WATCH: “This President Has Grown Very Fond of War,” Sen. Schiff Condemns Trump Putting Iran War Over Lowering Cost of Living on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins

Washington, D.C.— U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)joinedCNN’sThe Source with Kaitlan Collinsto condemn Trump for prioritizing his illegal war with Iran over tackling persistent affordability issues continuing to plague the American people.
Schiff’s appearance came after the Senate’s vote on his, Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s (D-N.Y.)War Powers Resolution.
Schiff called out Senate Republican’s failure to support the resolution and their semantic hesitation to name the American involvement in Iran as a war, blasting their reluctance as demonstrating their “unwillingness to do their constitutional duty.”
View the full interviewhere.
Key Excerpts:
On holding the president accountable for his illegal Iran war:
[…] I think there’s a big difference between a War Powers Resolution meant to bring about an end to the conflict or require the president to come before Congress and seek an authorization, and actually having a vote on an authorization, on a War Powers Authorization. So, I think it’s a very different kind of a vote, and we have to make that case to the American people.
[…] We have lost service members tragically, including one Californian. There is no doubt about this being war, and I think Republicans both don’t want to own it themselves, because they know this could go very badly, but at the same time, they’re not willing, at least at this point, to stand up to the president. So, I think it’s incumbent on us to do everything we can and knowledgeable or knowing of the fact that the president may try to spin it as he will, but we’re going to keep at this.We’re going to keep holding their feet to the fire, because, frankly, the president misled the country when he said he wouldn’t embark on new wars of regime change. And there are the needs of millions and millions and millions of Americans that are being ignored and resources that could be used to help them afford their life are being squandered over Iran right now.
On the administration focusing more on war with Iran than supporting the affordability needs of the American people:
[…] We’ re undoubtedly spending a fortune every day on this. And if you add up, what we’re spending already on this Iran war, and you add it to our military efforts in Venezuela, and you add it to the first Iran war, which administration officials have now taken to calling the 12 Days War. It is billions and billions of dollars that means no more hospitals that could have been built with that money, no more schools that could have been built with that money, no more investment in American people that could have been made with that money. There’s a real cost here.The most important cost, of course, is the loss of six American lives, six American service members. But we’re also spending away the savings of the American people vast amounts of taxpayer dollars, in a way the president promised he wouldn’t, and that the American people don’t support.
On Republicans hesitation to call American involvement in Iran a war:
[…] They recognize that the moment they do call it a war, they’re acknowledging their unwillingness to do their constitutional duty, because only Congress has the power to declare war. And it’s not just about the declaration itself or the name that’s given.Far more important the founders gave us the power to essentially make war, and yes, the president directs that war, but not without the approval of Congress. So the minute they acknowledge that, is the same minute they have acknowledged that they have really fallen down on the job.
[…]They’re essentially saying to this president and any future president that they can make war wherever they want, whenever they want, and however they want and Congress will not disturb them. And that is a really dangerous proposition for the country.The founders understood that, they didn’t want to put that much power in an executive that they feared would grow too fond of war. And if there’s anything we’ve seen over the last year, it’s that this president has grown very fond of war.
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