Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expressed alarm Wednesday at the lack of information from the Trump administration about its Iran plan, suggesting even his Republican colleagues are in the dark. He also argued it is “dangerous” for Trump to blow off the intelligence community’s assessment suggesting that Iran is not currently building a nuclear weapon.
“I have no foggy idea what this administration’s plans are, or what the foreign policy is vis a vis Iran,” Warner said during an interview with CNN. “It’s just beyond belief to me.”
Warner is a member of the Gang of Eight, the top leaders in the House and Senate along with the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees who are briefed on classified intelligence matters by the executive branch.
Warner said senators received a briefing on Monday from members of the intelligence community who said they had not received any intelligence suggesting Iran had moved towards developing a more fulsome nuclear weapon.
“And if this president is going to suddenly blow off all of the consensus opinion of the intelligence community? Well, what are these folks’ job? Their job is to speak truth to power, not cook the books. When you cook intelligence, you end up with a war like Iraq, where a president at that point didn’t follow the intelligence, and the intelligence was manipulated. I worry that we may be seeing some of that going on,” Warner said.
He also noted some of his Republican colleagues aren’t clued in on the administration’s plans either.
“I don’t think a lot of my Republican colleagues, no matter what they’ve said, have got any sense of idea of what is the plan, what happens after a potential bombing run,” Warner said.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
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