House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) blasted the
Biden administration over the weekend for its weakness toward Iran,
warning that the administration was emboldening and empowering Iran's
terror throughout the Middle East.
Turner made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News's "Meet
The Press" while talking about Iran's unprecedented attack on Israel
Saturday night, which included 185 one-way suicide drones, 110
surface-to-surface missiles, and 36 cruise missiles.
"Unfortunately, the Biden Administration's view is that if you use
missile defense, an attack didn't happen," he said. "That's the way
they reacted to the over 100 attacks that have occurred on U.S. troops
from terrorist groups and organizations in Iraq and Syria, resulting in
three deaths of American troops in Jordan, all by - by Iranian-backed
groups and organizations. I think the administration needs to take
seriously that this attack has happened. It's unprecedented. And
certainly, it needs to be viewed as an escalation. This is an
escalating conflict."
Welker repeatedly interrupted throughout the interview to defend the
Biden administration and claimed that it carried out "more than 100"
counterattacks on Iranian proxies throughout the Middle East.
"That's not necessarily true," Turner fired back. "So they - what the
Biden Administration said is, if there are deaths, if American troops
are hit, they're going to respond. Over 100 attacks on American troops,
they did not respond."
"Israel has been under attack - under attack by Iran, for decades," he
said. "They fund and train Hezbollah. They fund and train Hamas, Hamas
which undertook the October 7th attacks into Israel that were just, you
know, vicious in a number of deaths in the manner in which it was
executed, all as a result of they were trained, funded, and given
weapons by Iran. So this has already been an ongoing conflict, where
Israel understands that they have been under siege and under attack by
Iran. It's the first time, though, that they have attacked directly
from Iran. And certainly, this is an escalation."
"It is already escalating and the administration needs to respond,"
Turner said. "Over 300 weapons were shot from Iran at Israel. This is
an escalating conflict. The administration - because we were
successful, because we invested in missile-defense technology with
Israel, the administration is acting like, `Well, you know, done. We
defended Israel against these attacks. This is not escalating.' This is
escalating."
Turner said what the Biden administration needed to understand was that
Iran has "already taken the next step" and if there is no response then
that will be giving them "a free pass" which will lead to more attacks.
WATCH:
https://youtu.be/V3BXVLRrDoM-- Let's go Brandon!
House Intel Chairman Rips Biden Admin For Trying To Tie Israel's Hands: "This Is Escalating"