Violet Jira breaks down the Pentagon’s denial of a "regime change war" after Ayatollah Khamenei’s death, despite Trump’s past calls for Iranian uprising and Israeli strikes. Four U.S. service members died in the operation, with no repatriation plans, while Congress—unbriefed beyond the Gang of Eight—faces a war powers vote amid DHS funding chaos. Friendly fire downed three U.S. jets over Kuwait, raising questions about operational control as Rubio’s Israel trip was scrapped and Trump avoids press events beyond social media. The episode underscores how military escalation outpaces democratic oversight, leaving key details buried in classified briefings. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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C-SPAN's Coverage of Today's Democracy Moments00:07:57
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Right, it's the first sort of live briefing we've gotten from the Trump administration since this operation began.
It was very significant to hear from Pete Hegseth and Dan Kane about what they believe to be the scope of this operation.
They both indicated, interestingly, or Hegseth indicated, that they don't see this as a regime change war, despite the fact that one of the earliest victories from this operation was the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been Iran's Supreme Leader for over 39 years.
Hegseth said this is not a regime change war, which kind of conflicts with the president's remarks on this operation, where he has encouraged the Iranian people to sort of take over now that that void has been opened up.
What is the White House, are we expecting anything more out of the White House?
What are you expecting from President Trump?
Do you know what his schedule is going to be for this week?
unidentified
Yeah.
The President Trump's schedule just shows that he has one open press event today where he will be at a Medal of Honor ceremony.
The press will be in attendance.
However, it's unclear whether or not he'll take questions.
There are no briefings or press conferences on the schedule that we know of so far.
So it's impossible to say whether or not we'll get some live press time with the president.
Commentary from the White House has been really limited to updates on the progress of the engagement via videos that he's posted on YouTube and Truth Social, plus also posts to Truth Social.
So maybe we'll get some time with the president this week.
It's difficult to imagine that he wouldn't address the public in some way as this continues, but we'll see.
There is expected to be briefings on the Hill by senior officials, including Secretary Hagseth, Secretary Rubio, CIA Chief Radcliffe, and General Kane.
When are those expected to happen and are we expecting those to be public?
unidentified
Those are one of the biggest things that are going to be happening today and tomorrow.
Secretary Hagseth, Secretary Rubio, Dan Kaine are going to be on the Hill briefing lawmakers on this Iran mission.
As we all know, Congress was not asked to provide a vote in advance of this.
Though the Gang of Eight was briefed, we did not get sort of the entire Congress informed on this operation before it happened.
So that will be happening today and tomorrow.
Unclear whether or not those will be public, but I'm sure we'll get a readout from lawmakers at the conclusion of those meetings.
Well, House and Senate Democrats are planning to force a war powers vote sometime this week.
What is the White House expecting as far as GOP support?
Are they expecting solid across the board support from Republicans?
unidentified
Yeah, so we've even seen some Democrats in the House signal that they intend to vote with Republicans on this war powers resolution.
I don't think we've seen any significant breaks from Republicans saying that they would vote against the White House.
It's a difficult vote, especially ahead of a midterm election season, but I think it would be surprising if either of these measures in the House or the Senate were successful.
And even if they were, President Trump could veto them, and it's unlikely that the House or the Senate would have the votes to override a veto.
And CENCOM announced that four U.S. service members have been killed in this operation.
Anything about how they'll be honored or when their remains will be of returning to the United States?
unidentified
I'm not aware of any, I've not heard myself of any plans for that, but I'm sure that's something that will be happening.
Both President Trump and Secretary Hagseth have said that they're mourning these losses, though they have also said they expect that there will be more casualties as this continues.
I'm certain that's something that this Trump administration that really sort of values our soldiers will be planning in the near future.
Department of Homeland Security, have these strikes in Iran changed the calculus at all for the White House or for Congress?
unidentified
At least for Congress, it definitely adds a new dimension to those negotiations.
With some Republicans saying that DHS funding is critical now more than ever, now that we are sort of engaging with Iran overseas, it's unclear whether or not Democrats will continue to sort of dig their heels in and resist DHS funding if they don't get the concessions they're looking for.
So that's going to be one of the biggest dynamics on the Hill this week.
All right, that is Violet Jira, a reporter for Notice.
They're at notice.org.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
unidentified
Thank you for having me.
Coming up shortly here on C-SPAN, we're going to take you live to the White House, where President Trump is expected to hold a Medal of Honor ceremony that will be his first public event after the weekend's military operations.
When it happens, watch our live coverage here on C-SPAN.