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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the Trump administration has failed miserably--miserably--in its responsibility to inform Congress about what is happening right now in the Middle East. Before the strikes, leaders in Congress got virtually no heads up. Then the administration delayed the briefing scheduled yesterday. It was scheduled a week ago. Now they are trying to get away with sending only the Secretary of State and Defense for tomorrow, instead of the usual intelligence officials that attend the briefings.

Let's be very clear: A briefing from only the Secretaries of State and Defense would be woefully insufficient. If they are the only ones in attendance, they will only parrot whatever the President wants them to say.

Sending intelligence officers to briefings in Congress is a longstanding bipartisan practice, and Congress is entitled, as the representatives of the American people, to hear from the administration about matters of national intelligence and national security.

Refusing Congress like this would be egregious, troubling, and a violation. It would make Americans wonder: Why would Donald Trump prefer to send two talking heads to meet with Congress instead of intelligence analysts and policymakers.

Intelligence officials have an obligation to seek the truth, to speak the truth. Perhaps that is why Donald Trump does not want to send the intelligence officials to talk to us. Maybe Donald Trump doesn't want Congress or even America to know the truth about what is going on.

We know there have been a lot of confusing reports--some from intelligence sources--over the last days, suggesting the strikes in Iran were not as successful as the President initially claimed. There may be questions about the accuracy of these reports. I have no idea if these reports are accurate.

And, today, the President said, earlier this morning, that ``the intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says we don't know.''

All of this only underscores the need to hear from intelligence analysts and to hear from them directly.

What is the administration hiding? Were the strikes successful? How much enriched uranium does Iran still have? How many months will it take them to make a nuclear device? Are they locating centrifuges in a new place, and what is our knowledge of that? Are our troops safe? Are Americans in the region safe? Is the conflict contained? What happens next? And how will the administration achieve the critical national priority of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon?

Both parties, by and large, agree that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I do. But if the President is misrepresenting the impact of our military strikes and these reports have some accuracy--we don't know if they do--and if the President is turning away from diplomacy with Iran, as his recent post suggested, then what the hell is going on? What is Donald Trump's plan?

We really don't know the answers to any of these critical questions. The administration refuses to be transparent. All we get are talking points and tweets. We know that Donald Trump makes things up, day to day, and then has to retract and turn around.

And tomorrow, all we are going to get are talking points from Rubio and Hegseth, because that is what we know they are trained to do.

On top of that, today, it was reported the administration may actually start limiting intelligence sharing with Congress. The administration should immediately undo this decision, if it is true.

Are they afraid of the truth? Do they want to hide the truth?

The intelligence Agencies are known to tell the truth. Is that why they are so afraid to get their information out--the information of the intelligence Agencies out?

As I said yesterday, the administration's stonewalling of Congress is outrageous, evasive, and derelict. The administration has no right to stonewall Congress on matters of national security. Senators deserve information, and the administration has a legal obligation to inform Congress precisely about what is happening right now abroad.

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