing preventing us from having congressional involvement,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) acknowledged. “The [classified briefing] was one of the best I’ve ever been to. They were straight-up. Very transparent… Most briefings suck. This was a good one.”
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who helped secure public testimony from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on U.S. operations in Venezuela, indicated Wednesday he’s not inclined to mount a similar push for a hearing tied to the Iran war.
“I tend not to ask for things that I don’t feel like I can get,” Young said. “I’m open to it. You’ll recall in the last scenario, I felt like I had some leverage. And I used it. And I got what I could.”
The day before, Young lamented during a closed-door GOP lunch meeting that there wasn’t enough congressional involvement on the war and that Senate Republican leaders should be pushing the White House for more buy-in. Young had also argued that there should be public hearings.
In the House, GOP leaders of the Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs committees said Wednesday they don’t plan on holding hearings on Iran anytime soon.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said public briefings “will happen eventually, but not in this moment.” While the former Army bomb disposal expert wouldn’t say when such hearings could occur, Mast pointed to the classified briefings lawmakers have received thus far and said “We’ll continue on this route.”
A supplemental funding request, House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told reporters, will be “the first time that we get engaged from a policy standpoint” in prosecuting the war effort.
Hill on the sidelines. There’s a common hope from many Republicans: they hope the war ends very soon.
“There is enough prerogative to get the president up front,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the Armed Services Committee. “If it’s extended operations, then we should weigh in.”
Congress’ refusal to get involved comes amid shifting rationales for the war being offered by Trump and other administration officials. Trump reiterated Wednesday that Iran was “two weeks” away from having a nuclear weapon, a case his senior officials have repeatedly sought to make in recent days.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a senior appropriator, said “No, not yet” when asked if Congress needed to do more to assert itself on the Iran conflict.
“The president has the authority, and he needs to keep us informed,” Simpson said. “Cabinet’s coming in and giving us briefings and all that kind of stuff, which is what we need right now. I’m not saying it won’t happen at some point in time, but hopefully it’ll be over by then.”
Simpson added: “So, I’m good.”
— Andrew Desiderio, Briana Reilly and Anthony Adragna
TODAY: Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) and Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) join us at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the news of the day and access to cancer screening. RSVP to save your spot!