Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche dodged answering whether President Donald Trump has strategically eluded calling the conflict in Iran a war so he can avoid having to get congressional approval.
Blanche couched Trump’s ongoing, mixed messages about the Iran war on Sunday’s “Meet The Press” after NBC’s Kristen Welker played back a clip of Trump during a Friday presser where he says that “you don’t have legal problems” if you call the conflict a “military operation” instead of a “war.”
“Is the president effectively arguing that he can avoid congressional approval by avoiding using the word war?” Welker asked Blanche.
Claiming that Trump is “not effectively arguing anything except that he is trying to keep this country safe,” he replied, “We have kept Congress updated at every step of the way, consistent with what other presidents have done.”
“Trump is doing something that the past five presidents did not do,” he continued. “They promised to do it, they promised, ‘Oh, we’ll stop Iran.’ ‘Oh, Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.’ President Trump is doing what others have promised but failed to do. And as far as what we’re doing with Congress, keeping them updated, we are doing so.”
