Schumer blasts Trump administration for postponing Iran briefing
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) blasted the Trump administration for postponing a classified briefing that was supposed to happen Tuesday afternoon on President Trump's decision to bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend.
Schumer said he didn't receive an explanation for why the briefing was postponed but noted that delaying it until Thursday would give Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio a chance to participate in the meeting.
'This last-minute postponement of our briefing is outrageous, it's evasive, it's derelict. They're bobbing and weaving and ducking. Senators deserve full transparency. There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening,' he told reporters at a press conference in the Capitol.
'What are they afraid of? Why won't they engage Congress in the critical details?' he asked.
Schumer said senators want to know the results of the military strike and the scope and trajectory of the broader military conflict between Israel, Iran and now the United States.
He said Congress needs to know what Trump's long-term strategy is for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and the potential risks facing American citizens.
Senators were scheduled to hear Tuesday from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine.
Schumer said that Gabbard, Ratcliffe and Caine should still give their briefing on Tuesday and that Hegseth and Rubio could meet with senators later in the week.
'If they want to come up on Thursday in addition, not in replacement, of this [briefing], that's OK,' Schumer said.
He said the delay 'undermines the very principles of accountability and oversight that safeguard our democracy.'
The Democratic leader said Caine 'knows more about the military operation' against Iran than almost anybody else in government.
He said Congress is entitled to know how much of Iran's nuclear stockpile was destroyed.
And he said the Trump administration provided no details when they gave him a heads-up about the military strike shortly before it happened on Saturday.
'They called me up and said, 'We're taking imminent action, we can't tell you what country,'' Schumer recalled. 'I said, 'Can you give me some details?' They said, 'No.' That's the extent of the briefing I've gotten.'
He said he asked for a briefing on the strike yesterday but didn't get it.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
28 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan prosecutor who took on Trump, wins Democratic primary in bid for second term
NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor who oversaw the historic hush-money case against President Donald Trump, won Tuesday's Democratic primary as he seeks reelection. Bragg defeated Patrick Timmins — a litigator, law professor and former Bronx assistant district attorney — to advance to November's general election. About 70% of registered Manhattan voters are Democrats. The first-term incumbent will face Republican Maud Maron, who was a public defender for decades and previously ran for Congress and NYC's City Council as a Democrat. Bragg has long been one of the nation's most prominent prosecutors, spotlighted in TV's 'Law & Order' and other shows. The DA directs about 600 attorneys in one of the biggest local prosecutors' offices in the U.S. He raised the office's profile still further by bringing the hush-money case. His predecessor, fellow Democrat Cyrus R. Vance Jr., spent years investigating various Trump dealings but didn't procure an indictment . Bragg decided to focus on how and why porn actor Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 to clam up about her claims of a 2006 sexual encounter with the married Trump. The payment was made, through the then-candidate's personal attorney, weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Trump's company records logged the money as a legal expense. Trump denied any wrongdoing and any sexual involvement with Daniels. But a jury last year found him guilty of 33 felony counts of falsifying business records, the first-ever felony conviction of a former — and now again — U.S. commander in chief. Trump is appealing the verdict. The Republican president has long derided the case as a political 'witch hunt,' and he has kept lambasting Bragg by social media as recently as March. Bragg, 51, was a civil rights lawyer, federal prosecutor and top deputy to New York's attorney general before becoming DA. Raised in Harlem and educated at Harvard, he's the first Black person to hold the post. His tenure had a rocky start. Days after taking office in 2022, he issued a memo telling staffers not to prosecute some types of cases, nor seek bail or prison time in some others. After criticism from the police commissioner and others, Bragg apologized for creating 'confusion' and said his office wasn't easing up on serious cases. The matter continued to animate his critics. Trump repeatedly branded Bragg 'soft on crime,' and Timmins said on his campaign site homepage that the memo 'has brought about increased crime and a perception of chaos in the subway and on our streets.' Timmins — who has raised about $154,000 to Bragg's $2.2 million since January 2022 — also pledged to do more to staunch subway crime, keep cases from getting dismissed for failure to meet legal deadlines, and prioritize hate crimes, among other things. Bragg's campaign emphasized his efforts to fight gun violence, help sexual assault survivors, prosecute hate crimes and go after bad landlords and exploitative bosses, among other priorities. His office, meanwhile, has been enmeshed in a string of high-profile cases in recent months. The office is using a post-9/11 terrorism law to prosecute UnitedHealthcare CEO killing suspect Luigi Mangione , lost a homicide trial against Marine veteran and Republican cause célèbre Daniel Penny in a case that stirred debate about subway safety and self-defense, and retried former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein on sex crimes charges. Mangione, Penny and Weinstein all pleaded not guilty. Bragg unexpectedly inherited the Vance-era Weinstein case after an appeals court ordered a new trial. In a jumbled outcome, jurors this month convicted Weinstein on one top charge, acquitted him of another and didn't reach a verdict on a third, lower-level charge — which Bragg aims to bring to trial a third time. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
The Hill
31 minutes ago
- The Hill
Alvin Bragg wins Democratic nod in Manhattan DA reelection bid
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday won the Democratic nomination for another term in office, fending off a more moderate challenger, Decision Desk HQ projects. Bragg, who received widespread national attention over his successful prosecution of President Trump, defeated Patrick Timmins, a former prosecutor in the Bronx who ran on a more moderate platform. Timmins argued that the district attorney's office under Bragg should have been more aggressive in prosecuting certain crimes. Bragg, the first African American to hold the office, ran in 2021 on a more progressive platform calling for an end to prosecuting lower-level nonviolent crimes and lesser charges and sentences for nonviolent crimes as well. He faced some criticism during his tenure over accusations that he backed away from some of what he called for. But Timmins sought to challenge Bragg from the center, as others have successfully done in some major cities in recent years. But Bragg seemed likely to easily win the nomination, with one internal poll showing him well ahead.
New York Post
41 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump admin officials slam leaked bomb damage assessment indicating Iran could restart nuclear program within months: ‘Completely preposterous'
Trump administration officials on Tuesday slammed a leaked preliminary intelligence assessment of the damage done to Iran's nuclear facilities by weekend US airstrikes that the president has touted as a massive success. The classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) bomb damage assessment — deemed a 'low confidence' estimation of the effectiveness of Saturday's strikes on the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites — reportedly determined that Iran could bring its nuclear program back online as quickly as within one to two months, according to Fox News. On the high end, estimates indicate that Iran could restart uranium enrichment within a year, according to those who viewed the DIA report. 3 Trump administration officials do not believe the DIA's bomb damage assessment is accurate. via REUTERS CNN, which first reported on the leaked classified document, noted that assessments are ongoing and could change, but the DIA believes Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed by the 'bunker buster' bombs dropped on the nuclear facilities. The White House strongly disagrees with the DIA's preliminary assessment. 'This alleged 'assessment' is flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X. 'The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program,' she added. 'Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration,' Leavitt argued. The assessment was reportedly based on satellite images and electronic communications that have been intercepted since the strikes. The report focuses on the damage done to the Fordow, a facility buried underneath mountains south of Tehran, which was hit by 14 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. The DIA reportedly assessed that the entrances to the facility caved in as a result of the strike, and that some infrastructure was destroyed, but that the Iranians could still dig out, repair or rebuild the site. 3 The DIA report suggested the Fordow facility caved in but could be dug out by the Iranians. AP 3 Trump on Tuesday claimed Iran will never restart its nuclear program. Getty Images Special Envoy Steve Witkoff charged that any suggestion the US did not achieve its military objectives in Iran is 'completely preposterous.' 'I've read all the damage assessment reports from not just our government, but from other governments, and I'm not going to get into anything that's top secret, but let me tell you for sure what happened here,' Witkoff said during an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Witkoff was adamant that the conversion facility at Isfahan — needed to begin the process of uranium enrichment — was 'the only facility in Iran that can do this' and 'was completely destroyed' in Saturday's aerial assault. 'It's above ground. It was hit with a 30,000-pound bunker buster, and it could not survive that hit — so they have no conversion opportunity, and that means they cannot weaponize, even if they've enriched to 90%,' the Trump administration official said on 'The Ingraham Angle.' 'Then there are two other nuclear reactors in Natanz, one above ground and one below ground,' Witkoff continued. 'The below-ground one we know we eviscerated, and the above-ground one, which had been hit by the Israelis and had been substantially damaged, we put another bomb on top of it, just to make sure that it was eviscerated. And we know for a fact it was. 'Fordow is the last enrichment reactor that was operating there, and we put 12 bunker buster bombs on Fordow. There's no doubt that it breached the canopy. There's no doubt that it was well within reach of the depth that these bunker buster bombs go to, and there's no doubt that it was obliterated.' Witkoff slammed the leaking of the DIA assessment as 'outrageous' and 'treasonous,' and called for investigation to find the person responsible for it in order to hold them accountable. The White House did not respond to The Post's request for comment.
