(CNN) Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has agreed to co-sponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders' legislation that would freeze funding for any military action in Iran without express approval from Congress.
Sanders, a Vermont independent who's running for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced the bill shortly after the Trump administration held a classified briefing in which advisers outlined the case for their military strike last week that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
Sanders was sharply critical of the briefing, saying afterward that the administration's briefers gave no proof of any imminent attack by Iran against US targets.
"They are justifying the assassination of Qasem Soleimani by claiming that he was planning 'imminent attacks' on hundreds of Americans in the region and yet they produced no evidence that would justify this claim, not even in a classified setting," Sanders said in a statement.
Lee becomes the first Republican in the Senate to sign on to the bill. During his time in the Senate, Lee has been consistently opposed to American intervention in foreign conflicts and was also highly critical of the administration's briefing on Iran . He called it "insulting and demeaning" and added that it was "the worst briefing I've seen, at least on a military issue."
ImLikeReallySmart on January 11st, 2020 at 16:08 UTC »
Mike Lee is terrible overall, but I give him credit for being consistently anti-interventionist with Bernie.
HvB1 on January 11st, 2020 at 14:56 UTC »
Mike Lee and Bernie Sanders already worked together and pushed legislation through in congress to stop the war in Yemen. Trump vetoed it in the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E5YQV3bBiw
News2016 on January 11st, 2020 at 14:39 UTC »
S.3159 - A bill to prohibit the use of funds for military force against Iran, and for other purposes:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3159/text