Lindsey Graham Dismisses GOP Senators ‘Overreacting’ on Iran: Rand Paul, Mike Lee Are ‘Empowering the Enemy’

Just asked Graham about the criticism from Paul and Lee over Iran briefing. “I think they’re overreacting. I’m going to let people know ..to play this game with the war powers act, which I think is unconstitutional, is that whether you mean to or not, you’re empowering the enemy” pic.twitter.com/pnlISwkORb

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 8, 2020

Stalwart war hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said his fellow Republican Senators Mike Lee (UT) and Rand Paul (KY) were both “overreacting” and “empowering the enemy” for their highly critical backlash to the Trump administration’s briefing about the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

In a Capitol Hill hallway interview recorded by CNN reporter Manu Raju, Graham dismissed Lee and Paul’s concerns noting that they are “libertarians” and warned that it the pair backed a Senate resolution put forward by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine to debate War Powers Act authority for Iran they would be “empowering the enemy.”

Congressional Democrats have expressed deep skepticism about the justification for killing Soleimani and a senior House Democrat, Rep. Gerry Connolly (VA), called the claims made by the Trump administration in Wednesday’s Iran briefing “utterly unconvincing.” But those inter-party critiques were matched by a scathing assessment from the Senate Republican, Lee, who blasted the White House’s Iran briefing as “insulting” and “the worst briefing at least on a military issue I’ve ever seen.”  And fellow libertarian Paul called out the Trump administration’s plea to avoid any Congressional debate about war powers authority for future strikes on Iran as “completely wrong.”

Watch the video above via Manu Raju, CNN.