Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:55 pm
Trump didn’t notify the national security leadership in Congress, but he did tell Russia before the Baghdadi raid.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff confirmed that Congress wasn’t notified. Schiff said, ” This is a great day, a ruthless killer has been brought to justice. In terms of notifying the gang of eight, that wasn’t done. Look, the reason to notify the gang of eight is, frankly, more important when things go wrong. Had this escalated, had something gone wrong, had we gotten into a firefight with the Russians, it’s to the administration’s advantage to be able to say, we informed Congress, we were going in, they were aware of the risks. We at least gave them the chance to provide feedback. That wasn’t done here.”
Video of Schiff:
Adam Schiff confirms that the gang of 8 wasn't notified before that Baghdadi raid, but do you know who was? Russia. pic.twitter.com/M3w5SAnrTE
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 27, 2019
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi confirmed that Russians were notified, but Congress was not.
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Pelosi said, “This month, the House passed a joint resolution on an overwhelmingly bipartisan 354-60 basis which rejects President Trump’s green-lighting of Turkish aggression into Syria against our Kurdish partners, and calls on him to present a clear strategy to defeat ISIS. The House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top Congressional Leadership were notified of in advance, and on the Administration’s overall strategy in the region. Our military and allies deserve strong, smart and strategic leadership from Washington.”
During his announcement of the raid, Trump confirmed that Russia was told in advance that the US was coming in:
Trump praises Russia in the killing of Baghdadi. pic.twitter.com/dbl7ilcuws
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 27, 2019
Trump didn’t tell national security leaders in Congress, but he made sure to tell the Russians what was going on. The Russians had more information about what the US military was doing before the co-equal Legislative Branch of the United States government.
The Baghdadi raid was an example of Trump’s Russia First agenda in action.
Trump is using executive power in dangerous ways. He is not the first president to trample over Congress on military action, but he has taken the behavior to a new and very dangerous extreme.
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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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