Lindsey Graham: Republicans who slammed Trump administration's Soleimani briefing are 'empowering the enemy'

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 9 January 2020

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) believes his fellow Republican lawmakers who pushed back against the Trump administration's classified briefing on the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani are "overreacting."

The briefing was held on Wednesday, covering the airstrike authorized by President Trump last week that left Soleimani dead. In the wake of the airstrike, Iran retaliated on Tuesday with its own missile attacks against two Iraqi bases hosting U.S. troops.

After the briefing, an angry Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) called it "insulting" and the worst he's ever heard regarding a military issue. He also revealed lawmakers were told there couldn't be any "divisions" or "dissension" because it would "send the wrong signal to the Iranians, and I think that's completely wrong." Lee said that the meeting convinced him to support the Democratic plan for a new war powers resolution.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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