House Budget Chairman: Trump’s ‘Making Up’ Claims About Iranian Intelligence, Saudi Military Payments

House Budget Committee chairman John Yarmuth (D-KY) accused Donald Trump of falsifying the administration’s intelligence on Iran, along with the president’s claim that Saudi Arabia has put up $1 billion to compensate the U.S. for deploying troops to the Middle East.

In a broad-interview with Mediaite columnist John Ziegler, Yarmuth was asked if he believes Trump’s claim to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that Iran was planning to attack four U.S. embassies and that necessitated the airstrike against Qasem Soleimani. There has been a bipartisan group of congressmen who’ve been very skeptical of the intelligence on Iran, and Yarmuth answered the question by saying “If [Trump’s claim] was true, then we were lied to in the classified briefing.”

Yarmuth went on to refer to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who told CBS on Sunday that even though Iran was “probably” planning that, he “didn’t see” intelligence evidence to prove it. In terms of whether Trump was exaggerating the intelligence about an imminent threat, Yarmuth said “he’s making it all up.”

After discussing whether Trump commenced the Soleimani airstrike out of self-interest, the conversation moved on to Trump’s claim that the Saudi government is “paying us” for sending troops abroad and that “they’ve already deposited $1 billion in the bank.” Yarmuth swatted down that claim, saying it requires Congressional investigation because “we don’t want to turn our troops into mercenaries for foreign countries…That’s not part of any budgeting we’ve done.”

“I’m sure he’s making that up too,” Yarmuth concluded.

Listen above, via Individual 1 Podcast

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