Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) slammed President Donald Trump for entering the United States into a war with Iran, which he called “one of the greatest presidential blunders of our time.”
The Democratic lawmaker unleashed on the commander in chief while appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday after moderator Kristen Welker asked him if he supports the Trump administration’s “efforts to try to negotiate a deal with Iran to bring this war to an end.”
“I don’t support this administration, period,” Booker bluntly responded. “They’ve gotten us into what will be looked at as one of the greatest blunders, presidential blunders, of our time.”
“Remember this president had stated objectives, none of which he is achieving right now from the nuclear program all the way to, frankly, regime change,” he continued. “The regime is more extreme. They’ve shown an asymmetric ability to choke up the Strait of Hormuz, [which] has caused a global oil shock.”
The New Jersey senator went on to decry that “costs continue to rise” for Americans as the war rages on.
“This is after the president has cut people’s health care and nutrition programs,” Booker continued. “And now with over $25 billion that has been spent on the war, over 300 people injured, 13 Americans who’ve lost their lives, this president is pushing us further and further into a conflict with no foreseeable off-ramp and thousands of more troops moving into that region.”
Booker then argued Trump “still has not come to Congress for any kind of authorization for what is clearly, not just a war, but the biggest military engagement we’ve had since the war in Afghanistan.”
“This president is off the chain. And we are in a global crisis of his causing,” the senator added.
Booker’s criticisms of Trump came after Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) avoided answering Welker’s question if the president would need congressional approval to put U.S. boots on the ground in Iran while also appearing Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
“If we have a longstanding war that’s happening, go back again to what happened in Iraq or in Afghanistan ― yes,” Lankford responded. “If this is to protect Americans and to be able to make sure that we’re in there for a season, and we’re stopping and getting out, that’s very, very different. … This is all contingent.”
Watch Booker’s appearance on “Meet the Press” below.
