WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (AR-01) joined House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (FL-21) to speak against H. Con. Res. 36, which would hamper President Trump’s ability to protect Americans from a nuclear Iranian regime. 

Watch his remarks on the House floor here and below. 

I thank my friend Chairman Mast for yielding and for his leadership on highlighting the error of removing the United States Armed Forces from a conflict that will bring an end to a 47-year conflict.

Mr. Speaker, make no mistake about it. The Iranian regime is the largest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world, and despite extensive diplomatic efforts, the regime refuses to give up its nuclear weapon ambitions, its ballistic, cruise, and anti-ship missile production and proliferation, or its support of terror. 

As Secretary Rubio said yesterday – quote – “Iran is run by lunatics – religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons. They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles and drones and terrorism that the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things.”

When these murderous despots tell us they want to eliminate us from existence, which they have said time and again over the past 47 years, and now, in a relatively short timeframe, they attempt to sprint to the finish line by significantly hardening their conventional defensive posture, expediting the development of nuclear weapons, and showing their desperation by slaughtering thousands of their own people, it is clear that we have reached the point of no return—A point after which it’s too late to respond.

We all know that we wouldn’t be here today if the President’s name wasn’t Donald Trump. Democrats have been calling for the U.S. to take action against Iran – until Donald Trump did so.

Last month, Democrats sponsored H.R. 7380, the “Iran Act,” chastising the Iranian regime for repeatedly shutting down internet connectivity and impeding the Iranian people from communicating during emergencies and exercising internationally recognized human rights. And earlier this year, the Democrat-sponsored H.R. 5912, the “Disrupt Act,” would require the Executive branch to, quote, “develop a whole-of-government strategy to disrupt growing cooperation among the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which are the foremost adversaries of the United States, and mitigate the risks posed to the United States.” This Democrat bill even states that the partnering of these four U.S. adversaries “reinforces threats posed by each such adversary individually.” Seems pretty clear to me that Democrat rhetoric has argued in favor of cracking down on the brutal Iranian regime . . . of course until President Trump was the one to initiate the regime’s demise.

President Trump has a duty to protect Americans and the United States’ interests both at home and abroad. The Administration engaged in earnest diplomacy to mitigate the Iranian threat. It became crystal clear, however, that the Iranian regime used the diplomatic process to buy itself time to reconstitute its ballistic missile inventories and nuclear weapons program. As the threat neared its apex, a point beyond which mitigation would be impossible, President Trump lived up to his duty as Commander-in-Chief and took decisive action.

On March 2nd, President Trump notified Congress, consistent with the oft-criticized War Powers Resolution of 1973, of military action used to address this threat to the American people and American interests.

In other words, the President has clearly acted consistent with precedent and has prosecuted this military action in a transparent and forthcoming manner, holding multiple press conferences and sending his Cabinet officials and operational experts to provide multiple classified briefings on the status of the ongoing conflict to all Members of Congress, as well as appropriate Committees and their staffs.

Mr. Speaker, passing this measure today would do nothing to keep America safe. It would do nothing to strengthen Congress. All it would do is put America’s safety and that of her allies at risk. It would allow Iran to once again rebuild its murderous regime and terrorize the world. Vote no.

I thank Chairman Mast for his partnership and leadership and yield the balance of my time.

###