Christopher Murphy · TranslatePolitics.com

Senate

Iran (Executive Session)

2026-08-06

“You caused high gas prices. You started a bad war. The war makes things expensive. Farmers and small businesses suffer. You make money from the war. You lie about the war. I don't like that. It's very bad. I want you to admit it.”

Official Congressional Record

Madam President, colleagues, the Trump administration has us stuck in a humiliating quagmire, a total deadlock in Iran. We are wasting billions of taxpayer dollars dropping bombs and firing missiles at Iran. Iran responds with escalation. They keep the strait closed. They attack our bases. They attack our allies in the region. The war just expands and expands and expands. In the last week, for instance, a new war is threatening to break out between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, which would likely result in the other strait at the bottom of the Red Sea being closed as well. Trump personally pays no price for this stalemate. His corruption schemes, his cryptocurrency, his insider trading, the contracts to his sons, all of that has practically tripled his net worth in just 18 short months in office. No, the price of this war is being plainly paid, first and foremost, by our soldiers who are being put in harm's way for a war that is making America weaker every day. They are getting killed. They are sustaining life-altering injuries. Many of our soldiers and sailors and airmen have been in the region far past their scheduled deployment. They haven't seen their families in years. And, of course, American consumers are paying the price as well. Here is the most relevant chart. This is familiar to you. This is what gas prices were doing until the war. They are creeping back well above $4 a gallon right now. That is not affordable for regular Americans, especially Americans who have to travel great distances for work, especially small business owners who rely on reasonable gas prices in order to be able to make their bills work. Diesel prices are through the roof as well. Fertilizer prices are through the roof as well, all because of this war. No other reason--the war. The prices are this high because of the war. It is farmers, it is small business owners, it is the American public who are paying the price--not Donald Trump. And so that is why the war is just wildly unpopular, like except for Trump's sort of hard-line supporters, the folks who just don't believe he can ever do anything wrong, nobody wants this war. If you are in a red State or a blue State, this war is deeply unpopular. The American public is smart; they are smarter than a lot of my colleagues give them credit for. They know a war with Iran is unwinnable. They don't want America stuck again in a quagmire, a stalemate in the Middle East. So how does Trump handle this, a deeply unpopular war, a war that he is losing, a war that is driving up prices for the American public? Well, this is how he handles it: He gaslights. He tells lies. And the essential gaslight is that: The war is about to end, don't worry. Yes, it appears that there is no end. It appears that you are going to have to continue to pay these prices forever. It appears that America has no endgame, but, don't worry, the war is about to end. And so I just want to go through this pattern with you because it is really important to talk about the fact that the White House is just not being straight with the American public about what is going on in this war. Over and over again the President declares that the war is about to be over. He is not telling the truth. He normally declares that the war is about to be over on Sunday night or Monday morning, right before the markets open. But now that we are 6 months into this war, we can see the pattern. Let me go through it with you quickly. On March 23, Trump announces a deal. I am just going to give you his quotes, these are his words. He says: The market impact is immediate. That post sends oil prices tumbling nearly 11 percent, but there is no deal. He just made it up. Two days later, the U.S. military is back to conducting strikes. On March 30, Trump announces another deal. This is Monday morning right before the markets open. He says: end-- One week later, there is no deal. The opposite. One week later, Trump posts that he is going to wipe out the entire civilization of Iran, ``A whole civilization will die tonight,'' he posts, ``never to be brought back again.'' That is a war crime. The President is promising to kill millions of civilians. He tries to dial it back, but later on that same day he is back to announcing a deal. Literally, ``I am going to wipe out a whole civilization,'' that morning. That night, on April 17, he says: Five days later, there is no deal. Trump announces a resumption of the war with Iran. Now let's fast-forward 10 days later to April 17. He posts that a deal with Iran is imminent. ``THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY . . . MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED,'' he posts. Two days later, the strikes start again. On May 5, Trump says: Complete is capitalized; final is capitalized; agreement is capitalized; representatives is capitalized; Iran is capitalized. Two days later, the deal is off. Surprise, surprise. Every time Trump announces a deal is imminent, it just disappears. ``U.S. forces intercepted unprovoked Iranian attacks and responded with self-defense strikes,'' CENTCOM announces 2 days later. On May 25, right before the markets open: A deal is imminent. Right before the markets open. That same day the U.S. military conducts strikes on Iran: Next Monday, right before the markets open, Trump posts: How is this working out well for the American public? How is that working out well for the American public? The next day there is no deal. The United States conducts strikes against Iran. On June 17, Trump actually signs the deal, but it is not a real deal. He does this whole pomp and circumstance signing ceremony in Versailles. That deal was negotiated by diplomatic amateurs. There was nothing actually agreed to. There were words on a page, but from the literal moment the ink was dry, nobody could explain what they had agreed to. Most significantly, Iran thought that the agreement obligated Israel to stop its military operations in Lebanon. Israel did not agree to that. Iran thought that it had been given control of the strait in that agreement; apparently the American delegation didn't think they made that concession. Anyway, that agreement lasts 10 days. On June 27, Trump posts that strikes on Iran have resumed. Let's just fast-forward to the last week because Trump is doing it again. On August 1, Trump posts--I am not sure that I transcribed this wrong or not, but it looks like it says: I will give him credit he said parameters. On August 2, ``The deal is imminent, having to do with the [Strait of Hormuz] and also, ultimately, the denuclearization of Iran.'' The deal is imminent on the denuclearization of Iran. August 4, just a night or two ago, Trump tells Fox News: Meanwhile, there were reports that Iran isn't even talking to the United States. Trump is saying a deal on the denuclearization of Iran is imminent, and Iran is saying: We are not even in the room. I mean, we should not accept this level of gaslighting. The word of the President has to matter. Over and over again on 11 different instances, Trump says: A deal is about to happen, don't worry; the war is about to be over. There is no deal. None of it is real, these promises. I wish it were real. I want to be clear about that. I want the war to end. I would basically support any agreement at this point to end this war. I was glad that the President got a cease-fire, but I could tell by the terms it wasn't going to last. It wasn't a real agreement. But at this point, many of us are willing to support almost any agreement. It will be a humiliating agreement. It will be one in which Iran will essentially declare victory. But this war is a disaster. America is losing. Consumers can't afford to pay these prices. Businesses are going under. We had a record of farm bankruptcies in the last year. We look like a laughingstock, and we are running out of munitions. We don't have what we need to protect ourselves anymore. Reports are that we have gone through half of our Tomahawks. Our allies in the region have fired 70 to 80 percent of their Patriot missiles. This is a crisis. It has to end. But maybe there is an explanation for why Trump continues to do this gaslighting, particularly right before the markets open. Trump announced now a week or so ago that if you pay him $100,000 a month, he will give you advance notice of American foreign policy decisions. I don't understand why that is acceptable to anybody in this Chamber. If you pay Donald Trump $100,000, he will give you advance notice of America's foreign policy decisions. If we are about to sign a peace treaty, and you give him $100,000 a month, he will give you advance notice of that. If strikes are going to resume against Iran, if you pay him $100,000 a month, he will give you advance notice of that. That is a subscription service for insider trading, and it is unquestionably lucrative. On August 1, Trump posts that a deal is imminent. Remember, people still take him seriously. Not everybody knows about this history of gaslighting. On August 1, Trump says that a deal is imminent, and the market impact is immediate. Oil prices fall by 5 percent right as the markets open. The next day, right before the markets open, Trump says again ``The deal is imminent''--another 5 percent drop. And so you see how his statements move the market, and you can see how if you get advance notice of those statements, even by a few seconds, you can capitalize on that market movement. You know that if Trump says a deal is imminent and the markets are going to move 5 percent and you pay $100,000 to Donald Trump to get that information early, you can make a boatload of money. And so maybe the war continues because Trump has found a way to monetize the war in a disgustingly corrupt way. I get that at some point we become immune to all of this, but can any of my Republican colleagues defend the President selling announcements from the White House for $100,000 a month in the middle of a war? Is any Republican Senator willing to come down to this floor and defend the President of the United States setting up a subscription service for public policy announcements from the White House so as to advantage certain players in the marketplace who are willing to pay that amount of money? Of course not. And if you know in your heart that it is corrupt, that it is wrong, then you should say something about it because the war might be continuing--not just because of incompetence but because the President has found a way to make money. More people are going to pay him $100,000 for these announcements in the middle of a war. Frankly, people would be willing to pay it absent a war, but he will make more money during a war because his announcements clearly move the markets in the middle of a very complicated conflict where the decisions of the U.S. Government immediately change oil markets. The reason this war is dragging on endlessly--it does matter, and my colleagues should care about Trump's insider trading subscription scheme. It is just so discouraging that nobody on the other side of the aisle says anything about this when the credibility of the White House and of our country is just getting destroyed and sullied. But my Republican colleagues should also care that the war is being waged with a level of embarrassing incompetence that is making America weaker, that is getting us nowhere. This body works best when the President's party stands up to him and says ``enough,'' whether it is corruption or incompetence. That is what Johnson's party did during the Vietnam war. It is actually what the Democratic Party did with President Obama during the late stages of the Afghanistan war when many of us decided that America had to withdraw and opposed President Obama's party. It is what many of us did here during the early stages of the war in Yemen that President Obama was bringing the American military into. Many of us opposed it, got up on this floor and explained why we opposed it. Republicans can do that too. You can say that this war has to end. You can say that the President should never ever personally benefit from a conflict overseas. You can say that the President of the United States should not sell access to White House statements. It would make a big difference for our democracy and for the American people, who are paying through the nose for the cost of this war, if you did. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Lummis). The Senator from Florida.

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Senate

Legislative Session

2026-07-23

“I want to blame the President's war for causing chaos. The war has cost a lot of money. It caused high gas prices. This hurt American families. Many farms went bankrupt. Iran is stronger now. America used up a lot of weapons. Now we don't have enough weapons to defend ourselves. This war caused other wars. Israel invaded Lebanon. Many people died. Many people lost their homes. The war with Iran caused this. Iran controls important waterways now. They didn't control them before. America fired many missiles at Iran. We used up half our missiles. Our allies used up even more of their missiles. This war is a disaster. But the administration says it's worth it. They say the goals of the war are worth the costs. But the goals have not been achieved. The administration wanted regime change. They wanted to destroy Iran's military. They wanted to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But none of this happened. Iran's leaders are younger and more confident now. Iran still has many missiles and drones. They can still get a nuclear weapon. This war did not achieve its goals. It was a mistake. It cost a lot of money. It caused a lot of death and chaos. I want to vote to end this war.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, in a few moments, we are going to vote on a resolution to end the President's illegal, disastrous war with Iran. We should pass this resolution. This is day 146 of a war that has no achievable objectives and no ending, a war that has ruined American families as gas prices are back over $4 a gallon, unaffordable for many working-class Americans. We have sky-high diesel and fertilizer prices. We have seen record numbers of farms going into bankruptcy. This is a war that has made Iran stronger, a war that has depleted American munitions so dangerously that we are now exposed, without the munitions and interceptors necessary if there was an actual threat posed to the United States elsewhere around the world. This war has been an unmitigated disaster from start to finish. There is a reason why no American President--Republican or Democrat--prior to Donald Trump began a preemptive war with Iran, because everyone with even scant knowledge of the Middle East knew that a war with Iran was not winnable, knew that it would set off a series of other conflicts in the region that would result in chaos. And that is what we have today--chaos--even worse, planned chaos, foreseeable chaos. Every day, as we speak, Iran strikes its neighbors--Israel, Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar. Every day, Iran strikes U.S. forces and our bases in the region. They have done billions of dollars' worth of damage to our forces and to our partners' forces. Our war against Iran has set off other wars. Israel has invaded Lebanon. In that country, 4,300 people have been killed, 12,000 have been wounded, and 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced from their homes. Let me say this again: The war with Iran has set off another war in which 4,300 people have been killed and 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes. And this week, a new conflict is breaking out between the Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Iran did not control the strait before the war, but they now effectively control it. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, connecting the Red Sea to global waterways, now appears also closed, and the Houthis--again, another Iranian ally-- have started to attack ships there. There are 17 Americans who have died. There are hundreds of others who have been wounded. Almost 2,000 Iranian civilians have died, including 250 children. The United States has depleted our munitions and interceptor stores to dangerous levels. Over decades, we carefully, methodically built up a stockpile of long-range stealth missiles--mostly in preparation for a possible future conflict with China. Do you know what percentage of that stockpile has been fired at Iran in 146 days? Not 10 percent, not 30 percent--50 percent. We have fired half of our entire stockpile of long-range stealth missiles in 4 months. And the situation is even worse for our allies and partners in the region. Reports suggest that the UAE and Kuwait may have burned through 75 percent of their Patriot missiles, just over the last 146 days. This all sounds like a disaster--correct?--like an unmitigated five- alarm disaster. But the administration defends this reality. They, frankly, can't object to the facts that I just laid out. They simply say that this is the cost of a just war. Lives lost, regional chaos, high prices, low stockpiles, taxpayers footing the bill--it is just all worth it, because the Trump administration says: We are achieving our goals, and the goals are worth the price. And here is the most important thing to understand, as we approach this vote in a few moments: It is not worth it. Why? Because Trump has not achieved a single war goal, and Trump has no path to achieve any single war goal. All of the costs, all of the chaos, all of the death that I just described are going to be for nothing because not a single one of these goals is going to be achieved. Now, I will admit the goals have shifted over time, and so on this chart I am simplifying the set of goals. But the first goal has been articulated many times, in different forms, by the administration: regime change. In Trump's video announcing the beginning of the war, he says: There is also extensive reporting on the plan, led by the Israelis but supported by the United States, to replace the old regime with leaders friendly to the United States and Israel. But here is the reality. Yes, this war has taken out the previous leadership, but what has happened is that the old regime has simply been swapped for a new generation of revolution-era ideologues that are younger, that are more emboldened, and that are less compromising. The new Ayatollah is well known to be a prominent hardliner. He has surrounded himself with other hardliners--leaders of the Quds Force and those with a history of brutal repression of dissidents inside Iran. And they feel emboldened because they have survived this war. They have emerged controlling the country. They have taken America's best shot, and they are still in charge. The President, at one point, tried to claim that this goal had been effectuated--that because the old Ayatollah is dead and there is a new Ayatollah, by definition, they had succeeded in regime change. All we got is a younger set of leaders who are more confident they can beat the United States and are going to emerge from this conflict more powerful in the region. The second war goal: destroying Iran's military capabilities. Now, the administration, basically, as soon as the war began, claimed victory here on day 14 of this conflict. Nearly 5 months ago, the Secretary of Defense said that Iran's military had been ``destroyed'' and ``made combat ineffective.'' And 26 days into the conflict, Vice President Vance declared: But with our own eyes, every single day, we can see that that is a lie, as missiles are being fired at our troops and our partners in the region, as wars break out anew each week. According to public reporting in the New York Times and the Washington Post, U.S. intelligence suggests that Iran has retained as much as 70 percent of its prewar missile stock and 70 percent of its mobile missile launchers. So $100 billion spent and 140 days of war, and we have dented their missile capacity. Along the Strait of Hormuz, where the missiles probably matter the most, a new U.S. intelligence estimate--again, this is open-source reporting--says that, of the 33 sites, only 3 sites are fully destroyed or inaccessible. Thirty missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz are still operational. Military intelligence Agencies have also reported that Iran has regained access to 90 percent of the underground missile storage that we have hit. Iran still has their missiles. They still have their drones. They are rebuilding capacity. We have utterly failed at destroying Iran's military capabilities, and there is no path to success in this war aim. Finally, the third goal: Eliminate Iran's nuclear program and ensure that they can never acquire a nuclear weapon. This is, of course, a goal that has been shared by Republicans and Democrats, and, as Trump has said, this is the only thing that matters. Secretary Hegseth reiterated several times at the hearing yesterday that the primary objective of the war is now to make sure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. But let's just be clear about the facts. According to the IAEA, Iran still has a stockpile of about 970 pounds of highly enriched uranium. That stockpile still exists in the country. Reports suggest that they have moved their highly advanced centrifuges to a place called Pickaxe Mountain and buried them so deep that no airstrike can impact them. Most importantly, because Donald Trump pulled out of the previous nuclear agreement which had frozen Iran's nuclear research program, Iran has gained the knowledge to enrich uranium up to 60 percent, which everybody knows is effectively weapons-grade. And there is no military strike that can erase that fact. This is a reality that Donald Trump created. Now, Trump's theory is that this military campaign is going to push Iran to the negotiating table and that the result will be a deal--a nuclear deal--that is better than the one that Iran signed. But this is fantasy. There is no world in which Iran, after this war, agrees to more than they agreed to in the JCPOA. And you just can't avoid the facts here. The primary reason is that we will have less leverage in these negotiations than the Obama administration had. Why is that? One, this regime is harder line, less willing to negotiate and compromise than the administration Obama was negotiating with. Second, there is no fear of U.S. airstrikes. That was always a sword of Damocles hovering over the negotiations during the Obama administration. Now Iran knows that they can survive, the regime can survive America's best shot. Our military leverage is just much weaker. Our primary leverage that we had during the Obama administration--the removal of oil sanctions--will not be available to us in these negotiations because we have already demonstrated that those sanctions will be released just to get Iran to reopen the strait. So we won't have the military leverage. We won't have the oil sanctions leverage. We will be dealing with a regime that is harder line than the one we were dealing with prior. There is no world in which, at the end of this conflict, we are getting a better nuclear agreement than the one that Trump left. Billions of dollars wasted; 18 Americans dead; thousands of civilians and children in the Middle East killed; our military stockpile is dangerously depleted; new wars in the region breaking out by the week; the Strait of Hormuz and possibly the Red Sea now closed, controlled by our enemies; gas prices skyrocketing; the global economy melting down-- all of this, for what? Nothing. Not a single war objective achieved. Not a viable path to achieve any of them in the coming months. This war was a mistake from the start. Everyone except for Donald Trump knew it would be a disaster. It is a disaster, and we have a chance today to vote to end it. I yield the floor.

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