CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono
Interview
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BLITZER: All right, Barbara, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, Fred Pleitgen in Tehran, guys, thank you. We're going to check back with you, obviously, throughout the night.
Joining us now Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a member of the Armed Services Committee and Judiciary Committee.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us.
I want your reaction. The president says the indict may have been a mistake on the part of the Iranians, some lone general, for example, ordering it without authority.
Do you think it's plausible that the Iranians would accidentally shoot down this American drone?
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, (D-HI): Well, they're certainly say that it was intentional. What is real is that the tensions are heightened and, in a situation like that, there's all kinds of room for miscalculation.
So if the president doesn't want to go to war against Iran, which he said, it's time for him to tell the American people and Congress how he intends to resolve this crisis, pending crisis diplomatically.
So Wolf, this is an opportune time for us as we debate the National Defense Authorization Act in the Senate next week, that we do debate and pass the amendment to the act that prohibits the president from using unauthorized operations against Iran without congressional approval.
Now Mitch McConnell has not agreed to putting this amendment on the floor of the Senate. I think that this is our responsibility as Congress to declare war, if that be the case. The fact that Mitch McConnell has not agreed is very troubling.
BLITZER: I know that the leadership in the Senate and the House, they were over in the White House Situation Room getting briefed. You're a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Have you received a briefing on what happened?
HIRONO: I attended a briefings regarding the situation. I can't talk about it but, nonetheless, I think it is very important as the heightened escalation of tensions and fraught with peril, possibilities for miscalculations by either country, that the president come forward and explain to all of us how he intends to resolve this situation.
BLITZER: The Iranians insist they had every right to shoot down the drone and they say the drone was flying over Iranian water.
Have you seen any evidence that the drone violated Iranian airspace?
HIRONO: I have not personally, of course. But then you have our two countries saying different things. And this is what I mean about miscalculations can occur when you have a heightened tension situation as this. This is why it is very important for Congress to clearly tell this administration that he is not authorized to use force against Iran without congressional approval.
This is the very kind of situation that Congress needs to get involved in because it is our constitutional authority and responsibility to declare war.
BLITZER: Well, if, in fact, you see evidence, conclusive evidence, on the part of the U.S. military, the intelligence community and it's convincing to you that the Iranians deliberately launched a surface- to-air missile to shoot down this U.S. aircraft, would you regard that as an act of war on the part of the Iranians and --
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BLITZER: -- that the U.S. should respond militarily?
HIRONO: Well, that's just it, Wolf. If the U.S. is going to respond militarily, then we need to discuss what the consequences may be, what kind of resources will be deployed. We're already sending 1,000 more troops there.
There's a lot of debate that needs to occur. But this will not be another Iraq situation. This administration will need to provide facts. This is not a situation where the president says mission accomplished in a matter of days or hours.
BLITZER: Your colleague, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, he says he believes the Iranians are now testing President Trump.
Do you agree?
HIRONO: I think that when the president summarily pulled out of the JCPOA and then pretty much stopped Iran from selling its oil, I think we should certainly have predicted that Iran would respond in some way. And so they have.
So unless we're going to continue to have an escalation of these extensions, then the president who says he doesn't want to go to war, better take control of the situation, tell us what he has in mind to resolve it diplomatically.
Meanwhile, you have John Bolton running around and you have the president saying he's the check to Bolton, who has already written that we should go after Iran. This is not a good situation. Somebody needs to be running this show and clearly we need to get our allies involved.
You know, I have to say, Wolf, when the situation first arose about Iran attacking these other ships our allies in Europe as well as in Japan wanted to know more information. See, they couldn't just say, we'll take your word for it, United States. This is not a good situation when our country positions and articulation of events is basically questioned because of our credibility issues.
BLITZER: Do you believe that Iran, in the aftermath of the U.S. walking away from the Iran nuclear deal with the heightened sanctions that have been imposed over the past year, do you think Iran is trying to provoke some sort of military conflict?
HIRONO: I certainly hope not. I hope at some point there will be a scenario or environment where the two countries can come together to resolve the situation diplomatically.
But in the interval, though, in the workup to that kind of resolution, there's a lot of room for miscalculation. And we certainly do not want to blunder into yet another long-term war in the Middle East, where there will be all kinds of unintended consequences, not to mention loss of lives.
BLITZER: There already are some 70,000 U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf, another 2,500 in just the last few days were announced. Plus there are thousands of U.S. military, civilian contractors in the area, forget about the diplomats.
There's a lot of Americans who potentially could be endangered.
So what does the president need to do, Senator, from your perspective in order to de-escalate these really serious tensions with Iran right now?
HIRONO: I think one hint might be for the president to say or to characterize the drone strike as a mistake. As your previous commentator was saying, this may be kin on his part to want to give the Iranians a bit of wiggle room to try and figure out a way for the two countries to come together.
But we're also not going it alone. Clearly if there's another war in the Middle East, that would be disastrous. Because war should not be the first result. We should be looking to diplomatic resolution. I'm looking to the president at this point to come forward to tell us how are you going to resolve the situation?
How are you going to ease the tensions?
And the fact that we need to take some responsibility for the heightened tensions. Because we're the ones who unilaterally walked away from a nuclear deal with Iran, in which they were in compliance.
BLITZER: We'll see if the president addresses the American people in some sort of Oval Office address, for example, if it comes down to that. Senator Hirono, thank you so much for joining us.
HIRONO: Thank you.
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