On Sunday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) slammed the Biden-Harris administration for providing “comfort” to Iran by urging Israel to respond softly to Iran’s missile attacks last week.
Notably, Turner’s comments come as Iran has been working to assassinate former President Donald Trump. Turner made his remarks during a CBS News interview with Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation” when asked about how Israel should respond to Iran’s attack.
“This is another area where the administration has not risen to the occasion,” he said. “President Biden said that the nuclear program of Iran is off the table, it should not be a valid military target by Israel and or the United States.”
When asked if Iran’s nuclear program should be on the list of targets that Israel can hit, Turner responded, “Absolutely.”
“In fact, the president himself, President Biden, has previously said that the United States would not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and that he would use military action if necessary,” he continued. “His own secretary of state has said more than two weeks ago that Iran’s breakout time to become a nuclear state was two weeks.”
Turner then rebutted Brennan’s false claim that U.S. intelligence has said that Iran has not made the decision to make a nuclear weapon.
“They have not publicly stated the current status of the program,” Turner noted.
Turner said that Israel should have a proportionate response to Iran that would include firing hundreds of missiles or dropping hundreds of bombs on relevant targets inside Iran.
“That should be the response,” he said. “The understanding should be that Iran has moved beyond their proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, to have direct attacks to Israel, and Israel needs to be able to defend itself, and Iran needs to pay a price.”
“I believe it’s completely irresponsible for the president to say that [hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities] is off the table, when he’s previously said it’s on the table,” Turner said. “For him to give Iran the comfort that their actions of attacking directly Iran will not have any consequences for their nuclear weapons program is irresponsible.”
